Burning Bark In Wood Stove? The 91 Correct Answer

Burning Tips ~ By John Bergstrom

Wood is a unique source of renewable stored solar energy – one that is more complex and diverse than other fuels. The energy in wood exists in both solid and gaseous form. Almost half the energy in firewood is in gas or smoke, and failure to properly burn the gases present in the wood can result in energy loss and either pollution or potentially dangerous creosote buildup in chimneys.

Newer, EPA-approved wood stoves are known to burn cleanly and efficiently. And with the right understanding of how a wood stove operates, they can burn at maximum efficiency, resulting in more heat, cleaner glass, less air pollution, and a cleaner chimney.

There are two types of combustion systems in clean-burning wood stoves – natural combustion and catalytic systems. Natural incinerators burn cleanly through their simple but ingenious design of primary and secondary air supply systems and combustion zones within the firebox. Catalytic designs have a replaceable catalytic burner that lowers the ignition temperature of the wood gases, much like a car’s catalytic converter.

Most kilns today have a fire control that controls the primary air and provides glass air washing. Air enters the firebox at the top just behind the glass, sweeps the glass down to the bed of coals and finally to the fire in the furnace. When you start or rekindle fires, you cause the air at the bottom face (near the glass) of the stove to flow back into the new wood, resulting in a much more reactive fire.

The bed of coal drives the entire clean combustion system, especially in natural incinerators. Establishing and maintaining a charcoal bed is necessary for clean fires and clean glass, especially with wet or oversized wood. The maintenance and management of the coal seam results in the cleanest burning and glass. In most stoves, the combustion system is designed to burn from front to back. As the fire burns down, the most responsive fires are created by raking the coals forward from the back of the stove before refilling. A rake or hoe-like tool is almost essential for manipulating the bed of coal in front-loading furnaces. It’s not uncommon to see at least a 2-inch bed of coals raked in just behind the glass door and only dead ash in the back two-thirds of the stove when refueling.

The accumulation of ash in the firebox helps maintain higher furnace temperatures for cleaner burns and more even fires. The ash insulates and helps maintain a hotter coal bed. Many stoves don’t burn well until they have several fires of ash in the firebox. General advice for the best burns is to keep at least 3/4 inch of ash in the kiln at all times.

Sue Pike

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared in York Weekly in 2013.

Paper birch (also called white birch) is an iconic tree of the north and is probably our most easily recognized tree due to its distinctive white bark. The scientific name Betula papyrifera refers to the bark. The genus name Betula means birch, which according to Bill Casselman’s Canadian Word of the Day is a “very old Indo-European tree word, its root bherja meaning birch is the light tree, a reference to its chalk-white bark.” The words birch and bright are cognate words, words coming from the same root group in Indo-European…; Words related to white shiny, shimmering, blazing, burning.”

The species name is Papyrifera. Roughly translated from Greek, this means papyrus, which means reeds from which paper was made.

Paper birch certainly lends itself to comparisons with paper; The bark is smooth and white and combustible. It turns out that this whiteness is key to the birch’s ability to survive extreme cold. While not unique to the far north, the paper birch is a tree well-adapted to cold climates and thrives on the northernmost limits of tree growth in arctic Canada and Alaska. During cold winters, the thick, dark bark of an oak or ash tree becomes a burden, absorbing sunlight during the day and heating up only to cool again at night, usually fairly quickly. This heating and cooling can kill the cells of the cambium, the layer of cells between the bark and wood that is responsible for the trunk’s growth. Rapid temperature changes can also severely damage a tree by causing frost cracks in the bark.

The highly reflective, light-colored bark of a paper birch, on the other hand, absorbs neither solar radiation nor heat on cold winter days, thus avoiding damage caused by rapid heating and cooling.

What causes this extreme whiteness? This white powder that coats the bark is mostly made up of a chemical called betulin. The cells in the outer cortical layers contain betulin crystals arranged to reflect light and appear white. In addition to protecting against sun exposure and freeze-thaw cycles, the chemical nature of betulin also protects the tree from pests

The same betulin makes birch bark such a good fire starter. It is highly flammable. In fact, the dry form of betulinic acid can form clouds of airborne particles that can explode when ignited. Betulin is a hydrophobic (water-averse) molecule that gives birch bark its superior water-repellent properties. So birch bark is waterproof and flammable – great for starting a fire on a rainy day.

Recently, this betulin-laden white bark has attracted human interest for another reason. Betulinic acid (Betulin is a precursor to betulinic acid) is a biologically active chemical with anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antitumor properties and is the subject of medical research.

Obviously, White Birch did not think about advances in human medicine when developing betulin. This chemical has evolved over time as part of the white birch’s adaptive machinery, a tweak to the genetic code that resulted in a chemical that confers multiple benefits on this lucky tree. We are the lucky recipients of this evolutionary story; We live in close proximity to this multifaceted, brilliant white tree of the north.

Susan Pike, a researcher and teacher of environmental sciences and biology at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, welcomes your ideas for future column topics. She can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her Nature News columns online.

Is birch good for firewood?

If you depend on wood to heat your home in the winter, it’s a good idea to use wood that burns efficiently and is readily available.

Birch is a good firewood as it burns well and produces a moderate amount of heat. It splits fairly easily and dries quickly once split. Birch bark makes an excellent fire starter due to its resemblance to paper.

Read on to learn more about birch and what makes it a great choice for firewood.

Common characteristics of birches

Birch is a deciduous hardwood with around 30 to 60 different species. They have shallow roots and typically grow in cool, moist forest soils.

They only live about 60 to 80 years and do not grow into very large trees. Most birches only grow to about 80 feet tall, huh

is nothing compared to a redwood tree, which generally grows to about 350 feet tall.

From afar, aspens are often confused with birches. Both have a white bark and look very similar. One of the easiest ways to tell the difference is to look at the bark up close. Birch bark feels chalky and peels off in thin, wispy layers. Aspen leaves are heart-shaped, while birch leaves are long and oval with roughly serrated edges.

Common varieties of birch used as firewood

There are many different species of birch, but the white birch, gray birch, yellow birch, and black birch are the most common species used for firewood.

White birch, also known as paper birch, owes its name to its thin white bark, which often peels off the trunk in papery layers. It doesn’t burn as hot as other birch species, making it one of the less desirable types of birch firewood. You’ll find White Birch primarily in the Northern States and Canada.

Gray Birch is most commonly found in the northeastern states of America. It only lives about 30 years and is commonly planted as a landscape tree.

Yellow birch is much harder to split than the others and dries slower due to its high sap content. Also known as swamp birch, it can be recognized by its silvery-yellow, smooth bark. It grows in the Appalachian Mountains.

Black birch is probably the most desirable firewood within the birch family as it produces the highest heat due to its dense fibres. It is also known as Mountain Mahogany, Sweet Birch, and Cherry Birch. Black Birch is most commonly found in the eastern states of America.

Working with birch firewood

All types of wood can be used as firewood, but some are better than others. In addition to examining how much heat is being produced, you also need to consider the aroma of the wood. Most woods produce fruity, nutty, or piney scents.

Birch wood has a unique smell. Yellow birch gives off a wintergreen aroma when burned. Some people say Gray Birch smells like incense when it burns. Most species of birch have a slightly sweet smell that most people find pleasant.

Is birch sap messy?

Birch sap is not dirty, especially compared to working with pine trees that get sap everywhere!

Birch sap is better known for its sweet taste. In the spring, a birch can be tapped for syrup just like a maple!

How hard is birch to split?

Birch should be split and stacked soon after falling as it tends to rot faster than most species. If you don’t have the time to split and stack it right away, at least have it broken down into smaller pieces and lifted off the ground until you can access it again.

A birch’s bark is so dense that it tends to retain moisture and rot from the inside out. You may consider scoring/slicing the rind while bucking if you need to store it before splitting.

The older the birch, the more difficult it becomes to split, as older birches tend to be more stringy. Additionally, birch trees growing in a garden and exposed to the wind will have a heavier grain, but you will have a harder time splitting them than a birch tree growing in a wooded area.

How long does birch take to season?

Birch can mature in 1 year or less if split and stacked immediately. Black Birch can season even faster. Yellow Birch takes a little longer.

To get the most energy out of your firewood, the wood should be seasoned. Seasoned firewood is described as having 20% ​​moisture content. A good rule of thumb is to cut firewood this year for use next year.

Burning green wood reduces the amount of heat generated by the fire. As the green wood burns, the energy generated by the fire is used to evaporate the moisture, resulting in wasted heat.

Buy an inexpensive, easy-to-use moisture meter like this to ensure your split wood is ready for the fire.

Does birch burn clean?

Birch is good firewood and burns similarly to Cherry, which has a BTU of 20 million per string. When birch is well seasoned, it doesn’t have a lot of smoke and doesn’t throw a lot of sparks.

