Anyone know anything about russian olive?

i recently cut a large russian olive tree from a customers yard. Dont want to wait a year plus to find out if it was worth the trouble. Anyone know what the btu rating is ? Hoping its not like willow

 

This is one that I haven't found a real good read on as far as btu's. I can't imagine it would be that bad though, it's a hardwood.

 

Yeah, it's a hardwood. I've only watched some burn in a brush pile though.
The pine burnt faster.

It will grow right back, too.
Faster than black cherry.

I've only had one big enough for logs to split and burn and it got mixed in with a cord of a little of this and a little of that.

 

Looks like its rated at 23. Similar to ash. Needs to season for a couple years or it smells as it burns

 

Yeah, I saw that from 1 BTU chart.

I don't go off of 1 chart, but rather a couple and average them at worst, or usually I throw out the high and low and average the rest.

I know some people don't like burning it, but some people say they don't like elm. Now, elm gets a bad rap due to it's stubbornness at splitting. It actually burns very nicely.

I've never split or burned Russian olive, but based on what I've read, you'll be just fine. Report back in a year or 2 when you are burning this wood.

 

Seems to me the rounds I had on top of the pile I wasn't going to bother splitting but then they sprouted new branches and stayed green for quite some time so I split them. It's a rather importunate weed. Burn every bit you can get your hands on.

 

Burns really hot, really fast.
I don't bother w/it.
It stinks when it burns.

Trying to eradicate it in Colo.
It and salt cedar.
They are choking out the native trees
and consume too much ground water.

 

I have cut and burned a bit of Russian Olive. I only found that one btu chart on the internet which says it has pretty decent BTUs. It does give off some pretty decent heat. It was a popular windbreak tree from decades past. It thrives with zero care. Many places consider it evasive now and are trying to get rid of it. At the time I was just starting out building my firewood supply and it was a hardwood, so I was happy to get it amongst an over abundance of ponderosa pines. When I was cutting it I did not know what it was at first—just that it was heat. It had really long, nasty thorns. So at first, not having any experience with either, I thought it might be black locust. After burning it, it really has a lot of the same characteristics of shagbark juniper. It’s a hard wood and has the same shaggy type bark that catches dirt and is really hard on your chain. It does give off good heat...burns longer than pine. But like the shagbark juniper it leaves a LOT of ash. Just one big load after burning and my stove overflows with ash when I open the door. So it creates a lot more work as far as emptying the stove a lot more. As far as cutting it—wear a thick leather jacket and good gloves. If a branch you are cutting falls on you it’s like a mid-evil mace hurtling out of the sky at you with those nasty thorns. If you have a forestry helmet-wear it for sure with good eye and face protection! As far as the smell...yeah it does have a bit of a funky odor but I have a closed stove not an open fireplace. So I only smell it when I open the door to restoke the fire. Unless I am standing outside in my yard I don’t really even notice it. The dryer it is the less you notice the smell. But I don’t find it unbearable. Just not great.
As far as splitting, it’s hit or miss with my experience. The straight grained branches just pop apart. But the thicker, older mature part of the trunk can get really stringy and tough—Really stringy and tough. I have saved chunks I was unable to split by hand until just a few weeks ago when I finally bought a hydraulic splitter —that did the trick.
But the wood is absolutely gorgeous if you wanted to use it for turning or woodworking purposes. It has this deep red heart wood grain with a thin layer of white on the outside and an even thinner layer of black after that. So I don’t go out of my way to get Russian olive and now that I have a good multiple year stock of seasoned firewood I basically avoid it. But the bottom line is it will give you good heat. If you got it, may as well burn it.

 

Most of the Russian olive that grows on my place is more like a large shrub. I let mine dry standing up by spraying with crossbow and 2-4D mixture. Some of the larger stems that I can’t cut with the weed eater and brush blade get cut to length and added to the campfire/give away pile. Can’t complain about it, but I don’t go out of my way to find it.
Charles

 

I agree with all that. Those btu charts vary quite a bit. Must be a regional thing

 

Yep I have split and burned Russian Olive. I pretty much agree with Timberdog and his assessment. Since I am on the 3 year plan the Russian Olive I burn has been drying for 3 years and has no smell to it at all.
I will take it when I can find it because it is free BTU's and I never turn down free BTU's.

 

I'm with Backwoods Savage , we've got the shrub sized crap everywhere here. It's considered an invasive species & it lives up to that name. Chokes out everything else & really clutters up the woods. Haven't burnt it other than in brush fires, stinks, thorns are nasty, & dies hard. Best weapon against that stuff is a D4 or larger dozer & a can of Diesel to light it with.

 

I'm in all out war with the stuff on my property. It growes like a bush, as stated by others, and chokes the life from everything around it.

If you have it large enough for fire wood then by all means cut it and burn it! Then pull, dig or poison the stump or else it will return with a vengeance!

 

I too have only seen it as shrub that takes over the timber. Never seen a tree large enough to be CSS. I say if it can be split and stacked why not give it a shot.!?

 

Not much to add to the btu discussion. But if you didn't treat the stump you may have a dissapoined customer come the spring.