Midwest hardwoods that season in 1 yr.

[Indianawood]

What midwest hardwoods are able to be seasoned in 1 year? Does it take 2 yrs to season dead oak?

 

[JimBear]

What midwest hardwoods are able to be seasoned in 1 year? Does it take 2 yrs to season dead oak?

According to the charts Osage only takes 12 months. A lot of drying your firewood will depend on split size, climate ( this fall around here it’s been in the 50’s & 60’s this & very dry this year) lots of extended drying time, how much sun & wind your stacks get. It’s doubtful you will season your oak in 1 year even if it was dead standing.

 

[Grizzerbear]

I've always had pretty good luck with hickory. Others will disagree but a lot of it depends on your circumstances like Jimbear said. Oak, unless dried in a kiln which I have no experience, will take two summers at least if not three.

 

[NaturalCauses]

Dead standing Ash can be ready to burn as soon as it's cut/split some times, if not within one summer. Alternately you can speed up seasoning with a solar kiln.

 

[Sawset]

After a year in the sun, the moisture may be "good enough" to burn:
cherry, elm, box elder, silver maple, red maple, hard maple, hackberry, mulberry, ash
Plus these are softer, kind of papery feeling, readily light off and seem to be more spontaneous when they do.

After a year in the sun the moisture may be a real hindrance to burn:
red oak, white oak (especially)
These seem to be a little harder to light to start, but when wet just sit and simmer and snuff themselves without more air, and more air.

Hickory and locust, I'm not sure - only have bone dry stuff here so couldn't say about time frame.

 

[Caw]

Dead standing Ash can be ready to burn as soon as it's cut/split some times, if not within one summer. Alternately you can speed up seasoning with a solar kiln.

I've taken down two standing dead ash just recently that were 16-18% fresh split. If you need wood urgently there's nothing better.

Ive got a few cords of oak in my stacks from mostly standing dead trees and there's no way its ready in one summer. I am hoping its done in two but expect it'll take three summers to plan ahead accordingly. Some of it was 32-34% even standing dead for years.

 

[blades]

Ash, big leaf maples as stated above. split smaller stacked in sun and wind and top covered. Note on standing dead- the upper 2/3 will be pretty good but the lower 1/3 will be loaded due to wicking.

 

[EODMSgt]

I've had no issues burning standing dead red oak within one year of CSS. Granted these are long dead trees with no bark but they don't take the traditional 2-3 years seasoning that green oak does. As others have said, so much depends on your local climate.

 

[NickW]

Ditto the ash. Will burn and give good heat even if not ideally seasoned, but under 20% is definitely better. Dead standing ash I find the branches are usually under 30% and often low 20's; but watch out for the trunks, they are often still 40%.

As previously stated, drying conditions and split size will be key.

Agree with my cheesehead bro Sawset about the box elder and soft maples in a year, but disagree on the hard maple - that's more like 2 years in my experience. Haven't had much experience with elm, but the chart I have says 15mo. Cherry should be good in a year, but doesn't burn well until under 20% in my experience.

In an EPA stove you can get decent heat but not real long burn times out of what I used to consider "crapwoods" - pine, Aspen, cottonwood, etc. and they season quick. PNW guys extoll the virtues of Douglas fir, but I doubt you have that in Indiana.

 

[Corey]

In this part of the midwest, it's highly variable. Some summers seems like we only hit the high 90's a few times and have swamp like humidity or rain the whole summer through... you worry the wood is going to stay waterlogged forever. Other years, we'll have a few dozen days of 100+ with plenty of high 90's in the 'off' days, and no rain for months... that seems to season just about anything.

If you're worried, I'd probably stick with some of the lighter hardwoods mentioned. Though ash reportedly seasons pretty quick and is a bit heavier. I've been having pretty good luck scrounging craigslist... picked up a couple truckloads of osage / hedge earlier this year. Between that and various wood lot 'clean-up' projects, it's been quite a while since I've cut an actual standing/live tree for firewood. You might also consider those possibilities also, if seasoning time is expected to be short. Obviously, getting a couple years ahead is the best option!

