Hey everyone I have scouted my logging space for huge trees to fell. My plan is to cut them this year, leave them on the ground completely untouched until the snow melts next spring, cut them to 16 inches and split them in quarters or halves depending on size, stack them outside in a wood shed i will build and burn them the year after. Does that make sense? Can a similar process be done in TWO years? Thanks!
If you have the time or ability, I suggest getting the logs up off of the ground somehow. The water they will pick up from the ground is shocking and stalls the process. I try to get all of my logs into a pile, with a couple of basswood logs on the base. While rain and snow still hit them, it can run off onto the ground.
Any logs I've left on the ground soak up moisture. If you can drop the trees onto to other stringers or similar it's better. Otherwise girdle the trees & leave them stand dead to keep sap from pushing up in the spring.
trees are aspen, mostly giant ones with trunks over 18 inches in diameter. There is SOME maple and birch but they are pretty damm rare, haven't dropped any of those yet. My stove is just a regular old school wood furnace.
I was suggested by my brother to actually leave them whole on the ground because next year leaves will grow on them again and make the drying process faster by feeding off of the remaining sap, is that not accurate?
I am told leaving the tree felled but intact will make it grow leaves in the spring and speed up the drying process even more.
Doesn't make sense to me, particularly with aspen. Let them live as they will grow 6-8% a year only getting bigger. Cut when you are ready and split and stack when you are ready. Cutting and leaving on the ground doesn't enhance drying whatsoever.
Never heard of that before, but hey- ya learn something new every day.... Personally, (unless there’s a study on that phenomenon) I can’t think of a faster way to dry wood (sans kiln) than splitting and stacking it in a decently sunny and breezy place... but I know not everyone has opportunities and real estate for optimal drying. Do what ya gotta do!
Yeah i'm running out of time before the snow hits and all i have is an atv, a saw and a splitter haha. Handling those huge felled trees is a hell of a workout for sure. I started my 3 year rotation (just bought this house with 27 acre forest) this year so i have cut a LOT of wood in the last weeks already. My brother is a chemistry and biology teacher but that doesn't make him a tree expert. Seemed plausible to me that a tree no longer attached to the root would be able to produce leaves with the remaining sap when spring arrived but that could be completely false for all i know
Only thing I've seen similar to this was a few small sucker branches trying to grow on a highly valuable black walnut that we had dropped. But I have 0 working experience with aspen. I'd tend to follow the previous advice.
Nothing beats immediate cutting. Splitting. Stacking. The leafing out on the ground theory follows another theory. Dont burn pine Both old wives tales....... Sorry old wives
If you fell and leave them prop off the ground as wood does soak up a lot of water when touching the ground. Aspen is rather spongy to begin with too. Can you buck to stove length and stack off the ground and top cover in the woods until you are ready to bring it out?
I agree with everyone else. If you're going to drop the trees, get them bucked and quartered at least. Make small stacks in the woods. Grab some saplings and stack them on those. Pick at it during the winter if you cant get them out. That's the quickest way they will dry.
Wife is a four letter word. Her response to that "so is Brad" Ms. buZZsaw will be 59 next week. She's my older lady!
First time ive heard that on here amateur cutter. Is that when a strip of bark is removed and/or a small kerf is cut around the tree to kill it?
Truth. I've heard the trees leafing out like that they're, but it really makes zero sense, and I've never seen it actually work. Buck it up at least, and get it off the ground. Best would be to CSS it and have it off the ground.
I have heard that if you cut a tree down in the summer while the tree is alive, that some of the moisture could be drawn out. Otherwise I would still say keep them up off of the ground. I cut them into lengths, 8 to 20 ft in length and stack them on junk logs.
