I just got 2 truckloads of poplar. My space for drying is limited so I try to put wood in the racks so I don't have 3 year to dry oak in front of ash. How long do you think it takes poplar to get to 20% or less?
Drying time for poplar.
- Thread starter Roundgunner
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
claydogg84
Minister of Fire
English BoB
Minister of Fire
As you have noticed the stuff is heavy and wet. Holds a bunch of water. I dry it for two years. The stuff hardens the longer you dry it and the burn gets better the harder it gets. Heated this place a whole season with it years ago.
My poplar dries in less than one year for sure. Cut and split in early summer can be burned that winter. I burn lots of it.
saskwoodburner
Feeling the Heat
If you cut and split over winter or early spring, you'll be okay to burn. There will be the random piece or two that needs to stay out of the stove, but for the most part it seasons quick. If you sit by the woodpile, you hear it cracking and splitting once it gets hot outside.
As BrotherBart points out though, after a couple years it burns even better. I've got my share of road allowance push down poplar that is 2-3 years old. The wood is a dark dark brown, it sometimes has a split on one side all the way to the center. I affectionately call it nuclear fuel rod.
How big of a diameter?
As BrotherBart points out though, after a couple years it burns even better. I've got my share of road allowance push down poplar that is 2-3 years old. The wood is a dark dark brown, it sometimes has a split on one side all the way to the center. I affectionately call it nuclear fuel rod.
How big of a diameter?
If you have any trouble with it, the worse that will come of it will be is burning it next spring (feb to may) but I think it will be burnable in fall if you split it now.
Bart is right, poplar grows really fast, most of its weight is water and cellulose, mostly water. It needs more time than you think. Soft maple dries quicker.
Bart is right, poplar grows really fast, most of its weight is water and cellulose, mostly water. It needs more time than you think. Soft maple dries quicker.
LocustPocust
Burning Hunk
Agreed.
It's nothing I go out of my way to get but I've burned a lot of it. The other day I was on my friend's property and I found a Cottonwood that sheared off in the middle during one of the storms last summer and was laying across one of his roads. I bucked it and brought it home. The bark fell off when I split it (bonus!) It burns best mixed with a higher quality wood. Alone is burns "lazy" and coals lousy but It does throw heat.
When cutting and splitting green it's probably the worst smelling wood I've ever dealt with. Smells like rotten eggs and puke.
I cut poplar every May for my hunting camp. Single stacked in the sun all day and it burns great in October and November.
Little Digger
Member
Poplar generally is seasoned enough to burn after one year.
Last year I burned pine and poplar which was seasoned for three years. This year I'm stuck with the black birch, white oak, chestnut oak, and a few sticks of cherry. But next year I have a nice mix of poplar, black locust, white oak, and cherry which will have been seasoned 4 years. I might even sneak in some pine that will have been seasoned for one year because I absolutely love pine and poplar!
BTW, I'm 6 plus years ahead with my firewood.
Last year I burned pine and poplar which was seasoned for three years. This year I'm stuck with the black birch, white oak, chestnut oak, and a few sticks of cherry. But next year I have a nice mix of poplar, black locust, white oak, and cherry which will have been seasoned 4 years. I might even sneak in some pine that will have been seasoned for one year because I absolutely love pine and poplar!
BTW, I'm 6 plus years ahead with my firewood.
Last edited:
Fred Wright
Minister of Fire
Agreed. A year stacked is good. Two years is better.
Back in the day I had a pair of huge, dying forest poplars dropped in the front yard. Originally hoped to sell 'em to a sawmill ~ they were perfectly straight with no lower limbs. No one wanted 'em so they became firewood. Stacked about a year and a half, the stuff surprised me when fall came. To be lightweight as it was it made right smart heat.
Back in the day I had a pair of huge, dying forest poplars dropped in the front yard. Originally hoped to sell 'em to a sawmill ~ they were perfectly straight with no lower limbs. No one wanted 'em so they became firewood. Stacked about a year and a half, the stuff surprised me when fall came. To be lightweight as it was it made right smart heat.
I cut a dying white poplar/bigtooth aspen down near the house two years ago and decided to cut it up for firewood rather tun toss it in the dump.
I wasn't impressed with a year stacked ( no cover) . Burned the 1/2 cord this Fall.
I have a maple tree to put where the poplar was stacked.
I wasn't impressed with a year stacked ( no cover) . Burned the 1/2 cord this Fall.
I have a maple tree to put where the poplar was stacked.
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
I love burning poplar and you probably will as well. It burns bright and hot, with a slightly short burn time. It lights easily and throws heat without any of the negatives of resinous evergreens.
As for drying/seasoning, I find it optimal in a single year. What I cut in the winter will be fully ready to burn the following winter, even bigger splits and limbs I don't split.
As for drying/seasoning, I find it optimal in a single year. What I cut in the winter will be fully ready to burn the following winter, even bigger splits and limbs I don't split.
LocustPocust
Burning Hunk
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
I'll find out this year. My son had a 75 foot poplar taken down in his yard. He kept all the wood. Well now there's about 20 rounds 3 and 4 ft. across. Plus all the branches. The tree guys actually took the biggest rounds because we could never handle them. Probably 3 or 4 cord there.
Maybe he is referring to the messy sap ... surely no one here believes the old adage about pine causing more creosote in a chimney.
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
Nope. I'm referring to resin/sap, not creosote. We live in a big hickory/locust/oak/pine forest. I burn plenty of pine, along with hard woods, and love it. I'm not a'feared of the pine like lots of folks.
Pennsyltucky Chris
Minister of Fire
I don't know what any of the above posters are talking about. I single stacked about a half cord of poplar in May and the moister readings of splits are 11-14%. That's slightly over 6 months. You can light it with match. 12-24 months? Pure nonsense. Some wood takes 3 years, some takes 3 months. Unless my moisture meter is lying. It's not what the calendar says, it's what the MM says.
I regularly have white pine in the single digits in 4 months.
I regularly have white pine in the single digits in 4 months.
2broke2ride
Burning Hunk
Yeah, I'm kinda not sure everyone is calling the same kind of wood poplar, it seems to me it is kind of a generic name covering a few different kinds of wood, I know where I am in Massachusetts, the poplar we have I believe is actually aspen and it seasons in pretty good in 9 months. Not sure about the "tulip poplar" they have more in the south that seems to grow in swamps......
LocustPocust
Burning Hunk
Yep, basically any lower quality wood that's not pine. Linden, Cottonwood, and Aspen fall into that category in my neck of the woods. Tulip Poplar is a NY species but I've never seen one here.
2broke2ride
Burning Hunk
So that's what I'm saying, doesn't it stand to reason that "poplar" is gonna season differently depending on where you are and what actual species you're talking about? Hence the answers in this post being all over the place [emoji106][emoji2]
Yeah I am clueless. I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.
- Status
