Popular wood
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iLoveWood
Member
Not the best wood, not very dense. Will burn quick. I burn almost anything but after adding a truckload of free poplar into my woodpile I'm going to avoid collecting more for a bit. You can't beat free. You will just need to feed the fire more often.
Prof
Minister of Fire
I've burned it, but unless one falls down in my yard, I'm probably going to pass. As noted, it isn't very dense. It also starts to rot really quickly. So splitting in and getting it off the ground and top covered would be a good idea.
I can't comment on how long it takes to season. I had a bunch that I got from a guy that needed a few trees out of his yard. It was in a stack for around 3 years.
It was good if I needed a quick fire that didn't overheat the house when it wasn't very cold outside, or when I just wanted rid of it and was around to feed the fire about 2x as often as if I were burning good ash.
It was good if I needed a quick fire that didn't overheat the house when it wasn't very cold outside, or when I just wanted rid of it and was around to feed the fire about 2x as often as if I were burning good ash.
Prof
Minister of Fire
It would likely season in under a year, probably not before 6 months though. Of course there are many, many factors and it always depends: how small you split it, sun and wind exposure, precipitation during the year, and so on. I stacked a small amount of poplar a couple years ago, and then we had the wettest summer that I can remember. I got around to burning the stuff this year (I'm a few years ahead on wood). Apparently the wet weather allowed some fungus to take hold. The poplar was plenty dry when I burned it, but it had the weight of cardboard.
Around this area there is quaky aspen and cottonwood - both in the poplar family. I'll grab the cottonwood and pass on the quaky. The cottonwood trees are big and easy to cut up and split.
Where you live almost all other wood species are denser than poplar. If wood is easy to get where you are go for the better woods and pass on the poplar. Where I'm at I have to take what I can get.
Where you live almost all other wood species are denser than poplar. If wood is easy to get where you are go for the better woods and pass on the poplar. Where I'm at I have to take what I can get.
blacktail
Minister of Fire
Whatever species is popular in your area is probably popular for a reason.
Woodsplitter67
Minister of Fire
poplar will season in 3 months give or take. Poplar has its place in the wood shed. Its a shoulder season wood. I wouldn't want to heat my house in the dead of winter with it, but worth it for the months is cooler and you need to take the chill off, its the go to wood that won't overheat the house. Iv burned it this winter when its been warmer. the days oak will make you open all the window and regret lighting the stove. It burns quick. I dont search it out, but if its there and its free, then its for me. Im on the scrounge i dont buy wood EVER ,NEVER,. 75% of my stash is oak but ill fined a use for any wood that is free and available.
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
Sawset
Minister of Fire
I read a book once, FH King 40 centuries of farming, a tour of south east asia around 1900. One picture had a young boy tending a stove (cane cooker) with straw. A bundle of straw a minute. A giant pile of straw and a boy with time on his hands. It's what they had to do to survive. They were pretty good at it. If that's all we had, we would use it and be grateful. Soft woods like poplar - burn very well, but fast and hot. Fortunately I have a choice, so use it mixed with harder woods to cut the heat output in spring and fall. A lot of times a full load of oak, putting out heat for hours, is just too much. After a couple hours it needs to stop. Makes fantastic kindling. Full stove, firestarter, 3matchsticks, top down, good to go in minutes.
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Easy Livin’ 3000
Minister of Fire
You need to jump on it, popular wood goes fast. Everybody likes it!
Personally, I like tulip poplar, usually a few sticks go into each load of the denser hardwood to balance the burn, and during shoulder season.
Can't speak for popple, cottonwood, or whatever the other poplar is called. Just haven't ever had any.
I burn quit a bit of poplar. Perfect for when you want a quick, hot fire in the morning or evening to take the chill off. Perfect for shoulder season or for getting a few coals restarted,
My Mother In Law likes Poplar very much. She is 84, when seasoned well it is light,starts easy and burns good.
She has an old earth stove she burns all day.
