Drying of Pine

[kevinwburke]

Another dumb newbie question....

Cut down a very dead, but standing pine...no bark...very very dead. Seems pretty dry excepts for the edges. After I split stack, how long until it will be dry enough to burn?

Will get that moisture meter someday soon.

Thanks for the help on here getting going.

 

[gzecc]

3-6 mos. Depending on size and location of stack.

 

[firefighterjake]

Depends . . . if I had to guess I would say gzecc is spot on . . . if it was completely bone dry all the way through you might even get away with burning it right away. Standing dead really is variable . . . a lot depends on the tree speices and how long it has been standing dead. With some elm on my property I've found that if the tree was dead but the bark was on and it had only been dead for a year or so -- I would have to wait a year before burning. If the elm had been dead for a year plus and the bark was falling off and when I cut the wood up it was bone dry I could pretty much burn it that day . . . although I still waited for several months before burning.