Save the bark because it’s a great fire starter! Remember, birch bark peels like paper!

Depending on the species, birch produces between 20.3 and 26.8 million BTUs per string.

On average, a birch cord roughly corresponds to the following common heat sources:

22,710 cubic feet of natural gas.

258 gallons of propane.

170 liters of heating oil.

6,902 kilowatt hours of electricity.

BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. A BTU is the amount of energy required to heat one pound of liquid water one degree Fahrenheit.

A cord of firewood is equivalent to 128 cubic feet of wood. Typically, firewood is cut into 16-inch lengths and tightly stacked in three rows, 4 feet high and 8 feet long, for a total of 128 cubic feet.

How does birch compare to other types of firewood?

Birch falls somewhere in the middle in terms of BTUs per cable. At the high end would be Eucalyptus at 34.5 million BTUs per cable and Osage Orange at 32.9 million. At the low end you have Ohio Buckeye at 12.1 million BTUs per cable and Linden Basswood at 13.8 million.

Fire quality, amount of smoke and creosote.

Green wood tends to smoke and smolder, creating the potential for creosote to form in the chimney. Creosote is nothing but a condensation of small, unburned particles contained in the smoke that coats the chimney’s surface as it exits. The creosote will stick to the sides of the chimney and can ignite and cause a chimney fire.

All wood produces creosote. Hardwoods like birch burn slower and lower, allowing the smoke to linger in the chimney longer, giving more opportunity for creosote build-up. You can reduce the amount of creosote by properly seasoning your firewood.

The pros and cons of burning birch as firewood

advantages

Splits fairly easily and dries quickly once split.

Birch bark makes an excellent fire starter due to its resemblance to paper.

Disadvantages

Vulnerable to rot if left unspilled for very long.

Other general uses

Native Americans have used birch bark canoes for hundreds of years because they are waterproof and rot resistant.

Birch is used to make popsicle sticks, toothpicks and toys.

Another use for birch bark is to make tea. In particular, black birch, its twigs and young bak have a rich evergreen aroma.

There are many different types of firewood to choose from. However, not all options are available to you as some trees only grow in certain parts of the country. In my opinion, if birch is available to me, I would not miss the opportunity to use it as firewood.

Tell me what kind of firewood you prefer in the comments below.

Outermost layers of stems and roots of trees and shrubs

Mangifera indica) with bark of ripe mango) with lichen growth

Pinus thunbergii consists of innumerable shiny layers. The bark consists of innumerable shiny layers.

Bark is the outermost layer of the stems and roots of trees. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Cortex refers to all tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a non-technical term.[1] It covers the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner bark, which is living tissue in older tribes, comprises the innermost layer of the periderm. The outer bark of older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with portions of the outermost periderm and any tissues on the outside of the periderm. The outer bark of trees, which lies outside the living periderm, is also known as the rhytidome.

Bark-derived products include bark clapboard siding and wall coverings, spices and other flavorings, tannin for tannin, resin, latex, medicines, poisons, various hallucinogenic chemicals, and cork. Bark was used to make cloth, canoes, and rope, and was used as a surface for paintings and map making.[2] A number of plants are also grown for their attractive or interesting bark coloration and surface textures, or their bark is used as landscape mulch.

Botanical description [ edit ]

Cork cell walls contain suberin, a waxy substance that protects the stem from water loss, insect invasion of the stem, and prevents infection from bacteria and fungal spores.[5] The cambium tissues, i. H. the cork cambium and vascular cambium, are the only parts of a woody stem where cell division occurs; Undifferentiated cells in the vascular cambium divide rapidly to produce secondary inward xylem and secondary outward phloem. Phloem is a nutrient-conducting tissue composed of sieve tubes or sieve cells interspersed with parenchyma and fibers. The bark is the primary tissue of stems and roots. In stems, the bark lies between the epidermal layer and the phloem, in roots the inner layer is not the phloem but the pericycle.

tree cross section diagram

From the outside to the inside of a mature log, the layers include the following:[6]

Bark of a pine tree in Tecpán, Guatemala.

In young trunks, which lack the so-called bark, the tissues are, from the outside in:

Epidermis, which can be replaced by periderm Cortex Primary and secondary phloem Vascular cambium Secondary and primary xylem.

As the stem ages and grows, changes occur that turn the surface of the stem into the bark. The epidermis is a layer of cells that covers the plant body, including the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit, that protects the plant from the outside world. In ancient strains, the epidermal layer, bark, and primary phloem are separated from the internal tissues by thicker cork formations. As the cork layer thickens, these cells die because they are deprived of water and nutrients. This dead layer is the rough cork bark that forms around tree trunks and other stems.

Periderm[edit]

Damaged bark of a cherry tree

A secondary covering called the periderm often forms on small logs and many non-woody plants and consists of cork (phellem), the cork cambium (phellogen), and the phelloderm. The periderm forms from the phellogen, which serves as the lateral meristem. The periderm replaces the epidermis and, like the epidermis, acts as a protective covering. Mature phellem cells have suberin in their walls to protect the stem from desiccation and attack by pathogens. Older phellem cells are dead, as is the case with woody stems. The skin of the potato tuber (which is an underground stalk) forms the cork of the periderm.[7][8]

In woody plants, the epidermis of newly grown stems is replaced by the periderm later in the year. As the stems grow, a layer of cells called the cork cambium forms under the epidermis. These cells produce cork cells, which turn into cork. A limited number of layers of cells called phelloderma can form inside the cork cambium. As the stem grows, the cork cambium produces new layers of cork impermeable to gases and water, and the cells outside the periderm, namely the epidermis, cortex, and older secondary phloem, die.[9]

Inside the periderm are lenticels, which form during the formation of the first layer of the periderm. Because there are living cells within the cambium layers that need to exchange gases during metabolism, these lenticels allow gas exchange with the outside atmosphere due to their numerous cell interstices. As the bark develops, new lenticels form in the cracks in the layers of cork.

Rhytidomes[edit]

The rhytidome is the most well known part of the bark as it is the outer layer that covers the tree trunks. It consists mainly of dead cells and is produced by the formation of multiple layers of suberized peridermal, cortical, and phloem tissue.[10] The rhytidome is particularly well developed in older trunks and roots of trees. In shrubs, older bark flakes off quickly and thick rhytidome accumulates.[11] It is generally thickest and most prominent at the trunk or trunk (the area from the ground to the beginning of the main branching) of the tree.

Chemical composition [ edit ]

Cortical tissues represent between 10 and 20% by weight of lignified vascular plants and are composed of various biopolymers, tannins, lignin, suberin, suberan, and polysaccharides.[12] Up to 40% of cortical tissue is made up of lignin, which is an important component of a plant and provides structural support through cross-linking between various polysaccharides such as cellulose.[12]

Condensed tannin, which is found in fairly high concentrations in bark tissue, is thought to inhibit decomposition.[12] This could be due to the fact that the degradation of lignin in bark tissue is far less pronounced than in wood. It has been suggested that suberin in the cork layer (the phellogen) acts as a barrier against microbial degradation, thus protecting the internal structure of the plant.[12][13]

Analysis of the lignin in the bark wall during decay by the white-rot fungus Lentinula edodes (Shiitake fungus) by 13C NMR revealed that the lignin polymers contained more guaiacyl-lignin units than syringyl units compared to the interior of the plant.[12] Guajacyl units are less prone to degradation because they contain fewer aryl–aryl bonds, can form a condensed lignin structure, and have a lower redox potential compared to syringyl.[14] This could mean that the concentration and type of lignin units could provide additional resistance to fungal attack for bark-protected plants.[12]

Used[edit]

Cork, colloquially sometimes confused with bark, is the outermost layer of a woody stem descended from the cork cambium. It serves as protection against damage from parasites, herbivores and diseases, as well as against dehydration and fire. Cork can contain antiseptics like tannins that protect against fungal and bacterial attack that would cause rot.

Pine bark was used as emergency food in Finland during the famine, most recently during and after the civil war in 1918.

On some plants, the bark is significantly thicker, providing additional protection and giving the bark a characteristic prominent structure with deep ridges. In the cork oak (Quercus suber) the bark is thick enough to be harvested as a cork product without killing the tree;[15] in this species the bark can become very thick (e.g. more than 20 cm have been reported[ 16]). . Some barks can be removed in long leaves; The smooth bark of birch trees was used as a covering in the manufacture of canoes, as a drainage layer in roofs, for shoes, backpacks, and so on. The best-known example of the use of birch bark for canoes are the birch canoes of North America. [17]

The inner bark (phloem) of some trees is edible; In Scandinavia, bark bread is made from rye to which the roasted and ground innermost layer of bark of Scots pine or birch is added. The Sami people of the far north of Europe used large leaves of Pinus sylvestris bark, which were removed in spring, prepared and stored for use as a staple food, and the inner bark was eaten fresh, dried, or roasted.

