choke cherry questions

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Seanm

Seanm

Minister of Fire
Oct 16, 2012
915
SE BC Canadian Rockies
Hey guys! A couple of months ago I was driving through town and there was a choke cherry tree being cut down in someone's front yard. They said I could have it so I threw it in the truck and took it home to split (I thought it would smell nice but it doesn't). Anyways I've searched on hearth.com and other places for some information about the wood and cant seem to find what I'm looking for. Lots of information on cherry but not specific to this type. I imagine different kinds of cherry have different characteristics just like the different species of pines. How long does choke cherry take to season? What are the BTUs of this wood? Does it rot easily? I live in the land of softwoods so I have very little exposure to hard woods. Did I pick up some junk or is it decent? Ive got it uncovered and split with some of my other woods that I will burn winter 2014/2015 . Thanks for the help!
 
From what I've read it's pretty dense wood so I'd imagine drying and btu's will be similar to apple/cherry. Most of the choke cherry I've seen is shrub form so I really don't have hard info for you though.
 
Pretty common but scattered around here.What little I've seen doesn't get much over 7"-8" diameter & 20'-25' tall. I've burned a few sticks here & there,from what I remember its probably like apple/crabapple & other cherries in terms of drying - 1 year to 1 1/2 years.

Usually in fencerows,forest/pasture edges,but some urban areas occasionally too.
 
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This is a picture of one of the rounds. There aren't a lot of them but the trunk was pretty substantial. If Im wrong on the id let me know. I would love it if it burned as well as apple! Thanks.
 

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It will burn well but nowhere near apple.
 
It's all BTUs.
Gotta be as good as the softwoods you have.
Dry it for a year & it'll burn ;)

A pound of any dry wood has equal BTU content.

If you really need to know:
BTU per pound of DRY wood is 8660 btu.
Most charts figure 20% moisture, 6928 btu per pound. (8660 X 80%)
Some 15% (8660 X 85%) 7361

Cut a chunk /s equal to 1 cubic foot, dry it (oven for a few days at 200) & weigh it, then do the math.
Figure about 90 cubic feet per cord.

Ref:
(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howoodbtu.htm)
 
I have some sweet cherry on my property. Is that the same as pin cherry or choke cherry. The wood looks a lot like black cherry so I am assuming that the BTUs and burning characteristic are similar.
 
Seanm said:
This is a picture of one of the rounds. There aren't a lot of them but the trunk was pretty substantial. If Im wrong on the id let me know. I would love it if it burned as well as apple! Thanks.
Click to expand...

Apple is much harder or seems to burn much longer than any of the cherries. It's good wood though.
 
bogydave said:
It's all BTUs.
Gotta be as good as the softwoods you have.
Dry it for a year & it'll burn ;)

A pound of any dry wood has equal BTU content.

If you really need to know:
BTU per pound of DRY wood is 8660 btu.
Most charts figure 20% moisture, 6928 btu per pound. (8660 X 80%)
Some 15% (8660 X 85%) 7361

Cut a chunk /s equal to 1 cubic foot, dry it (oven for a few days at 200) & weigh it, then do the math.
Figure about 90 cubic feet per cord.

Ref:
(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howoodbtu.htm)
Click to expand...
I wonder how many people have tried doing this! Thanks for the info. I Hope it will burn as well as the softwoods. I was just hoping that it would burn better than poplar. That stuff has a ridiculous amount of ash to!
 
I've burnt it......not as good as apple but much better than poplar. It will put out a nice hot heat.
 
Seanm said:
I wonder how many people have tried doing this! Thanks for the info. I Hope it will burn as well as the softwoods. I was just hoping that it would burn better than poplar. That stuff has a ridiculous amount of ash to!
Click to expand...

We had a guy here that was into it.
Charts for our wood here was done by UAF several years ago.
My guess is there are so many variables in nature that the exact BTU per cubic feet of wood on most charts are just close estimates.

Mine chart is:
the house is near 72° when the stove is burning,
roughly 7 cord of 3 year wood in the shed.
do I have enough dry wood to get thru 6 to 7 months LOL :)

Some years I have some left over, some years I'm into next season's wood cache
Having at least 3 years supply is nice. ;)
 
Sean, Im pleased you are excited about this tree. Enjoy the wood and keep the faith. Sometimes BTUs arent as important as other things. Trees of this Genus are very popular with man. Fruit trees of any kind have a nice burn. Prunus or Malus.
 
What's often called choke cherry around here apparently technically is native black cherry.

The pic looks like black cherry and it burns pretty good and you might find some coals in the AM.
 
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Applesister said:
Sean, Im pleased you are excited about this tree. Enjoy the wood and keep the faith. Sometimes BTUs arent as important as other things. Trees of this Genus are very popular with man. Fruit trees of any kind have a nice burn. Prunus or Malus.
Click to expand...
Thanks applesister. Its always fun trying out new things. Once I have experience and knowledge wwith this tree it will be one more piece of the puzzle filled in. Its to bad I cant burn it this year!
 
I also was going to say, "it's probably just a black cherry," because that's the mistake that some folks make in my area; however, your picture has the wider leaves of chokecherry. Most chokecherry around here doesn't get that big and by now has leaves that have already changed color.
 
TreePointer said:
I also was going to say, "it's probably just a black cherry," because that's the mistake that some folks make in my area; however, your picture has the wider leaves of chokecherry. Most chokecherry around here doesn't get that big and by now has leaves that have already changed color.
Click to expand...
Hi TreePointer, If it helps, this picture was taken maybe 6-8 weeks ago and many of our trees here to have been dropping leaves for awhile now. This tree was in the front yard of a house that was built in the early 70s so you are probably correct. I saw the tree once it was down and the branches were already in the back of a pick up. It seemed like lots of branches with a short thick trunk. I will keep an eye open for similar trees in town. Thanks!
 
Makes sense. From your picture, the leaves, bark, and berries look like chokecherry. As is shown in your picture, chokecherry leaves are shorter and more bulbous than black cherry.
 
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