Do I need to season standing dead?

[stek]

We took down a couple standing dead trees on our property, felled, split and stacked about a month ago. The trees have been visibly dead since we bought the property four years ago, took them down mostly to avoid a fall hazard this winter. I know the *best* way to tell would be a moisture meter .. but in general should they be ready to burn or should they be let to season after splitting?

We also cut up, split and stacked a tree that came down a couple years ago in a storm. The bark was rotten but the wood seemed solid. Should this be let to season or should we burn it this year?

If it makes a difference, all the trees are some kind of evergreen, likely doug fir but I am terribly at species identification for conifers...

 

[Pagey]

The honest answer is: it depends. I've had standing dead beetle kill pine ready at 15-20%. I've seen standing dead red oak that is visibly wet when split. I've seen locust (which is supposed to be relatively "seasoned" even when green) peg a moisture meter at 40%.

The only way to be sure is it put a meter in a few splits and see. I would, however, think that standing dead conifers have a better chance.

 

[stejus]

The best way to tell if the wood is dry is with either a meter or a clunck test. Take two splits and bang them together. Sound should be like a pro baseball player hitting a home run, you know, the crack of a bat. The wood should bounce off each other rather than being absorbed into each other like wet wood will do. If you have seasoned wood, you'll know what I mean.

 

[firefighterjake]

Depends . . . first year of burning I had standing dead elm that I cut . . . some needed several months of seasoning before being good enough to burn . . . other wood could have been ready to burn that day. It really depends on the species and how long the wood has been dead.

 

[Pagey]

As stated, in the absence of a moisture meter you can whack a couple of splits together. You'll know the sound when you hear it. Instead of a heavy, dull 'thud' you'll get a pinging, cracking sound like bowling pins crashing together or a bat belting a home run. I've found that hardwoods exhibit this sound far better than softwoods, however.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I tried that clunking some pieces of my lodge pole pine together, two pieces that came from a green tree (30%+ MC, cut by accident), and two pieces that where came from a dry tree (less than 15% MC) and could hear a slight difference is sound, but would never have been able to tell which was which by the sound alone. The weight was how I discovered the wet pieces, but weight alone won't help you unless you have similar sized pieces of the same wood, that you know to be properly dried, to compare the weight of the wet wood to. Even then. it's just a guess at what the real MC is.

I cut standing dead wood all the time that can be burned right away (<20% MC), but it's the afore mentioned lodgepole pine which has been killed by pine beetle. The way those trees die seems to help them dry out very quickly. I have also cut a lot of Douglas fir before and I can tell you they almost always have considerable moisture content still trapped in the bottom of the trunk, especially if the tree is very large. One huge doug fir tree I cut actually had water pouring out the cut, from the compression of the hinge, as it was falling over when I felled it. It was quite a sight, I wish I had caught it on video. Anyway, the top of that tree was still very dry and ready to burn, but the bottom needed some months of seasoning time. Oh and that tree had been dead for probably 15-20 years.
Do yourself a favor and get that moisture meter, once you start testing various pieces of wood you'll get a better idea of what is good to go, and what needs extra seasoning time. The good news is that even if the wood is still >20% MC it won't take that long to dry out properly if you split it small.

 

[stek]

Thanks guys! I think the standing dead already passed the clunk test, when I was tossing splits onto the pile they were making nice cracking sounds. The deadfall was making clunks so that should probably wait a while.

Is it ok to sneak the occasional not-as-seasoned piece into a fire that's going well? The deadfall was split into much larger 'overnight' sided pieces, wheras I went a little crazy with the standing dead stuff and split it down pretty small. Conifers are so easy to split I just couldn't help myself!

 

[Pagey]

You can probably get by with it, but keep in mind that you're using up BTUs to boil away the moisture that could otherwise be spent generating heat. Additionally, the additional water vapor can serve to cool the fire and thus inhibit secondary combustion, and it can lead to cooler flue gases which will condense to form more creosote. Just keep an eye on your flue and see how things progress.

 

[Deron]

I dropped a small standing maple this weekend and when it hit almost all the bark fell off.

It's dry as dust and definitely ready.