Some stem barks have a significantly different phytochemical content than other parts. Some of these phytochemicals have pesticidal properties.[19]

Mechanical bark processing[ edit ]

Bark contains strong fibers known as bast, and there is a long tradition in northern Europe of using bark from young branches of the Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata) to make cordage and cordage, for example for the rigging of Viking-era longships be used .[20]

Commercial bark products include cork, cinnamon, quinine[21] (from cinchona bark)[22] and aspirin (from willow bark). The bark of some trees, particularly oak (Quercus robur), is a source of tannic acid used in tanning. Bark chips, which are a by-product of timber production, are commonly used in bark mulch in western North America. Bark is important to the horticultural industry because it is used in crushed form for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.[23]

Extraction of bark chips [ edit ]

Wood bark contains lignin; When pyrolyzed (exposed to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen), it yields a liquid bio-oil product rich in natural phenolic derivatives. The phenol derivatives are isolated and recovered for use as substitutes for fossil-based phenols in phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins used in oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood.[24]

Bark Removal[ edit ]

Cut logs are ignited either just before cutting or before curing. [clarification needed] Such trunks, and even trunks and branches found in their natural state of decay in forests where the bark has fallen off, are said to be debarked.

A number of living organisms live in or on bark, including insects,[25] fungi, and other plants such as mosses, algae, and other vascular plants. Many of these organisms are pathogens or parasites, but some also have symbiotic relationships.

Bark Repair[edit]

The extent to which trees are able to repair gross physical damage to their bark varies widely. Some are capable of producing a callus growth that heals quickly over the wound but leaves a noticeable scar, while others, like oaks, do not produce extensive callus repair. Frost cracking and sunburn are examples of damage to tree bark that trees can repair to some extent, depending on the severity.

The patterns left in the bark of a Chinese evergreen elm after repeated visits by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (woodpecker) in early 2012.

The self-repair of the Chinese evergreen elm shows new bark growth, lenticels and other self-repair of the holes made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (woodpecker) about two years earlier.

Alder bark (Alnus glutinosa) with characteristic lenticels and abnormal lenticels on calloused sites.

Sunburn damage to Sitka spruce

Gallery [ edit ]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Other references[edit]

This is one of the questions that smokers and grill masters constantly discuss. If you want to use wood for smoking, does it matter whether the bark is still attached to it or not?

Some claim that it doesn’t matter that the bark imparts no off-flavors at all. Others report a slightly bitter taste when the food has been smoked with bark wood. There is also an intermediate group that peels off the bark when it is easy to remove or is already peeling but otherwise leaves it alone. Finally, there are some who say they’ve never thought about it either way.

In short, it’s a matter of personal taste and convenience – at least mostly. In some cases, leaving the bark on can be risky. That’s because bark can absorb and retain dangerous chemicals as well as other pollutants. The contact doesn’t have to be new, either: even when chemical use has ceased, nearby tree bark can still contain high concentrations of residue built up by airborne particles. Therefore, if you plan to use wood for smoking and are unsure where it came from, or you know the trees were near a facility that uses a lot of chemicals, it’s a good idea to buy the wood remove bark before use.

Are there any other factors to consider when deciding whether or not to remove the bark? As mentioned above, personal taste can also play a role. Some people claim that the rind can impart a slightly bitter taste to food, while others say they don’t notice any difference at all. If the bark peels off easily, be sure to remove it. If it’s difficult to remove and you trust the wood source, you might want to leave it on just to see if you can taste the difference or not.

Finally, there are also some concerns about temperature control. Barkwood is known to cause more flare-ups than skinned wood due to the volatile texture of the bark itself. This is potentially detrimental to the finished product, as smoked foods taste best when the temperature remains constant throughout the long process. While minor flare-ups aren’t a cause for concern, it’s something to consider, especially if the bark has grown heavily due to moss or lichen.

“To bark or not to bark?” is just one of many questions in the ongoing debate about how to make the best smoked meat. Have fun experimenting!

Get the best types of firewood for smoking from the best firewood supplier in the area. Call Wisconsin Firewood at 414-769-9663 and we’ll point you in the right direction. We’re easy to find on the south side of Milwaukee.

So you have a new wood stove or outdoor fire pit that you want to get up and running. Or would you like to toast marshmallows on your planned camping trip? However, when building a wood fire it is important to remember that not every piece of wood is a good fuel.

You may already know that you shouldn’t burn junk like coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this can release toxic or harmful chemicals into the air. But even when choosing between two tree trunks, there are greener (and less green) options. Here are some tips for buying firewood.

Note: None of the advice below applies to netted or plastic wrapped bundles of firewood sold in stores and labeled as kiln dried or heat treated. If you only need a small amount of wood, commercial bagged firewood is often a good and safe choice as the high-quality hardwood burns hot and clean.

green wood

When a living tree is felled, the wood must age or “mature” for at least six to nine months before it can be burned. Freshly cut wood, called greenwood, is loaded with sap (usually water) and has to dry first. It is difficult to light and once it gets going it burns very efficiently and smokes horribly.

If you are unsure if the wood is green, ask the seller when it was cut. You can also check the bark: stuck bark that’s still caked with sap when scored is a bad sign.

Big wood

Jose Manuel Espinola Aguayo / EyeEm/getty

Don’t buy firewood that is too long to easily fit in your fireplace or fire pit. If it is more than 5 inches in diameter, you will need to recut or split it before you can use it. The work is great exercise, but if you just want a quick fire it’s definitely a drag.

Non-native wood

If you live in or are visiting an area currently affected by invasive wood pests, ask the seller where the wood was felled. If it has been cut or stored more than a few miles away, you should leave the firewood where it is and look further.

According to Leigh Greenwood, campaign manager of the Don’t Move Firewood campaign, firewood transported too far is the leading cause of the rapid spread of invasive insects and disease. These species include the emerald ash borer, the Asiatic longhorn beetle, and the gold-spotted oak borer.

Although the pests are slow to spread on their own, moving an infected log can endanger new forests and undermine conservation efforts. Millions of trees and thousands of hectares of forest have been seriously damaged or even killed by these non-native pests.

New outbreaks almost always originate in or near public campgrounds or are traced back to a homeowner who purchased firewood from an infested area. David Adkins, an inspection supervisor at the Ohio Department of Agriculture, says if you have any suspicions, only buy enough for a single fire and follow the “use all, burn all” rule.

“Don’t leave questionable wood lying around, and certainly don’t take one home from a campground that’s far away,” he says. If you are unsure if your area or nearby areas are affected, contact your state’s Department of Agriculture or visit Don’t Move Firewood to find out.

soft wood

Casarsa Getty Images

Ask the seller what kind of wood it is. Trees like pine, fir, or cypress have “soft” wood that burns quickly, leaves few chars, and produces a lot of smoke that can coat your chimney with soot (not a sure thing in the long run). Seasoned softwood is fine for outdoor fires, but you should avoid it if it’s a fireplace or you want a long-lasting fire or coals for cooking.

driftwood

JTSorrell Getty Images

Burning salt-saturated driftwood is a bad idea because it can release toxic or harmful chemicals when burned, according to the EPA. It’s probably safer to use your beach finds for decoration and mounted planters instead.

poisons

Watch out for wood covered in vines. Burning poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, or just about anything else with “poison” in its name, releases the irritating oil urushiol into the smoke. Inhaling it can cause lung irritation and serious allergic breathing problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

oleander

Oleander shrubs thrive in frost-free climates, and every part of it is poisonous. Definitely don’t burn it, and don’t even use a twig to toast your marshmallow on it.

Endangered Species

Charlene Sherman-Ragatz / EyeEm/getty

Blue ash, American chestnut, the Kentucky coffee tree: There are more than 20 endangered species of native trees in North America, and due to their rarity, you’re unlikely to find any in a batch of firewood for sale. However, you should double-check this list before hacking anything yourself.

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Whether it’s in a wood stove, a fire pit, or outdoors around the campground, you want a hot fire that heats up quickly. After all, that’s the number one reason for a fire, isn’t it? When you’re buying or preparing firewood for the burning season, you probably want to know – which firewood is the hottest?

Hardwood species like oak, maple, ash and most fruit trees give you the hottest burning and longest lasting coals for your buck. Hardwoods are denser than softwoods like pine, so they have more fuel to burn hotter and last longer.

For intense heat that will have you stepping back from the fire before you start sizzling like bacon in a skillet, you need a dry, dense wood that can hold a flame as hot as Mercury’s surface. Read on as we discuss 10 of the hottest burning firewoods and how long they will last on the fire!

Just to add – if you buy through Tree Journey’s links, we may earn affiliate commissions if you make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Determination of “sharpness” in firewood

We were all taught from an early age that “fire is hot,” whether it was because your parents drilled it into your head or because they made you learn by making your own mistakes. Determining how hot firewood is requires a slightly more scientific approach.

