Pine Cones

[Smoked]

Don't know what the deal is or what it means for the upcoming winter, but the white pines have dumped more pine cones in my yard than I have seen in the 8 years I have been here combined.

They are a little sappy but make pretty dang good supper cedars! Anyone have an issue with using 3 or 4 of these things to get a fire going in a tube stove?

 

[begreen]

Nope. Should be fine.

 

[TreeGoomba]

Family and I were out camping this past weekend (cold and wet) and our spot was loaded with white pine cones. Super sticky. The kids burned most of them and they went up like they were soaked in kerosene. I stashed a stashed a few cones along with a bag of river and yellow birch bark to use in the stove as firestarter.

ps- Cone, fruit, or nut production isnt an indicator of the upcoming season. It's, mostly, a reflection on the past season. Good spring/summer=lots of mast. Trees cant predict the future. Some trees do produce mast in regular cycles too and sometimes dying trees will dump all their remaining resources into one last hoorah of seeds.

 

[Smoked]

Family and I were out camping this past weekend (cold and wet) and our spot was loaded with white pine cones. Super sticky. The kids burned most of them and they went up like they were soaked in kerosene. I stashed a stashed a few cones along with a bag of river and yellow birch bark to use in the stove as firestarter.

ps- Cone, fruit, or nut production isnt an indicator of the upcoming season. It's, mostly, a reflection on the past season. Good spring/summer=lots of mast. Trees cant predict the future. Some trees do produce mast in regular cycles too and sometimes dying trees will dump all their remaining resources into one last hoorah of seeds.

Thanks for the good info. I sure hope they are not dying, it would cost a fortune to get these things cut down.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have a large garbage bag full of pine cones that I saved from a large drop a few years back . . . I dig them out occasionally for use when starting a fire.

Incidentally, it may be just "one of those years" due to your local weather conditions . . . I have an oak tree that has dropped a lot of acorns this year. I spent an hour or so one day collecting a bunch and then planting them about my land . . . and on my neighbor's land that he cut off last year (it's not a clear cut, but it's definitely been denuded -- I figure in a hundred years or so some land owner may have some nice lumber or firewood.)

 

[peakbagger]

There is also research that mast and cone production is an evolved trait of trees to increase reproduction. The rodents that eat the seed cones will breed to match the number of cones so few cones reproduce. The trees have evolved to have a strong seed year one year and then several poor seed years to knock down the rodent population. When there is good seed year, the rodents can not breed fast enough to make a dent in the available seeds and the seeds have a better chance of taking root.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

Don't know what the deal is or what it means for the upcoming winter, but the white pines have dumped more pine cones in my yard than I have seen in the 8 years I have been here combined.

They are a little sappy but make pretty dang good supper cedars! Anyone have an issue with using 3 or 4 of these things to get a fire going in a tube stove?

I could send you some of my red squirrels to take care of those pine cones! They're very methodical in their harvesting of them.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

White pine cones also tend to go in cycles of 2-3 years. I have a bumper crop this year as well and packed up a few wheel barrow loads on Sunday to use for firestarters. Mine were extra sappy as well.

 

[snarflemike]

Haven't used pine cones before - will they light directly off a match?

 

[Gotrek]

Pine cones, acorns, most tree seeds come in 2-4 year cycles.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

They definitely light with a match this year, they are covered in pitch.

 

[Spletz]

There's quite a bit of pitch in pine cones, remember that pine cones are the female 'eggs' and the pollen is male "sperm". Reproductive bits of the plant get large amounts of nutrients (in this case, pitch). They will light like crazy, but probably not the best for your cat, if your stove has one.

 

[begreen]

If used only as fire starters this would be with the bypass open. I wouldn't expect any harm to the cat.

 

[Smoked]

They are lighting pretty easy. They do smoke pretty bad until they get going but that is just for a few seconds.