So I cut several boxelders over the late winter/early spring and, as weird as it might sound, I usually take a sniff of the wood kind of as a refreshment. The boxelder smelled like a wet gym sock...and stupidly I did this more than once just to make sure... Fast forward to now. I was picking up random pieces to see how everything is drying and thought I would be dumb just once more and sniffed the boxelder... It smells SWEET...it actually smells pleasant and seems like it's much easier to handle than most of the other species that are splintered or messy. I'll take this stuff all day long. Anyone else experience this change in smell?
When boiling sap (yes from box elder) the sap will have a used sock smell if the tree has budded out. Some kind of hormone change or something like that.
I've got too many in my yard and it does smell when cut green. Most of it gets cut after it's dead and there's little heat in it. If you cut it green and leave it under a roof for 2 summers it has heat. My attempts at making syrup were unsuccessful.
I've heated my house with a lot of Box Elder since I started to heat with wood...............seasons fast and is readily available here. Some of it can be very gnarly to split............ I won't turn it down if it's free and easy to get to.