We use BTUs or British Thermal Units to measure heat from firewood, heaters or other heat sources. A BTU is the amount of thermal energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree.

For firewood, heat output is measured by how many BTUs are put out per string of wood. A string is the standard measurement for a load of firewood and is usually sold by the string. In terms of measurement, one cord of wood is equivalent to 128 cubic feet of split, stacked firewood (a 4′ x 4′ x 8′ log stack).

The 10 hottest burning firewoods

We assume that all of these types of firewood have been properly seasoned prior to burning. Properly seasoned usually means that the moisture content in the wood is around 20% moisture or less.

The only way to properly determine if firewood is properly seasoned is to use a moisture meter. This wood moisture meter is an inexpensive way to test the magic number of 20%.

All you have to do is stick the pins into the wood and you’ll get a digital reading of the moisture content in firewood and even some other materials.

Remember that you should always check the moisture content of firewood before using it.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the million dollar question of what is the hottest burning firewood? Not all of these firewoods are available for purchase, but if you happen to come across them or can chop them down yourself, consider yourself lucky.

10. Sugar Maple

There are many varieties of maple trees, from silver maple and red maple to sugar maple and bigleaf maple, there are about 125 different varieties. For this list, we’ll focus on the sugar maple as it is one of the hottest burning maple varieties.

Sugar maple is the same maple tree that makes the amazing morning syrup you spread over pancakes, French toast, and waffles. Once the tree is no longer suitable for syrup production, it makes excellent firewood, especially since you can probably harvest an entire cord of wood from just one tree.

Maple firewood is a great all-round firewood. It may not be as dense or as hot as others like oak and hickory, but it makes up for that by being readily available in most areas and relatively quick to season.

You don’t want maple to sit around for too long because when it gets too old it can start giving off an odd smell when burned.

Season your sugar maple for about six months and you’ll have a great, hot burning, long lasting wood that also gives you great flavor.

Some people report smelling maple syrup as it burns. The only bad thing about making your house smell like maple syrup is that it makes you want pancakes for dinner.

Properly seasoned sugar maple firewood saves around 24 million BTUs per string of wood. To put that in context, let’s put it next to a ton of coal, which in many areas is burned to generate electricity for communities.

A ton of coal moves 26 million BTUs; Considering that a string of wood can weigh about a ton, sugar maple firewood makes an excellent heating source.

9. Mulberry

If you’ve ever seen these trees or grown them on your property, you probably groaned a little. These trees are notorious for dropping tons of almost tasteless berries that resemble elongated blackberries.

You don’t want to walk through them because the purple sap will stain your shoes and everything you step on. You also never want to park near a mulberry tree because not only will you be splashing tons of berries all over your car, but birds will flock to these trees to eat the ripe berries, leaving purple and white droppings everywhere.

The berries can be eaten but don’t have much flavor. You can also use it to make jams, wines, and desserts, which are better since you usually add some flavor to them.

Mulberry trees grow everywhere like weeds because of their massive seed dispersal, and they are fast-growing trees.

The birds help with this by depositing seeds wherever they leave their droppings. But if you cut down and split that tree, you’ll have great firewood!

The only disadvantage of mulberry wood is that it takes a long time to mature. After being cut and split, it must mature for at least a year. Mulberry trees contain a lot of moisture in the wood, so it takes longer to season.

Mulberry wood, once properly seasoned, burns hot and it will burn for a long time without much smoke. It will hold a hotbed of coals that will last several hours as it is one of the slowest burning forests. Mulberry wood, like most fruitwoods, gives off a pleasant scent when burned, making it great for fireplaces and campfires.

The second contender on our hottest fuelwood list, mulberry wood, comes in at 25.8 million BTUs per strand of wood.

8. Black Birch

There are many types of birch wood that make excellent firewood, but black birch sidesteps all others to come out on top. Black birch can be identified by dark brown bark and glossy, dark green, serrated leaves that turn bright yellow in fall.

Black birches are a very dense birch species. It contains long, thick fibers in the wood that make for a hot-burning and very durable firewood.

The black birch doesn’t take long to mature, less than a year, so theoretically you could cut, dry and burn it in the same year. This firewood does not emit much smoke, does not throw many sparks and produces a sweet smelling aroma when burned.

As far as heat goes, black birch packs about 26.8 million BTUs into a cord of wood.

7. Applewood

Another wonderfully smelling wood that also produces scorching heat is applewood. Yes, the same tree that produces the fruit touted to keep the doctor away is a great source of heat.

However, Applewood is a bit difficult to find as it is more lucrative as a fruit producer. However, if you happen to come across any, you should definitely grab them.

Maybe a neighbor’s apple tree needs to be felled, or an orchard is replacing some of their trees, if so, it never hurts to ask if you could take the trees yourself to make firewood.

Not only is it great for heating your home, but the aromatic smoke it produces adds a delicious smoky flavor to meat. Anyone Applewood Smoked Bacon, Barbecue, or Chicken? Yes, please! Fill up my plate.

But as firewood to heat your home, it’s great. It takes about a year to burn in, but you won’t regret waiting that long because it produces great aroma and hot flames, and applewood will burn for a long time.

In the case of a fire, it will probably take between 5 and 6 hours from start to finish!

To jump up a notch, apple firewood comes in at a muggy 27 million BTUs per string of firewood.

I am a HUGE fan of apple trees overall as they are one of the least smoke producing trees overall!

6. Hornbeam

Hornbeam wood is one of those that is usually hard to come by because it is great firewood that is usually cut down before it gets too big or old.

They are particularly difficult to identify as they look incredibly similar to other trees. However, one of the telltale characteristics of hornbeams is the wavy appearance of the branches.

The limbs look like they have cords running under smooth bark. The leaves look very similar to birch leaves, except the spikes are slightly wider.

For some, these trees can also be difficult to split. In order not to fret, you may need to split the hornbeam with a hydraulic splitter if you have one.

Hornbeam firewood also takes a long time to burn in. This is very volatile firewood. If you have experience with avocados and wait for them to ripen, you will notice certain properties similar to hornbeam wood.

The wood takes a year to dry out in prime conditions, but it’s best to wait two seasons to dry the wood, but once it’s dry enough to burn, the wood tends to mold and go bad relatively quickly .

Like a green avocado, you wait forever for it to ripen, but when it does you have a tiny window of use before it turns into a brown, unappetizing mush.

For all its fickle characteristics, hornbeam is a wonderfully hot, long-lasting firewood.

A hornbeam charcoal bed glows bright orange and retains heat for many hours. The wood produces a scorching 27.1 million BTUs per cord, so it will help keep your house nice and warm!

5. Beech

Halfway through the list we find the majestic Beech. These trees can grow over 100 feet tall. So if you come across these giants, you could end up with a lot of firewood from just a single tree.

Beech firewood has a faint, nutty aroma when burned, but it really shines because of the intense heat it generates.

This is due to the low moisture content of the wood when it is finally fully aged. Most woods naturally dry to around 20% moisture; while beech can have a moisture content of 12% to 17%.

It is this low level of moisture that makes this firewood such a “hothead”. The only problem with beech for firewood is that if you fell it yourself, you have to age it for two years to get that particularly low moisture content.

If you season it for a year and then burn beech wood, there will likely be a lot more smoke coming out of the firewood than if you season it for another year.

Beech wood is also difficult to split, so it’s better to use a hydraulic splitter than a hammer or splitting axe.

You’ll be rewarded for your patience with a wood that burns 27.5 million BTUs per string of wood. Burning this wood in your fireplace or wood stove allows you to build the fire at night and when you wake up in the morning you still have a warm bed of coals to start a new fire!

4. Hickory wood

Hickory is fuelwood that is often readily available in many areas, growing along the East Coast of the United States, Canada, and in the Midwest regions. Hickory is also popular for furniture, tool handles, and flooring because of its incredible strength.

Hickory trees also produce nuts that deer, squirrels, and even humans enjoy.

However, as firewood, hickory is extremely difficult to beat. It is one of the best firewoods you can find for its heat, longevity and availability. Hickory firewood also produces a pleasant aroma that is used in many charcoals or chips for barbecue smokers.

Splitting this super dense wood will be a chore because it is very hard. I’ve seen people ricochet off tree trunks with a sharp axe. After everything is split it takes about a year to burn, but then you have some of the longest lasting and hottest burning firewood you can find anywhere.

Hickory firewood doesn’t spit many sparks and produces very little smoke. A string of hickory firewood produces approximately 28.5 million BTUs of heat.

If you have some of these trees on your property or can find some to chop down, they will provide plenty of warmth for those bone cold winters.

Check out our full list of slowest burning firewoods if you want something that burns longer, not just hotter!

