I’ve a fair and of threads debating the dryness of standing dead. Mostly oak-related. And most concluding that just because it’s standing dead doesn’t mean dry and good to burn I don’t have a good supply of wood at my place in the country. But I do have a couple standing dead white pine. No needles, bark peeling. Stuff that I’d burn camping without hesitation. Just more concerned with putting in the stove. thoughts? I have a moisture meter, but i think it’s defective. Says everything is sub-20% when i m fairly certain it’s not.
It usually takes 3 months or so for the needles to turn brown and fall off. I've put a moisture meter to bark falling off and it's been under 20%. Smaller rounds that might be split in half up to in four. The centers/heartwood of large rounds, especially lower on the trunk might still be a bit on the high side moisture content. Pine gets fairly lightweight when it is well seasoned. Handle enough of it and you can tell by the weight. They dry out the rest of the way pretty quick when split though. I'd process into three piles, top of the trees, middles of the trees, bottoms of the tree and burn it in that order. That way the heartwood gets a chance to season better. If it is eastern white pine it finishes seasoning fairly quick once split. The "sap" is in the sapwood and dries up pretty quick once the tree is dead. If it is beetle killed it likely died from drying up and had a head start on the seasoning.
My meter says to test it, put pins against palm and it should read in the low 30s...careful. Wouldn't surprise me if most of the branches and upper part of the trunk are ready to go.
I've had lots of lodgepole pine, doug fir and larch read well below 20% when standing dead and all these coniferous are denser than white pine. If I can find some pics I'll share them. Keep in mind that moisture meters operate the most effectively when the wood is around 70f. Case in point. I dropped a nice big dead Doug fir on canadian thanks giving this year. It sat in rounds for a bit before I split it. It was rather coldish outside and my moisture meter was reading around 20% on a fresh split round. I took a split inside and warmed it up overnight and then took it back outside and resplit it. My meter jumped to 26%. I like the idea of sorting the tree into 3 sections.
If it's still got bark on the main trunk, I'd say it may be a bit moist. Barkless, it'll probably be good to go. We took down a big dead spruce a month ago, the top 1/3 was ready to burn, as were many of the limbs. But the bottom 2/3 were too wet...I saved a whole pickup load of 3" diameter limbs for starter logs ...they were bone-dry. That's blacksmith up in the tree...
OK thanks for all the advice. I figure it's dry, but you never know if someone's had a different experience. I'll do the three sections approach. I have at least two, probably more trees to target this weekend. Once I cut and split some, I'll know. White pine gets super light. This stuff will be more for ambiance than heat, but still.
Hey its worth getting if you can use it. And the nice thing about it. Being it's dead, it'll season pretty quick once split.
I have cut alot of dead standing pine. Some of it checks out to be less than 20% but I have also had some that I could see the water squeeze out of it when split. The best thing to do is use a moisture meter. Takes away all the guess work. I have two so I can double check when in doubt.
How about taking three splits and starting a fire even outdoors to see how it burns? Does it light off easy? If not, then it needs some time.
We cook hot dogs and smokies on all types of coniferous out west as thats all we have in most cases. In fact I was at a bush party last week and had cheese smokies over it. Tasted great. In my smoker I would never use it of course.
