Does this strategy work well.. dropping trees in spring and then bucking/spitting 4 months later?

I have a neighbor that does this with almost all of his firewood. He uses a 20 ton splitter so its not about making it split any better. He swears that it's better than splitting it as you go like I do since he figures it's going to start seasoning right after you fell it, and he can spend a bunch of weekends in the spring just felling a ton of trees. What do you guys think?

 

If your neighbor is cutting green trees and gets them before the sap rises and keeps them off the ground, it might help. Standing dead is best left standing and not on the ground.
I agree with Eric, it's not going to dry until it's split.

 

Imo the faster it’s split the faster it dries. Logs may lose some moisture but anyone that has cut and split a log that’s been laying on the ground for a while knows there’s still a bunch of moisture locked up in the log.
I split a poplar that had laid on the ground over a year and couldn’t believe it wasn’t decayed and still had moisture in the wood.

 

I forgot to mention that some of the FB Marketplace sellers in my area seem to do this as well, then they advertise "cut in spring" when they sell it for that winter.

 

I've heard of people doing this and trying to time it so the felled tree still leafs out in hopes that the leaf growth will draw the water out of the wood, I seriously doubt it works well.

 

Nope, don't help with drying at all.

I cut a oak down that the top broke off of one year, was mostly off the ground then stuff came up and it ended up being 2 years before I got back to it, when I cut it up it was just as wet and green as the day I cut it 2 years before.

 

I have cut a bunch of trees down in the last month, partly because they needed to be removed for a fence, but I also dropped a bunch of green trees because it was my reasoning that it was better to get ahead of the sap rising. I have already cut up a bunch of the logs, and split some of it. I will split the rest pretty soon, but I still have a lot of cutting up to do on other dropped trees, but I read in a book that it's good to at least get ahead of the rising sap. Is this an old wive's tale? I mean I know it's still green wood, but it seems to make sense to me, to cut the trees down before the sap rises in the spring.

I also read that if you are cutting trees in late spring through fall, it's good to just cut them down first and then let the leaves draw some more moisture out of the tree before you cut it into rounds. Wait until the leaves look dead, before cutting the tree up. It's still green wood, I know, but I am thinking it may help a little bit. But maybe not enough to make much difference in the long run. I mean if you are going to season the wood for 2-3 years, anyway, maybe it doesn't matter. I know a dead log laying on the ground will soak up moisture, more then likely, but if it's suspended then maybe not.

However, I noticed that lots of guys on here, post pictures of solid rounds (un-split rounds) sitting in stacks. Now, I get it, if you have a commercial operation going but for the home user who only cuts for his own use, this seems like a lot of extra handling and people say wood doesn't really season out until it actually split, so why do you spend the extra labor stacking rounds, then going back and splitting later?

 

I'd be interested to hear if it's good to get ahead of the sap as well. What I'm CSS'ing right now is so full of sap that my hands get wet when splitting the stuff. I figure it will be OK, as they'll have a long time to dry.

I've always heard that a tree you drop loses some moisture if you let the leaves wither, but not sure how true that it. Or if it's worth it.

I end up with a lot of rounds when I cut them somewhere aside from my property, and take them home with the pickup truck. Sometimes you have to get while the getting is good, and can only split them later. When I do end up in that situation, I stack them to make room for more, and get at least some of them up off the ground. Not sure it helps with drying much, but it keeps them cleaner. It's not too hard to stack them; I'm not lifting them onto the stack, I'm rolling them up, and end up 3-4 logs high that way. Even when I'm not in the above situation, some types of wood seem to split easier if you let it set a while.

 

Like everyone says, nothing beats cut, split, stacked.

 

Those guys are my favorite. I'll tell them there's no way its seasoned. "I've had no complaints yet!" To only be crucified on FB a month into burning season by unhappy customers.

 

I would think that letting the tree lay with the leaves on(green) until they wither would help. Just like flowers in a vase that is full of water but the next day the water level is way down because the flowers drew all the water up thru its stem.. JMO

 

I had several blown over dead popple in my yard. They were several years old and off the ground. I cut them into rounds and they were incredibly wet. I know they died with the leaves on them but it didn't help them dry. There was a lot of moisture under the bark too.

I am thinking there might be a connection between mold and seasoning. If you look at old seasoned wood, it is likely dark from mold. I think the mold may inoculate the split and then the water will evaporate from the mold.
You can have dry wood without mold but then it is just dry, not necessarily seasoned. I am not sure what would burn best- dry wood with no presence of mold/darkness or, dark wood with heavy mold inoculation(seasoned).

 

Cutting them down before the sap flow in spring will certainly have less moisture content, but as others have already said.....only dries properly when cut, split and allowed to have air flow.

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He might better girdle them a couple years ahead of time and then fell them as standing dead. No chance of them rotting on the ground that way in case they sat there for awhile

 

Tried the log stack n buck later routine. As others have said, nope, does not dry at all. Bark falls off, but the drying starts only after the splits are stacked...

 

I checked the moisture content on what I cut down today, and it was 40-45%. Very heavy stuff to handle. I would say that you get some drying when it's in rounds... You'd have to. This time of year, if I have a fresh-cut round round placed vertically in the trailer, I get a puddle of sap under it, so it's definitely shedding moisture. But I agree with Stinny - they don't really dry out in rounds. There must be a a point where they'll shed the excess sap, say from 40% to 30% moisture, then the drying seems to stop.

Someone told me once that wood dries faster, once it's been in water. Not long enough to rot, obviously, but if you think of driftwood, and how dry that is once it's been on shore a while, it does make a bit of sense. Supposedly it had something to do with the sap / sugar gets diluted out of the wood when it's in the water, and once that's out it dries faster. Anyone ever hear of that? (Thinking driftwood in fresh water, like when they used to raft logs down rivers, not driftwood from saltwater)

 

Stacked rounds will dry somewhat as you can see them cracking on the ends over time and air creeps in, but like everyone has been saying.
Nothing better than to split and stack.

 

Rounds dry more then most people give it credit for, cutting trees and leaving them lay with leaves on leaves off sap up sap down dont do squat for drying.