3. Black grasshopper

Next on our list we have the black locust. This tree is one of the fastest growing trees, which is rather unusual as it is still a very dense tree. Most fast-growing trees are softwoods like pines or other evergreen species.

In fact, black locust grows so fast that it is considered an invasive species in many areas. Simply cutting them off is usually not enough to keep them under control. Some people have resorted to herbicides to get rid of their black locusts.

The National Resources Conservation Service has this to say about the invasiveness of black locust; When black locust are introduced to an area, they cast a wide shade web that starves other sun-loving plants. These trees can become so dense that very little ground vegetation grows beneath them.

This can help you when looking for good firewood as neighbors or people involved with these trees will likely let you in and cut them down for them.

Although the black locust is so dense, it splits easily. You won’t struggle with a block all day. It only needs to be stored for a year before burning, and once it’s done you’ll have top quality firewood. I hear you say, “I can feel a ‘but’ coming,” and you’re right…

Black locust trees have many long, sharp thorns on their leafy branches. When dealing with this wood, you need to wear some protective gloves, such as Take these durable leather ranch and fencing gloves from Wells Lamont. These thick leather gloves protect you from the thorns of the black locust.

After dealing with the insidious thorns, you end up with firewood that yields a whopping 29.3 million BTUs per string of wood.

With the right equipment and an extra step or two of caution, black locust firewood is truly a difficult firewood to cut.

2. White Oak

Whatever type of oak you burn for firewood, you can’t go wrong. Oak firewood is, in my humble opinion, the king of firewood. It may not be as hot as the top firewood, or it may not smell sweet like applewood or cherry, but for everything else, oak is best all around.

Now we say white oak simply because it has been proven that white oak makes better firewood than red oak.

Overall, it’s also better than most other firewoods due to its natural abundance!

Other woods burn hotter, others burn longer, but not by much. What sets oak above all others is the availability, ease of splitting, low smoke, heat and longevity of an oak fire.

Oak firewood is a firewood that lasts all night. Once you have a good bed of coals, you can put on a few new logs, go to bed, and then wake up with embers that are still warm and easy to rekindle.

White oak takes a year to mature. It holds a lot of moisture and takes a full season to lose enough of that moisture to make a good fire. Wet or green wood usually smokes a lot, doesn’t give off as much heat, and is harder to burn than properly seasoned firewood.

White oak tops the list of oaks for heat output. Most oak gives off a ton of heat when burned, but white oak tops the list with a staggering 30.7 million BTUs of heat per strand of wood.

You can check our full list of the best oak trees for firewood here for more detailed information!

1. Osage Orange

Coming to the top of the hottest firewoods list we come to a competitor that isn’t widely available, it’s a hassle to split and doesn’t get very big, but if you want heat as hot as Hades toe, You can never go wrong with Osage Orange.

Another name for this tree is horse apple, but it is neither an orange nor an apple tree. It produces green, grapefruit-sized, wrinkled, fibrous fruits that produce a sticky, latex-like juice when cut or crushed.

Many people consider this tree a nuisance because of the large fruits that animals do not want to eat and end up everywhere. It has thorns, and when felled, the tree quickly sprouts many thorny offshoots and continues to grow.

Osage orange wood is so dense that if you’re chopping down a single tree, you’ll need to bring some extra, sharpened chains because you’re going to need them.

You should also split it as soon as possible, as the wood dries it becomes more difficult to split.

If you’ve been able to cut and split a few strings of oranges for firewood, let them season for about a year. Some say you can burn it after six months, but I’d let it wait a few more months just to be sure.

When burning this wood, it gets insanely hot. Some people have reported damage to their wood stoves when burning this firewood.

If you’re using Osage Orange for firewood, it’s best to supplement with something that doesn’t burn quite as hot as cherry. Otherwise burn it outside on a campfire to keep the chilly night away.

However, this firewood is definitely not firewood. Osage Orange is putting off a sparkling show of sparks akin to a Fourth of July celebration. All of the previous firewoods on this list very rarely sparkle or crackle, but the horse apple tree throws sparks constantly.

According to Nebraska Game and Parks, dried, seasoned Osage orange wood produced the highest amount of BTUs of any native tree. However, when the wood burns, it produces a significant amount of sparks.

Even if you season Osage Orange properly, it will leave a thick, sticky juice. That’s what causes the sparks. As the wood burns, the sap also burns and crackles, throwing off a constant show of sparks.

While Osage Orange Wood puts out a staggering 32.9 million BTUs of heat per wire, it also throws fireworks full of sparks.

Osage Orange is the unstoppable heat monster when it comes to firewood, but with all those sparks, you’re better off going with white oak firewood. See why I said oak is the king of firewood? Wink, wink.

That’s a wrap!

Whether you’re using the firewood in a wood stove, in your fireplace for extra warmth, or outside by a campfire, these firewoods are sure to keep you warm for hours.

Even with average firewood, you’re getting about 20 million BTUs per cord, which will surely keep your home warm. But if you’re looking for firewood that will fend off the winter chills like a champion prizefighter, you can’t go wrong with white oak, hickory, black locust, beech, or any other firewood on this list.

Good luck on your firewood journey!

references

Abbot P, Lowore J, Khofi C, & Werren M (1997). Fuelwood Quality Definition: A Comparison of Quantitative and Rapid Assessment Techniques for Evaluating Fuelwood Species from a South African Savannah. Biomass and Bioenergy, 12(6), 429-437.

Basham, Elizabeth. The West Virginia Friends of Firewood Network: Engaging with and researching the practices of firewood producers. West Virginia University, 2013.

Zou, L.Y., Zhang, W., & Atkiston, S. (2003). The characterization of emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the burning of different fuelwood species in Australia. Pollution, 124(2), 283-289.

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Wood chips are multifunctional and versatile. Here are the best uses for woodchips from a chipper:

Mulch for Landscaping Composting Covering Mud Grilling and Smoking Food Making Pathways Animal Bedding Playground Cushions Making Fires Erosion Control Building Raised Beds Growing Mushrooms

Don’t know what to do with wood chips from the hacker? Are you thinking of throwing them away?

Before you do that, you should read my 12 best uses for woodchips!

We throw things away quickly without ever trying to find an alternative use for them. Wood chips may look useless, but in reality they are every gardener’s gold.

Want to find out how to make them your gold too? Continue reading! The best uses for wood chips are listed and explained below.

The 12 best uses for wood chips from a chipper

Use wood chips as mulch

One of the best and easiest ways to use wood chips is to use them as mulch in your garden and landscaping.

Benefits of using wood chips as mulch

Wood chips bring many benefits to the soil. They help regulate temperature by keeping it warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

Wood chips absorb water and help the soil retain moisture, even in summer. By using wood chips as mulch, you don’t have to water your prized plants as often and lower your water bill.

Last but not least, wood chips naturally decompose, improving the nutrient content and soil texture.

To get all of these benefits, place a 3-inch layer of wood shavings around your shrubs and on top of your flower bed. Just stay away from the base of the plants to allow the stems to grow and breathe.

Things to watch out for when using wood chips as a mulch

Just be careful that wood chips can cause nitrogen deficiencies in plants with shallow roots, such as seedlings and annuals. I recommend putting a layer of fall leaves on the bottom before mulching. Leaves protect the roots and provide essential nitrogen to plants in need.

I also don’t recommend using wood chips on disease-prone plants like tomatoes and roses. These easily contract fungal spores, which tend to live in wood.

You also shouldn’t worry about mulch made from woodchips attracting insects. Mulch provides a home for many beneficial creepy crawlies like earthworms, ladybugs, and spiders.

But what about termites? Mulch won’t attract termites, but it can provide a home for them if you already have them. This only becomes an issue if you have mulch right by your house. You can try to eradicate them with this termite killer if you notice them.

Want to know how to get rid of termites in mulch? Click here for more on the subject.

Watch this video to discover more reasons to use wood chips:

Turn wood chips into rich compost

Taking from nature and never giving back is a bad trade. Turning wood chips into rich compost is an amazing and clever way to give back.

How to compost wood chips

Converting woodchips into compost takes time and patience. Wood is a tougher material that takes longer to decompose than food scraps, grass clippings, and leaves.

Adding wood chips to your compost bin or pile will temporarily slow down the decomposition of all compost. That’s why it’s important to make your wood chips as fine as possible to speed things up.

Feed your compost pile gradually if you have a lot of wood chips on your hands. Also, make sure you add enough nitrogen-rich waste to the compost as well. This way you don’t throw the composting process off balance.

It’s worth the wait! Woodchips add a lot of carbon to your compost, making your soil ready to bear fruit and vegetables season after season.

Lay sidewalks and paths

Thinking of running paving stone walkways through your yard? Try reusing wood chips instead!