 

[Indianawood]

In this part of the midwest, it's highly variable. Some summers seems like we only hit the high 90's a few times and have swamp like humidity or rain the whole summer through... you worry the wood is going to stay waterlogged forever. Other years, we'll have a few dozen days of 100+ with plenty of high 90's in the 'off' days, and no rain for months... that seems to season just about anything.

If you're worried, I'd probably stick with some of the lighter hardwoods mentioned. Though ash reportedly seasons pretty quick and is a bit heavier. I've been having pretty good luck scrounging craigslist... picked up a couple truckloads of osage / hedge earlier this year. Between that and various wood lot 'clean-up' projects, it's been quite a while since I've cut an actual standing/live tree for firewood. You might also consider those possibilities also, if seasoning time is expected to be short. Obviously, getting a couple years ahead is the best option!

 

[Indianawood]

Northern Indiana. Hot and extremely dry this year. Im thinking some of the dead oak i cut could easily be burned this year, especially if i mix in some well seasoned ash that I have.

 

[Indianawood]

Im also talking about January February burn. When I'll be burning hot all the time. 4 to 5 o'clock position on the blaze king ultra. No low and slow then

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

My favorite wood, birch, is good to go in one year. Black birches (also can be called river birch) is my personal favorite and lucky for me it is a common enough yard tree around here that I can easily get 1-2 cords of it just from my log drops when I request birch. It gives the most heat of all the birches so that's a win win for me. Otherwise white (paper) birch is also super common and makes up the rest of my birch stacks. I don't think we have any yellow birch around, at least none I have seen. I seen a lot of it up north though and in the UP of Michigan.

 

[sweedish]

I cut down a couple of standing dead ash last year in November, bark was still on the tree, and its still not ready to burn, had water boiling out of it even after being stacked a year.

 

[andym]

Finding wood in tree form under 20% is hard to do. As someone mentioned, limbs often will be but trunks rarely.

 

[RailProf]

I echo the folks who mentioned ash. I've seasoned ash in a year, when split and stacked in the sun here in the ozarks. Oak takes a little longer.

 

[MoDoug]

I cut about a half cord of red oak last January. I’ve been counting on that for part of this seasons burning. I checked a couple pieces and their moisture readings were 22 -23%. My question is, can I slide a piece of the unseasoned wood in every couple burns or so? I keep my temps in the no creosote range.

 

[qwee]

So split up last January (~11 months dry time) on Red Oak. Are you drying it in a kiln? Are you checking the moisture content in the middle of a fresh split? It shouldn't be at 22-23% already. There's something fishy here.

 

[MoDoug]

So split up last January (~11 months dry time) on Red Oak. Are you drying it in a kiln? Are you checking the moisture content in the middle of a fresh split? It shouldn't be at 22-23% already. There's something fishy here.

No kiln, fairly small splits. I brought a couple pieces inside for a day, then split and checked outside. The meter is brand new, the popular General MMD4E, it calibrates ok. I'll recheck a few more splits of various sizes.

BTW, I posted this here because it fits in with @Indianawood original post, and thought it would benefit us both.

 

[Caw]

In an EPA stove you can get decent heat but not real long burn times out of what I used to consider "crapwoods" - pine, Aspen, cottonwood, etc. and they season quick. PNW guys extoll the virtues of Douglas fir, but I doubt you have that in Indiana.

I have experience with this. I sent about a cord of poplar/cottonwood through my Osburn 1600 during the shoulder season here. Temps 25-45. It burns hot and fast, id guess about 4-6 hours average burn time versus 6-8 for seasoned maple/ash. Slightly longer with Oak.

Its good in a pinch but its best use is during shoulder season when you arent going 24/7 and just want to take the edge off.

