Utility company cut down a tree near my house. I was lucky enough to pick up an easy 11 rounds. Is this black birch, is it a good firewood? I recently got a firewood insert and I am still learning. I may run out of firewood in March. Would it be too early to mix the occasional piece of this wood in with my fires in the early spring? Thanks for the help. I really enjoy reading and learning from this forum.
You burn what you have to to stay warm. I would get it split tomorrow and up to dry in the wind and too covered. I would mix it in starting in maybe a month. Just keep an eye on the chimney. Green wood has kept many people warm. Not the smartest or best way but it can be done. Modern EPA wood stoves DO NOT like wet wood, this is why I say to slit soon and let dry at least a bit. Smaller splits dry faster too. Still waiting bon pics to download to answer but that tree does not really grow in my area so I won't be the best one to say and it's been 16+ years since Dendrology for me. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
Ok pics came through. I would say it's a Birtch but if it's yellow or black I couldn't say. We just don't have it here so j never see it Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
Some up closer pictures would help but it looks like Yellow Birch. Good firewood, dries pretty fast but if it was just recently cut down, spring time may be a little ambitious. Split it smaller than normal and give it ideal drying conditions and maybe but not likely.
Yes looks like black birch it will have a distinct odor of birch beer from under bark birch burns hot if you need for the spring get it split asap and keep dry where wind can get to it JB
Black birch is very good (when dry), But looks like wild cherry. 18 month drying time. I believe thats yellow birch in your pics. also good, but slower drying at 24 months
Looks like chokecherry to me..... Black birch will have a "wintergreen" mint smell to it, almost like Teaberry. Split it and give it the FHC Sniff Test..... Still good firewood, nonetheless. But black birch is one of the holy grail woods in my book..
I thought it birch at first but on closer inspection (and reading other posts) im on the choke/ornamental cherry band wagon. Still good wood though and looks easy splitting too which is a big plus in my book. As stated get it CSS asap and maybe you might mix with other wood if needed later in the burning season. Do you have a moisture meter rob osage ? Nice little score BTW!
Yeah, scratch the bark and smell it. If it smells minty sweet - black birch. If it smells more sour astringent smell - cherry. They both have those little puckers/blisters but n black birch is narrower. birch cherry looks a bit more like an infected blister
Inside split definitely looks like cherry to me. Just split a few rounds last week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm not so sure about that being a Cherry. Never seen a cherry with so much sapwood and so little heartwood in between. Bark also only looks like that on the smaller, immature trees, at least the Black Cherry and Wild Cherry I've had my hands on. Never worked with Chokecherry before.
Go around and scrounge dry dead pine, stuff thats laying against trees off the ground or cut dead standing if you have access to any. Limbs on the side of the rd, whatever it takes its better than trying to light off wet wood, like someone said new stoves dont like wet wood. 19 degrees out rt now, everyone is asleep and the dead fir i scrounged a few weeks ago that somebody put up by the curb after a storm is keeping us warm rt now. I got shorts on its like the bahamas in here rt now. Get it , get the pine
Yea if this is rounds from the main trunk and even if they were limbs , that size the bark would be rougher and scalier if it was black cherry. We don't have chokecherry around here so I am no help. A side note one of the questions I know I gave up on the Certified Forester test was an answer about horses and what not to plant around them. I remember choke cherry was an answer. I put it because of the choke part, haha. Again we don't have it and I have no idea what it looked like or if it was toxic, if the cherries if any are large and could choke a horse as my theory. And the other species were no more common to me. But from context I assumed one was at least toxic or in some other way harmful to horses. I didn't worry about it, I just answered it to get out of there, I felt good enough about the test that I knew I didn't have to worry about it. And yes I passed. Haha Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
There's a bunch of things that can kill or make very ill, horses. Just about anything in the prunus genus and there's wood that can't be in stall bedding. There's a long list of things they just can't eat. I'd have to ask the ex on them all. Makes ya wonder how horses ever survived in the wild. Unless all these sensitivities are a result of domestication and controlled breeding .
If I half cared more (well I do, it's just not high up on my list of things to do) I would request that question be thrown out since it requires knowledge on a somewhat unrelated subject. I get you would be better serving clients to know all the things horses are sensitive too. The question was asking about windrow plantings in specific. But again, horses are not our main focus in this profession. The same could be said about cows, or will it harm dogs. I just felt it wasn't a fair question. Thinking about it I just got an email about the test or test procedure or something, I may just dig it out and see what they were looking for and maybe mention that question. Like u said it wasn't the only one I got wrong but it was about the only one I was like where the heck did this question come from . Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
