How long do you season and where are you ?

I keep seeing posts where a lot of you guys have to season wood for over a year...sometimes 2. This is a completely foreign concept to us (well, me anyway) here in Canada. I've never had to let anything dry for more than 1 year. I've seen more than a few folks say that birch has to be left for 2 years. The stuff I cut live last fall had water squeezing out of it when I split it. Now it's down to 8% moisture content and I just piled it in a big block of about 8x10x4 feet.

I'm wondering if it has to do with where we live? Even in Ontario on the east short of Lake Huron, oak, maple, and birch were dry after sitting for one year. Maybe a lot of you guys live right on the ocean so the humidity slows down the drying?

Where do you live, and how long do you HAVE to let your wood dry before burning ?
Me: Edmonton Alberta Canada - max 1 year for EVERYTHING I cut.

 

Here in Wyoming I let all hardwoods season for 3 years and the lodge pole pine for 2 years. The humidity is very low here and there is lots of wind so I am sure the wood dries
out sooner but since I have 4 years worth of wood I can season it that long with no worrys.

 

Define dry. 15% moisture content or less measured on the center of a fresh split is my definition. Never seen oak get anywhere close to dry after 1 year. I burned some 3 year oak in the firepit over the weekend and it still hissed out a lot of steam.

 

I go on a 3 year plan...i burn nothing but hardwoods (oaks,locust,hickory,ash,cherry,mulberry n maple).
Summers in S.C. Pa are generally very humid..especially this year with record rainfalls.
Im in no hurry to get moisure content down below 20%. Its all workin out after i got past the first year burnin.
Wood im burnin now is averaging 14-16%...

 

Most of my high btu hardwood absolutely has to season at least 2 summers here if cut green.

I'm a couple of miles inland of Lake Michigan. Wet green cut oak needs 3 or 4 years drying after css'd to get under 20% moisture content.

Yes, I have and religiously use a moisture meter.

 

For me I cut this winter's wood in Feb of 2018, bucked and split early spring, but no clue what moisture reading is, kinda scared to check. Summer was really hot and windy
Some popular but mostly ash, trying to get on 3+year plan but time is always the enemy
This will be the 3rd winter heating with wood

 

Well....I go with the generally accepted standard of less than 20 percent on a freshly split face. I wish we had some oak/maple here so I could get an actual moisture content reading. We never had a moisture meter when I lived in Ontario. That said, we didn't have sap/steam coming out of our wood after it sat for a year.

 

Depends on what type of oak....chestnut (rock) oak dries faster than red oak....at least for me.

 

Two years minimum for everything. Three years for hickory, oak, ironwood and black Locust. These times are from split and stacked by the way.

 

Southern Ohio, 2-4 year’s seasoning time.

 

I'm in Mohegan lake NY , I usually dry my maple and ash for 1 year and locust and oak for 2 years in direct sunlight and plenty of wind

 

Had some one year oak hissing in the stove today.

 

South central Pa. I season 2-4 years, all hardwoods (oak, hickory, maple, ash, locust, apple). Red oak dries the slowest for me. I burn by the 3 year plan.
I get excellent air flow and full sun from about noon on.

 

Yep I agree from the time it is split and stacked then I start counting the years. When ever I get a stack completed I write a date on it. No guessing.

 

Alaska
3 yr for birch ,
Amazing how much better it burns, very noticeable

No Moisture meter, just see how much better it burns.

 

It's easy where I live, no oak so that's that any standing dead softwoods can be burned as soon as I get it home. Green pine is a 1 year seasoning and green Douglas fir or western larch i try for 2 years drying time. All in all I don't cut a whole bunch of green wood.

 

Do you cover it in the winter

 

I actually top cover it year round with rubber.

 

8% near impossible in most places,
Would be curious what the meter read
When liquid water was visible when splitting.

 

It's a brand new General meter that tests perfectly with the test resistor on the cap.