 

[sweedish]

I’d say acquire in this order:
Standing dead with bark off preferred
Laying dead, making sure it’s not punky
Cherry, box elder, soft maple etc if stacked and not too big of splits can be ready in a year
Pine, my first year(s) I burned a lot of it, still burn it

 

[BKVP]

I have a robust supply of different species in the Walla Walla Valley and then we have the Blue Mountains. Weather in the summer, 90-116F. Winters average low 20's. Precipitation, about 17-20" each year.

Black locust split, stacked and covered took 3 years to get below 18%.
Black walnut split, stacked and covered took 3 years to get below 17%
Silver maple, split, stacked and covered took 2 years to get below 17%
Cherry, split, stacked and covered took 2 years to get below 20%
Doug fir, split, stacked and covered took 2 years to get below 15%
Lodgepole black pine, split stacked and covered took 1 year to get below 15%

North Idaho Energy logs......pallet arrived at 7%!! Zero wait time.

 

[whtl4856]

I’m burning silver maple now that was all cut early in 2020, occasionally I run into a large split that could be more dry but most of it is burning very well for me. Some of this was split as late as May, but most of it earlier. As others have said, we had a very dry summer here so this could be why it dried out well. I’m sure another year would’ve made it burn a lot better but I am not having issues burning it now.

I have some large splits out of the same tree that I’m going to re-split because they are a little big and I’m curious what they will be, I’m sure above 20% because they are 8” across but I’m burning 4-6” splits without problems. This was a live tree that was a split trunk starting to get some rot if I remember right.

I’ve also had good luck with dead ash, but that’s getting harder for me to find. The ash I have on hand is getting saved for the colder months, I’ll throw some in tonight as it’ll be one of the colder nights we’ve had this year.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

Ditto the ash. Will burn and give good heat even if not ideally seasoned, but under 20% is definitely better. Dead standing ash I find the branches are usually under 30% and often low 20's; but watch out for the trunks, they are often still 40%.

As previously stated, drying conditions and split size will be key.

Agree with my cheesehead bro Sawset about the box elder and soft maples in a year, but disagree on the hard maple - that's more like 2 years in my experience. Haven't had much experience with elm, but the chart I have says 15mo. Cherry should be good in a year, but doesn't burn well until under 20% in my experience.

In an EPA stove you can get decent heat but not real long burn times out of what I used to consider "crapwoods" - pine, Aspen, cottonwood, etc. and they season quick. PNW guys extoll the virtues of Douglas fir, but I doubt you have that in Indiana.

Agree, I have tons of ash I am looking forward to burning next year that will be nearly 2 yrs old at that point.

Ever since getting a catalytic wood stove, I don't consider any wood to be total garbage (except willow, I will refuse that like there's no tomorrow lol!!). Every type of wood has its place over the course of a normal wood burning season. Just weeks ago I finished about a cord of pine and even for the night load I had ok heat still coming from the stove and plentiful coals for the next load. Pine is fine, cottonwood works in a pinch, soft maples like silver or red, even poplar. For the softer stuff just cut it a bit larger if you are unsure it will last through the night. In these modern EPA stoves you can go overnight on softer woods and have plenty of stuff left over in the fire box to restart.

I’m burning silver maple now that was all cut early in 2020, occasionally I run into a large split that could be more dry but most of it is burning very well for me. Some of this was split as late as May, but most of it earlier. As others have said, we had a very dry summer here so this could be why it dried out well. I’m sure another year would’ve made it burn a lot better but I am not having issues burning it now.

I have some large splits out of the same tree that I’m going to re-split because they are a little big and I’m curious what they will be, I’m sure above 20% because they are 8” across but I’m burning 4-6” splits without problems. This was a live tree that was a split trunk starting to get some rot if I remember right.

I’ve also had good luck with dead ash, but that’s getting harder for me to find. The ash I have on hand is getting saved for the colder months, I’ll throw some in tonight as it’ll be one of the colder nights we’ve had this year.

I've got a cord of silver maple I just finished splitting waiting to be stacked

I'll be checking it around this time next year.