How long before I can burn it?

[Stella]

This is my first posting on this part of the site so please be gentle with me. Today we cut down an interloper in one of our olive groves. It was a tree with just thistles and some kind of little apples. Can anyone identify it and tell me how long it will take to season, bearing in mind we live in Southern Greece. Thank you!

 

[blades]

Don't know your area -here it might be a Thorn Apple -drying time for most fruit woods is about a year sitting in sun and wind, varies with temps and your atmospheric conditions.

 

[Knots]

Don't know your area -here it might be a Thorn Apple -drying time for most fruit woods is about a year sitting in sun and wind, varies with temps and your atmospheric conditions.

Agree. If you can get it split and stacked in the sun and wind, it should be good and dry in a year.

 

[Stella]

Agree. If you can get it split and stacked in the sun and wind, it should be good and dry in a year.

Thank you Knots, it had not occurred to me to have it split but I suppose that makes sense as I would then get heat out of each cut side or am I wrong in this thinking? I just thought that if it would fit in the stove as I think they will, I would just put small pieces around the logs. Would it burn longer or would I get more heat if it were split?

 

[Fred Wright]

Split firewood cures faster and burns better in the stove. Bark holds in moisture; you want to get the moisture out. This is the purpose for splitting and stacking where sun and air movement can do their thing.

Few species will cure if left in the round. We have television and Hollywood to thank for this misconception ~ large logs in a fireplace, folks splitting logs to burn right away, etc. In reality, logs or rounds rarely burn well if at all in a stove or insert, no matter how long ago they were cut.

 

[Stella]

Split firewood cures faster and burns better in the stove. Bark holds in moisture; you want to get the moisture out. This is the purpose for splitting and stacking where sun and air movement can do their thing.

Few species will cure if left in the round. We have television and Hollywood to thank for this misconception ~ large logs in a fireplace, folks splitting logs to burn right away, etc. In reality, logs or rounds rarely burn well if at all in a stove or insert, no matter how long ago they were cut.

Right, thanks for this. I suppose because I burn mainly olive which is too small to split, I had not really thought about it.

 

[Knots]

Would it burn longer or would I get more heat if it were split?

The drier a piece of wood is, the more heat you will get out of that piece of wood.

 

[Soundchasm]

It's not far from the truth with many species that if left on the ground in the round they'll never dry. They'll be just as heavy a year from now because they'll have soaked up so much moisture, and then they rot. Just split and get off the ground and you're good to go.