How to make a walkway out of wood chips

Laying a walkway out of wood chips is not difficult at all. Simply place 5 to 6 inches of wood shavings between raised plant beds, rocks, or any other path boundary you create. This way your wood chips will not spill onto your grass.

That’s it! You are done! What an amazing organic and eco-friendly idea!

Of course, you’ll have to refill your paths with fresh chips every year as the old ones start to crumble. But that shouldn’t be a problem, because wood chippers are in full swing every spring and autumn.

Not sure if your old shredder will make it through this season? Find a new one with my best shredder reviews.

You can create wood chip walkways between your garden beds to keep your boots muddy, or connect different landscape areas to give them an artistic look. It’s your decision! Get even more inspiration for your entrance area here.

Best of all, wood chips prevent weeds from growing—you just need to lay them thick enough. Even paving stones can fall victim to weeds! If you are looking for a safe and organic solution to your weed problem, I recommend trying ECO Garden PRO Weed & Grass Killer.

solution to soil erosion

Wood chips are a great temporary solution to soil erosion. Use them to create a barrier in areas where your lawn is being eroded by heavy rain and wind.

Build up low areas of soil by working wood chips into the soil. The wood chips will soak up water and hold the floor in place.

Of course, this is not a permanent solution to soil erosion. Wood chips decompose over time and lose their grip. If you come up with a better solution, collect the used wood chips and add them to No products found as a high-carbon “brown”.

Use wood chips to cover up mud

Do you have a lot of unsightly mud on your lawn? Instead of trying to sow Bermuda grass over the affected areas for the tenth time, you can try to cover it with a thick layer of wood shavings.

Problem solved!

Wood chips are free and multifunctional. They will slowly biodegrade so you will be mud free for several years.

Wood chips add another natural element to your garden and make it look dynamic. With wood chips of different types and colors, you can let your creativity run wild and create pretty shapes on your lawn. Decorate the area with herbs and potted plants and you have a pretty botanical centerpiece.

Click here for more ideas!

And here are some other clever ways to cover up mud in your yard.

Build raised beds

Wood chips are an excellent natural material for building “lasagne” raised beds. They can be used as a nutrient rich filler for your raised beds.

Lasagna beds are simply made from layered brown and green materials to allow for on-site composting. Wood chips act as the “brown” carbon-rich layer, while “nitrogen-rich green materials” include grass clippings, food scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, and animal dung.

Use wood chips for smoking and grilling

If you love cooking outdoors, you’ll love this idea!

You can use different types of wood chips for grilling and smoking. Different types of wood chips impart different smoke flavors to your meat. Here are some classic options to experiment with:

If you’ve never tried smoking food before, you can get started with this beginner-friendly steel charcoal smoker. You will love it!

Use for animal litter

Is straw too expensive in your area? Do not worry! You can use wood chips as animal litter.

Wood chips are a cheap alternative to straw. They can be used as bedding for cattle, horses and other livestock.

Wood chips are hygienic and generate very little, if any, dust, keeping your livestock clean and healthy.

This type of natural bedding is best when the moisture content of the woodchips is kept at around 20 percent. Keeping an eye on moisture is easy with this wood moisture meter from Tavool. It will help you keep track of your game.

Before using wood chips as bedding for the first time, consult a veterinarian or other expert in the field.

Put wood chips in your chicken coop

Are you running out of material for your chicken coop? Have you tried it with wood chips?

Wood chips are an excellent upholstery material. But you can’t use just any type!

You should only use hardwood shavings for a chicken run. Bark, pine, and other softwoods are not safe for your flock as some of these types of materials can attract harmful mold or cause bumblebees.

By using safe hardwood, you can quickly solve the mud problem in your chicken coop. Lay out the material 2 inches thick. They will make the area look more appealing and give chickens something to peck and rummage through.

Rake up old wood chips and replace with new ones when the flooring needs a refresh. But don’t throw it away! Add it to your compost pile as it is high in chicken manure.

Use wood chips for fire

Did you know that you can use dry wood chips as fuel for your small camping stove?

Wood shavings may not work well in traditional wood stoves, but they sure can ignite a flame in any small stove that works with sticks and twigs. I especially like this one from Amazon.

You can also use wood chips for your gazebo with a fire pit inside. Just make sure you follow all the safety precautions that you can read about here.

It’s never been easier to roast marshmallows late into the night!

Use wood chips as playground padding

Do you have a small playground in your garden for your children? You can make her little corner safer by padding the bottom with wood shavings.

Wood chips can be used as padding material under jungle gyms and swings. Wood chips level the uneven ground and create a softer surface to fall on. We all know how painful it is to fall on concrete and pavement.

Most importantly, wood shavings keep your yard from becoming a muddy mess from all those busy little feet running around.

Use wood chips to grow mushrooms

Have you ever thought about growing mushrooms? You can! Use wood chips to grow mushrooms at home.

Wood chips are one of the natural substrates that fungi like to grow on.

Some species love to grow on tree trunks, others on sawdust, and some even on coffee grounds.

Of course, there are also those who prefer woodchips to everything else, like vinecap mushrooms, also known as garden giants.

How to build a mushroom garden

To get you started, you must first purchase a Wine Cap Mushroom Spawn, which you can purchase on Amazon.

Soak your wood chips in a barrel of water for a week. Hardwood shavings work best. Avoid using softwood, pine, and other softwoods unless they have aged well or make up only a small portion of the total mushroom patch.

After that, you can dig a 4-inch deep hole in the ground in a shady spot, preferably under the base of a tree.

Place cardboard in the bottom of the hole and place wood chips on top.

Break open the brood and sprinkle them over the wood shavings. Now cover it with another layer of scraps.

All you have to do is water your little mushroom garden occasionally during dry weather and wait for the mushrooms to start growing.

You will learn more about how to grow and harvest mushrooms from this video:

FAQ

Are wood chips good for the garden? Wood chips are good for the garden. A building material for raised beds, they prevent soil erosion and suppress weed growth. However, they are coarse and should not be used near seedlings and plants with shallow root systems.

Which wood chips are bad for the garden? Wood chips that are generally bad for the garden are black walnut, tree of heaven, and eucalyptus. These trees leach chemicals that can suppress seed germination or kill seedlings when it comes to some vegetables.

Is it okay to use fresh wood chips as a mulch? According to some farming experts, using fresh woodchips as mulch is not okay. A thick layer of fresh mulch placed directly on top of the soil can result in a loss of nitrogen from the soil. Allow the fresh wood chips to mature for at least 3 months before using them as mulch in your garden.

Do woodchips become dirt? Wood chips become dirt through the decomposition process. You can add wood chips to your nitrogen-rich compost pile and watch them slowly biodegrade into substrate over the course of four or more years.

Do wood chips kill grass? Wood chips will only kill weed if applied thickly. By laying 12 inches of wood chips on a mowed lawn you can kill it completely to create a garden, but light layers of mulch will not damage your grass.

Turn wood chips into your newfound gold

Now you know exactly what you can do with wood chips using my 12 ideas. Wood shavings are often someone’s junk, but you can make it your treasure with a little creativity.

Together we saw that wood chips have many uses. They can be used as a mulch, added to your No products found or make you the second best meat smoker in town with this Realcook smoker.

These are just some of the uses I found. Do you have any in mind? Let me know in the comments below and don’t hesitate to ask any questions!

Last update on 07/26/2022 at 09:59 am / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Wood Chips as Fuel – Benefits of Using a Wood Chip Boiler

More and more people are looking for safe, flexible and affordable ways to heat their home or business while reducing their carbon footprint. Outdoor biomass boilers are a not-so-new technology that is growing in popularity due to its environmental benefits and low maintenance requirements.

Because trees and other plants are readily available renewable fuel sources, biomass stoves also offer flexibility and energy security. Wood chips are a common biomass fuel source that provides a high return at a low cost.

Let’s explore what they are and what benefits they offer.

What are wood chips?

Woodchips are considered the cheapest fuel to heat your home or business as it is residual wood derived from sustainable wood waste products.

The production of wood chips, which is made by running small pieces of wood through a shredder, is a highly automated process that can be done relatively inexpensively and with little effort. Dry wood chips have a higher calorific value per ton because more water is removed from them and they are more resistant to mold and other storage problems.

Wood chips are graded according to quality, with Class A being the highest quality and Class D being the lowest quality. Each variety differs in energy content, moisture, ash content, uniformity and degree of contamination.

Burning wood chips in an outdoor boiler

Wood chip boilers function like other outdoor gasification furnaces, efficiently burning fuel to heat large spaces through radiant heating or forced air systems. It can also heat water for hot showers, pools, hot tubs or commercial applications. The wood chips are ignited and then burned with little oxygen, creating smoke which is then burned at high temperatures. The energy from this two-stage process then heats water in the boiler’s outer jacket. The heated water is sent to your hot water system or furnace where the heat is distributed through a series of exchange systems.

