Funny you should mention that. Saplings is all we use. Can't get much cheaper and the do the job just as nicely as other methods. In addition, although the saplings lay right on the ground, they do not rot out quickly as many think. For example, this fall we finally got all the good gone from what we cut in the winter of 2008-2009. Every one of the saplings we used (for 9 cord of wood) are still good to use now. They were all either soft maple or cherry. You can see some of them in the pictures below. Some under the wood and some leaning up against the stacks. Those were taken to where we stacked wood last year to be used again.
I don't have the experience Dennis has (yet) with different saplings on the ground, but I've used Poplar, Spruce, and Oak. The Oak I started with was still gooder after 6 years on the ground. They were just starting to get a little punky. The Pine and Poplar don't seem to fare so well, but I don't expect them to. The Spruce I used as posts lasted about 7 years before rotting at ground level and breaking.
I get pretty lucky as I can easily get an ample source of cedar saplings, and cedar does great against disease and rot, too bad it's low on the btus. Well I would prefer to have these on pallets but ever since I started my new job I've lost my access to free pallets so I have to make do.
Ground cloth under the pallets seem to be helping the pallets hold up OK No grass or weeds, they seem to stay pretty dry. Someone mentioned water sealing the pallets, bet that extends the life quite a bit too. Maybe painting with diesel would help them too.
A trick my old man would do for fence posts was dump the end in old tractor motor oil. The posts that weren't cedar lasted twice as long, water sealing makes a lot of sense, but bugs up here have a thing for just about any exposed wood besides cedar, something about the sap drives bugs away.
That works to kill the grass & weeds around them too, they stay drier at the ground interface , bugs stay away , no weed whacking & a little oil sealant soaks into the wood.
