bogydave might find this interesting. Jessie Young-Robertson, a forest ecologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks found that the trees dumped 70 percent of their water content into the soil in a 24-hour period in late October. The water dump happened on one day in which temperatures remained below freezing. The finding could be significant because fall is a popular time to harvest firewood. Depending on when the trees are harvested, the wood could be very wet or much drier.
Backwoods Savage .. I have also found this to be true! A couple members here posted some articles that said it was not the case.. but frankly, at 30 below the water in my nose freezes and I need a mask! I know the sap in sugar maple runs up the tree when it's above 35 and the Sun hits it and goes back to the roots in the cold nights!
Ive seen much different results when I have tried to prove this. I’ve used much lower tech equipment, including a chainsaw, maul and scale to deduce moisture content summer vs. winter by weight loss and have never found this to be true. Not one bit. One year I cut down 2 adjacent red maples of similar diameter. One in December when it was well below freezing and the other in July. With both of them I immediately split a round from about 6’ up the trunk and weighed the splits. Both samples lost almost exactly the same percentage of their original weight. (Red maple, probably was 35-45% as I recall.). I have also weighed more than a few splits when my tree service contacts have dropped me wood. Never have I seen much of a difference with obviously green and similar species wood. Red oak always loses about the same 37-40% of its original weight no matter what month the wood was harvested. I challenge anybody to get some wood fresh from the stump and try this themselves. In the summer you need to weigh immediately upon cutting and splitting as a split can lose its first 5% or more (weight) during the first day.
Paul bunion. I was actually referring to you but didn't feel it was right to call you out.. I just wonder if the difference is in the temperature Ranges we would see here versus you there in Southern New England.. But I know this is how sugar Maples provides sap..
A few years ago I got a bunch of oak from a tree guy in December. I started splitting it right away and I don’t recall ever seeing MORE water squirting out at the wedge as I split it. Not what I was expecting. December high temps for me generally run upper 40’s beginning of the month to about 40 by the end of the month
I did have some geographic diversity in my samples. The red maple subjects grew in Stratton Vt. at 2300’. (relatively high in elevation). The rest were local NJ. How ever if there is truth to wood moisture varying by season I think it might have more to do with available moisture, as in a true dry and wet season.
Paul bunion .. I know stratton most of its south facing.. really depends on the time of year and what the temps were when the cut was.. I personally have felt huge differences on Jay peak north side vs. South... I respect your intellectual and scientific ways I just wonder if you're taking all factors into consideration
I've found the same as well. I will always try to harvest trees in fall/ winter for this and other reasons.
Horkn my grandfather collected 35 cord a year.. Winter before girded trees. Ax cut off sap wood 3' around base in winter.. Cut in spring and burned next winter this was in the twenties and thirties
Old timer once told me fell the trees while the leaves are on and they’ll suck the moisture out of the tree Another even older timer who did logging during his early years considered that murder. Only fell trees during the winter when they’re asleep. Just thought I’d pass that along. No idea why
Interesting info! I always thought fresh downed trees seemed dryer in the winter. Definitely easier to split! Of course that’s probably more do to the fact that’s it’s easier to keep my body cool!!
I've never seen live trees pee water (sap, whatever) when cut in the winter the way they often do in the summer...so this all makes sense to me...