Wood chips versus logs

Wood, whether logs, wood pellets or chips, is an excellent fuel for heating your home or business. Traditional firewood is the most common way we heat our homes, but it can have its downsides. Wood chips have some distinct advantages, especially if you have large spaces to heat. Easy to find and use

Producing logs for firewood is a lot of work. Unless you pay the extra cost of having someone else do the chopping, hauling, and stacking of all that time and energy that falls on you. In addition, firewood boilers have to be filled by hand more regularly. Woodchips are often easier to find in your area depending on where you live. In fact, you might be able to support yourself if you have access to wood and a chipper.

comfort and convenience

Firewood needs space and time to dry and season. For applications that require a lot of energy – barns, outbuildings or commercial spaces – it takes up a lot of space to have enough firewood available to generate the required energy output. In addition, logs must be loaded more frequently.

With an automated wood chip system, you don’t have to worry about refilling fuel all the time. Wood chips can be set up to be automatically loaded into the biomass stove and monitored remotely.

Economically

Because wood chips are made from leftover branches, tree tops, or sawmill waste, they are not subject to the vagaries of a fluctuating fuel market. It is also readily available and provides more power at a lower cost. Wood chip outdoor stoves have low running costs, reaching efficiencies of up to 90 percent, meaning you get more out of the fuel you buy.

The HeatMastersss Advantage

HeatMasters engineers know that a worry-free heating system is invaluable. Making an affordable, high quality product is the goal of everything we do. Our B-Series multi-fuel biomass stove is designed to give you unlimited heat and hot water in large spaces and applications at a low price.

Our highly efficient design ensures each outdoor stove produces maximum heat using less fuel than traditional systems. Constructed of titanium stainless steel, our outdoor biomass stoves resist corrosion and withstand higher sustained temperatures for unmatched durability.

And with full automation, the HeatMasterss B-Series makes your life easier. The automatic fuel igniter produces a very hot burn, allowing the HeatMasterss stove to respond quickly to your needs. And the automatic fuel feed and walking fire grate ensure your biomass fuel is transported with ease.

Speak to our team about the benefits of an outdoor wood chip heater to see if it’s right for you and your family – find a local HeatMasterss dealer near you.

Outermost layers of stems and roots of trees and shrubs

Mangifera indica) with bark of ripe mango) with lichen growth

Pinus thunbergii consists of innumerable shiny layers. The bark consists of innumerable shiny layers.

Bark is the outermost layer of the stems and roots of trees. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Cortex refers to all tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a non-technical term.[1] It covers the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner bark, which is living tissue in older tribes, comprises the innermost layer of the periderm. The outer bark of older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with portions of the outermost periderm and any tissues on the outside of the periderm. The outer bark of trees, which lies outside the living periderm, is also known as the rhytidome.

Bark-derived products include bark clapboard siding and wall coverings, spices and other flavorings, tannin for tannin, resin, latex, medicines, poisons, various hallucinogenic chemicals, and cork. Bark was used to make cloth, canoes, and rope, and was used as a surface for paintings and map making.[2] A number of plants are also grown for their attractive or interesting bark coloration and surface textures, or their bark is used as landscape mulch.

Botanical description [ edit ]

Cork cell walls contain suberin, a waxy substance that protects the stem from water loss, insect invasion of the stem, and prevents infection from bacteria and fungal spores.[5] The cambium tissues, i. H. the cork cambium and vascular cambium, are the only parts of a woody stem where cell division occurs; Undifferentiated cells in the vascular cambium divide rapidly to produce secondary inward xylem and secondary outward phloem. Phloem is a nutrient-conducting tissue composed of sieve tubes or sieve cells interspersed with parenchyma and fibers. The bark is the primary tissue of stems and roots. In stems, the bark lies between the epidermal layer and the phloem, in roots the inner layer is not the phloem but the pericycle.

tree cross section diagram

From the outside to the inside of a mature log, the layers include the following:[6]

Bark of a pine tree in Tecpán, Guatemala.

In young trunks, which lack the so-called bark, the tissues are, from the outside in:

Epidermis, which can be replaced by periderm Cortex Primary and secondary phloem Vascular cambium Secondary and primary xylem.

As the stem ages and grows, changes occur that turn the surface of the stem into the bark. The epidermis is a layer of cells that covers the plant body, including the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit, that protects the plant from the outside world. In ancient strains, the epidermal layer, bark, and primary phloem are separated from the internal tissues by thicker cork formations. As the cork layer thickens, these cells die because they are deprived of water and nutrients. This dead layer is the rough cork bark that forms around tree trunks and other stems.

Periderm[edit]

Damaged bark of a cherry tree

A secondary covering called the periderm often forms on small logs and many non-woody plants and consists of cork (phellem), the cork cambium (phellogen), and the phelloderm. The periderm forms from the phellogen, which serves as the lateral meristem. The periderm replaces the epidermis and, like the epidermis, acts as a protective covering. Mature phellem cells have suberin in their walls to protect the stem from desiccation and attack by pathogens. Older phellem cells are dead, as is the case with woody stems. The skin of the potato tuber (which is an underground stalk) forms the cork of the periderm.[7][8]

In woody plants, the epidermis of newly grown stems is replaced by the periderm later in the year. As the stems grow, a layer of cells called the cork cambium forms under the epidermis. These cells produce cork cells, which turn into cork. A limited number of layers of cells called phelloderma can form inside the cork cambium. As the stem grows, the cork cambium produces new layers of cork impermeable to gases and water, and the cells outside the periderm, namely the epidermis, cortex, and older secondary phloem, die.[9]

Inside the periderm are lenticels, which form during the formation of the first layer of the periderm. Because there are living cells within the cambium layers that need to exchange gases during metabolism, these lenticels allow gas exchange with the outside atmosphere due to their numerous cell interstices. As the bark develops, new lenticels form in the cracks in the layers of cork.

Rhytidomes[edit]

The rhytidome is the most well known part of the bark as it is the outer layer that covers the tree trunks. It consists mainly of dead cells and is produced by the formation of multiple layers of suberized peridermal, cortical, and phloem tissue.[10] The rhytidome is particularly well developed in older trunks and roots of trees. In shrubs, older bark flakes off quickly and thick rhytidome accumulates.[11] It is generally thickest and most prominent at the trunk or trunk (the area from the ground to the beginning of the main branching) of the tree.

Chemical composition [ edit ]

Cortical tissues represent between 10 and 20% by weight of lignified vascular plants and are composed of various biopolymers, tannins, lignin, suberin, suberan, and polysaccharides.[12] Up to 40% of cortical tissue is made up of lignin, which is an important component of a plant and provides structural support through cross-linking between various polysaccharides such as cellulose.[12]

Condensed tannin, which is found in fairly high concentrations in bark tissue, is thought to inhibit decomposition.[12] This could be due to the fact that the degradation of lignin in bark tissue is far less pronounced than in wood. It has been suggested that suberin in the cork layer (the phellogen) acts as a barrier against microbial degradation, thus protecting the internal structure of the plant.[12][13]

Analysis of the lignin in the bark wall during decay by the white-rot fungus Lentinula edodes (Shiitake fungus) by 13C NMR revealed that the lignin polymers contained more guaiacyl-lignin units than syringyl units compared to the interior of the plant.[12] Guajacyl units are less prone to degradation because they contain fewer aryl–aryl bonds, can form a condensed lignin structure, and have a lower redox potential compared to syringyl.[14] This could mean that the concentration and type of lignin units could provide additional resistance to fungal attack for bark-protected plants.[12]

Used[edit]

Cork, colloquially sometimes confused with bark, is the outermost layer of a woody stem descended from the cork cambium. It serves as protection against damage from parasites, herbivores and diseases, as well as against dehydration and fire. Cork can contain antiseptics like tannins that protect against fungal and bacterial attack that would cause rot.

Pine bark was used as emergency food in Finland during the famine, most recently during and after the civil war in 1918.

On some plants, the bark is significantly thicker, providing additional protection and giving the bark a characteristic prominent structure with deep ridges. In the cork oak (Quercus suber) the bark is thick enough to be harvested as a cork product without killing the tree;[15] in this species the bark can become very thick (e.g. more than 20 cm have been reported[ 16]). . Some barks can be removed in long leaves; The smooth bark of birch trees was used as a covering in the manufacture of canoes, as a drainage layer in roofs, for shoes, backpacks, and so on. The best-known example of the use of birch bark for canoes are the birch canoes of North America. [17]

The inner bark (phloem) of some trees is edible; In Scandinavia, bark bread is made from rye to which the roasted and ground innermost layer of bark of Scots pine or birch is added. The Sami people of the far north of Europe used large leaves of Pinus sylvestris bark, which were removed in spring, prepared and stored for use as a staple food, and the inner bark was eaten fresh, dried, or roasted.

