Cottonwood is like that here. They are actually close cousins, the cottonwoods and willows. Sprout, stink, long dry time, low heat. Maybe they give Tree of Hell a run for its money as the worst firewood? Though basswood is usually the lowest on the eastern firewood BTU lists. I cannot find any Tree of Heaven BTU numbers.
I hate that chit. In March 2000 I had 3 removed from the property - 1 medium,2 very large (20-25" diameter,up to 50'tall).Biggest ones I knew of in metro area in fact.Paid the climber to cut the stuff over the house,neighbor's & out next to busy street,he gave me a good deal since I dropped the 30' main stems myself & cleaned up the mess. Ended up with 7-8 big pickup loads if I remember,split easily,dried very fast but it left more ashes than anything I've ever burned.And it STUNK terribly also. Only reason I kept it here & started burning it 8 months later is I didn't want to pay a tipping fee at county landfill or dump the stuff at parent's acreage 1 hour to my west.Plus the risk of any of those damm seeds getting started out there & choking out all their good hardwoods. It was 4 years of chopping/mowing the front & side yards before no more of those sprouts appeared.That & Willow are the ONLY woods I wont cut or bring home. Never.Again.
it aint that bad is it, other than the smell and stringiness I too got me close to a cord from a C/L scrounge, I have had it css for awhile now but I am not planning on burning it till next year, I did burn a few splits of it this year just t o see what it was like, I had no issues with it, put out decent heat and coals IMO I split it with my splitter, most of it split fine, had a some stringy pieces though. but not bad overall
Russian olive is also a nasty invasive, so to twist words, although not the best to burn it is best burnt.
Around here it seems to start on the trees with shallow root systems first, then they start getting punky on the outside, and then die, leaving a very dead but dry tree.
Willow is the worst. I won't take it as firewood. American elm is great firewood. It sucks to split by maul though. It doesn't matter if it's dead, dry, green, frozen, pickled, frosted, brined, whatever. It is log splitter material only. The smell is actually nice. Maybe the red elm stinks, but american elm smells nice, especially mixed with cherry.
Worst far wood to burn in my opinion is not having any attall. I have grubbed out huge old lilac hedges for customers in the past that I actually thought about taking home to process. Never did, went in the chipper or the brush dump.
I dont know what kind of elm I have as it is pretty rare in this area ( but I do know its elm), All I know is when I was splitting it, it smelled like some type of animal pizz, smelled for a good 4 to 6 months every time I walked pass that stack I could smell it Its been stacked over 2 years now and no more smell
I have never seen Ohio buckeye out here. Other than the hash marks on Ohio State football helmets that look like pot plant leaves on TV that is. Here we have California buckeye that is very poisonous and grows wild in southern Oregon and California. It is also called horse chestnut. I have never burned that species for firewood. Everything about them is highly toxic, so I never messed with it. The nuts and leaves are toxic to humans and livestock and even the flower nectar is toxic to honeybees, so I killed it with herbicide wherever I found it on my properties in southern Oregon and California.
Hmmm. Doesn't sound like Basswood (Linden) that I burn. Dries very quick but doesn't give off many Btu. I mix it with my shoulder wood. Cottonwood is on my worse list. Smells bad, usually wet as can be, even dead on the ground, and splits like Elm. Whats not to hate!
Wow. I did not think that was possible! TOH is the worst I have burned. I will add Buckeye to my NOT TO GET list. Buckeye is not very popular here in Oregon after the UofO loss either. Burn that crap out! Spray it to death! Evil! Kill it! Kill it all!
B Hopefully the Beavers start taking down the u of 0 again like they used to. I'm a Badger fan myself. Despite the loss last season to the buckeyes. I was happy the buckeyes beat the ducks. Sorry, I have ties to Oregon, my oldest brother lives in Portland, among others there people I know, but I can't root for the ducks. In April supposedly the pot leaves will be legal in Oregon. That and there's a possibility of a badger/ duck basketball game soon.
No mention yet of the 'royal paulowina'. Very similar to Alinthus as far as the wood goes. It has huge leaves. Another stinky imported East Asian exotic.
Not until July, actually. In Eugene pot is practically legal now. The Ducks would have had a much better chance in the big game if their best wide receiver had not failed a drug test for pot. I doubt the Beaves are going to beat the Ducks any time soon in football though. They have their own problems in Corvallis.