Poplar doesnt seem to be popular with some if you burners. I'd take it for free just like pine, I throw a few splits of pine when its 30 degrees in the morning on its way to the 50s in the day. Rinse and repeat through shoulder season.
tulip poplar is a maple and decent firewood
aspen, poplar are both rather lightweight woods here, low on the BTU scale. Not what you'd want for your stove to burn overnight when it is zero degrees outside. In the same vein as pine, a good wood to burn shoulder season or during the day when you can be more attentive of the stove.
It's supposed to season in a year, for some maybe less, but I've not had that luck. Maybe a lousy seasoning weather year and maybe due to uncovered stacks - one year of seasoning didn't cut it.
I certainly wouldn't want to have only poplar when there are other, better woods in abundance but some put to the side, burned when its attributes would be convenient would be acceptable.
aspen, poplar are both rather lightweight woods here, low on the BTU scale. Not what you'd want for your stove to burn overnight when it is zero degrees outside. In the same vein as pine, a good wood to burn shoulder season or during the day when you can be more attentive of the stove.
It's supposed to season in a year, for some maybe less, but I've not had that luck. Maybe a lousy seasoning weather year and maybe due to uncovered stacks - one year of seasoning didn't cut it.
I certainly wouldn't want to have only poplar when there are other, better woods in abundance but some put to the side, burned when its attributes would be convenient would be acceptable.
CincyBurner
Minister of Fire
Are we talking Populus or Liriodendron ? 
btw - tulip-poplar is in Magnolia family, cottonwood in the willow family (Salicaceae).
Tulip-poplar is quick burning (shoulder season), easy splitting wood although the wood splits a bit monkish sometimes. It'll season within a year.
Both are firewood lightweights. I wouldn't' go out of my way for them, and if short on space or time, I'd forgo for something better.
btw - tulip-poplar is in Magnolia family, cottonwood in the willow family (Salicaceae).
Tulip-poplar is quick burning (shoulder season), easy splitting wood although the wood splits a bit monkish sometimes. It'll season within a year.
Both are firewood lightweights. I wouldn't' go out of my way for them, and if short on space or time, I'd forgo for something better.
Sawset
Minister of Fire
Tulip poplar
Bigleaf poplar
Cottonwood
Quaking aspen
Bigleaf and quaking aspen, here in s.WI, and central mich like the op, small and straight grained, light in weight, easy to throw on the truck if it's down or in the way.
Tulip poplar doesn't grow this far nort
Will pass on cottonwood, too big, and don't need the work for little return.
Bigleaf poplar
Cottonwood
Quaking aspen
Bigleaf and quaking aspen, here in s.WI, and central mich like the op, small and straight grained, light in weight, easy to throw on the truck if it's down or in the way.
Tulip poplar doesn't grow this far nort
Will pass on cottonwood, too big, and don't need the work for little return.
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TheAardvark
Burning Hunk
Around my area popular wood is great. It usually consists of oak, maple, ash etc..... Poplar is not that great though.
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
I've bounced between being a hater and a fan of Tulip Poplar this season. I had a large poplar taken down last March, just a little later in the season than intended, so although it hadn't leafed out, it certainly had water already taken up. That wood was the absolute most difficult wood to split by hand that I've ever tried, even Hickory yields appreciably with each blow, but mauls literally bounced off, the Fiskars would only scratch it, and it would take easily ten swings of the sledge and wedge to make each split, assuming I could even get the wedge to stay in place, and even then as someone pointed up thread, it would often not split down the grain, it would angle out to the bark, leaving me with crappy wedges. On the plus side however, moving 24" rounds was a breeze, and put in sunny stacks from May till December was enough time for that wood to burn so well and light off so easily that I've been using it in almost every load, mixed with oak. It certainly won't burn for long, but that's ideal for this mild Winter we've had here.
Being hard to split seems dependant on some other factors than simply species, I once split a similar sized Tulip Poplar that grew only 50 yards away from this one and it was totally unremarkable.
TE
Being hard to split seems dependant on some other factors than simply species, I once split a similar sized Tulip Poplar that grew only 50 yards away from this one and it was totally unremarkable.
TE
I burn some poplar from time to time, but it is not my favorite wood by any stretch. I would rather burn pine, hemlock, spruce, etc. before I would burn poplar . . . but that said I wouldn't pass up free poplar if I needed the heat.