Some stem barks have a significantly different phytochemical content than other parts. Some of these phytochemicals have pesticidal properties.[19]

Mechanical bark processing[ edit ]

Bark contains strong fibers known as bast, and there is a long tradition in northern Europe of using bark from young branches of the Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata) to make cordage and cordage, for example for the rigging of Viking-era longships be used .[20]

Commercial bark products include cork, cinnamon, quinine[21] (from cinchona bark)[22] and aspirin (from willow bark). The bark of some trees, particularly oak (Quercus robur), is a source of tannic acid used in tanning. Bark chips, which are a by-product of timber production, are commonly used in bark mulch in western North America. Bark is important to the horticultural industry because it is used in crushed form for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.[23]

Extraction of bark chips [ edit ]

Wood bark contains lignin; When pyrolyzed (exposed to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen), it yields a liquid bio-oil product rich in natural phenolic derivatives. The phenol derivatives are isolated and recovered for use as substitutes for fossil-based phenols in phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins used in oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood.[24]

Bark Removal[ edit ]

Cut logs are ignited either just before cutting or before curing. [clarification needed] Such trunks, and even trunks and branches found in their natural state of decay in forests where the bark has fallen off, are said to be debarked.

A number of living organisms live in or on bark, including insects,[25] fungi, and other plants such as mosses, algae, and other vascular plants. Many of these organisms are pathogens or parasites, but some also have symbiotic relationships.

Bark Repair[edit]

The extent to which trees are able to repair gross physical damage to their bark varies widely. Some are capable of producing a callus growth that heals quickly over the wound but leaves a noticeable scar, while others, like oaks, do not produce extensive callus repair. Frost cracking and sunburn are examples of damage to tree bark that trees can repair to some extent, depending on the severity.

The patterns left in the bark of a Chinese evergreen elm after repeated visits by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (woodpecker) in early 2012.

The self-repair of the Chinese evergreen elm shows new bark growth, lenticels and other self-repair of the holes made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker (woodpecker) about two years earlier.

Alder bark (Alnus glutinosa) with characteristic lenticels and abnormal lenticels on calloused sites.

Sunburn damage to Sitka spruce

Gallery [ edit ]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Other references[edit]

Q: My wife and I just bought our first home, complete with a wood-burning fireplace. We’re excited, but don’t know exactly what kind of wood to stock. What do you recommend?

A: Congratulations on your new home and fireplace. The ambient light and cozy warmth make even the coldest nights a pleasure. On a practical level, a wood-burning fireplace can also help you reduce your heating bills a bit and will certainly come in handy in the event of a power outage.

Comparison of firewood by thermal energy

Different types of firewood produce different amounts of thermal energy. Measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs), the heat energy of firewood boils down to the amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. Wood species that release higher BTUs per volume of wood produce a greater amount of heat.

Hard and soft firewood

Hardwood from deciduous trees produces more thermal energy than softwood from evergreen trees or conifers in most cases. Hardwoods like oak and beech are dense so they will burn longer and with less smoke when properly seasoned compared to softwoods. Hardwoods also produce beneficial hot coals that give off radiant heat for longer periods than softwoods, which burn quickly to ash.

Green wood vs seasoned wood

Another important factor when comparing the heating energy of firewood is the moisture content. Green wood, which holds more moisture than seasoned wood, produces less heat and a lot more smoke – not what most people want in the home! Seasoned, completely dry firewood is the best wood to burn in your fireplace or wood stove.

Hardwood, which is denser and typically more expensive than softwood, takes longer to season, typically one to two years, but the heat energy trade-off is well worth it.

RELATED: Solved! The right way to light a fireplace

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Wood burning safety tips

When you burn wood, but especially when you burn wood indoors, always think about safety. The following tips will help you with this.

Choose wood that offers maximum burn time while minimizing creosote build-up.

If left unchecked, your chimney walls will become coated with creosote – the highly flammable, black-brown tar residue from wood burning. This resin lining inside the chimney restricts airflow and creates a fire hazard. Creosote is also toxic and can negatively impact your health. So while you can clean a chimney with creosote remover to reduce the risk of chimney fires, it’s advisable to use wood, which produces less of the harmful substance.

In general, hardwoods like oak, ash, and beech are more difficult to light, but they last a long time.

Softwoods like fir, pine, and cedar make more smoke and therefore more creosote. However, these evergreens contain fragrant resins and oils that easily ignite even without a lighter and are perfect for lighting up. You can also try a commercial brand like Fatwood Fire-Starter ($49.95 for a 35-pound box at Plow & Hearth).

Always burn wood that is dry to the touch and seasoned (prepared for burning by allowing excess moisture to fully evaporate).

Freshly cut green wood produces more smoke, making it dangerous, especially indoors. And only burn logs that fit easily in your fireplace or wood stove. Logs larger than five inches in diameter should be split before use. If you’re cutting your own wood, remember that it can take anywhere from six months to two years to fully dry, depending on the species. Wood purchased from a supplier should be fully seasoned and ready for use.

Buy well in advance of the winter onset.

There is no fixed cost for firewood; The price fluctuates based on market factors including weather, supply and demand. A cord is the standard unit of measure for firewood and equals 128 cubic feet. Some vendors also sell smaller quantities called “face cords”. A cord can cost at least $225 for softwoods like fir. Mixed woods and hardwoods cost about $300-$600 per cord.

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While you can buy firewood online, it’s best to find a reputable local supplier.

This saves shipping costs and prevents environmental damage. For example, purchasing specific varieties from other states or countries may result in invasive species being imported into your area.

RELATED: Solved! Why mounting a TV above a fireplace is a mistake

The best types of wood for indoor fireplaces

Now that you have the basics down, here are the facts about the best wood for the fireplace.

1. Oak is one of the densest and most energetic woods, making it a gold standard for log fires.

The available heat content in firewood is measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs). Depending on the subspecies, an oak cord can contain 24 to 39 million BTUs. Oak wood burns on a low flame and produces a steady, hot fire. Freshly cut oak can take a year or two to dry, so make sure you buy fully seasoned logs. Look for signs of dryness including radial cracks, dull color and odor, and loose bark.

Like all hardwoods, oak takes much longer to grow than softer woods like pine or birch. Many old-growth forests are endangered, so you’ll want to make sure your hardwoods are sustainably sourced. Look for Forest Stewardship Council certification, which sets forest management standards internationally and in the United States. Remember that oaks reproduce very slowly: only about 1 in 10,000 acorns will become an oak! The best practice is to vary your firewood sources, using hardwoods like oak in the winter and softer woods in the fall and spring.

2. Ash is one of the best overall choices, preferred for its ease of use.

It has an easy to split grain, low smoke content and a long lasting burn speed. Ash is harder to source than oak, so contact a local supplier and ask if they include ash in their mixed wood cords – and how much it costs. Complement ash with other hardwoods like ironwood, elm, hickory, oak, maple, walnut and beech.

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Ash’s low moisture content means it doesn’t require a long drying time, but settled ash is still the safest and most durable choice for an indoor fire. Seasoned logs smoke less and form less creosote. When buying tree trunks, look for grey, dusty bark and lighter, whitish wood.

3. Douglas Fir is one of the most popular softwoods for home fires and is abundant throughout North America.

Because of their rapid growth rate, Douglas firs are a preferred choice for reforestation efforts – making it easier to find sustainably sourced firewood. Douglas fir is also an energy-rich softwood. A pine cord contains about 26 BTU. Fir splits easily and produces moderate, even heat. It’s an excellent choice all year round, and nothing beats its mild, evergreen scent during the holidays. Check with a local supplier for availability and price.

4. Fruit woods such as apple, cherry and pear produce hot, fragrant fires.

These hardwoods have low flames and generate high temperatures. Their energy content ranges from 20 to 26 million BTUs per cable. Fruitwoods are great for the home fireplace, as well as outdoor grills and grills (cooks enjoy the tangy, smoky apple and cherry flavor they impart to meats and vegetables). Applewood fires in the home are particularly notable for their sweet, inviting scent.

Apple, cherry and pear are considered specialty woods and are mainly used for special occasions such as a dinner party or holiday. Commercial orchards are the primary source of fruitwoods, as fruit trees rarely grow in abundance in the wild, so their main downside is price: J.C.’s Smoking Wood Sticks, for example, are available on Amazon for $39.99 for an 11-pound box. Consider contacting a local orchard or firewood supplier, especially if you plan to use fruitwood for heating rather than just grilling.

5. For milder fall and spring weather, choose a lower heat and faster-burning softwood like birch.

However, birch is a northern species and is used by many people for warmth even in winter. As a softwood, birch has a high energy content — about 20 million BTUs per string, comparable to hardwoods like walnut and cherry. Birch fires contain beautiful blue flames, and the logs themselves are decorative, with silvery bark that can complement your home decor.

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Depending on whether you use black, yellow or white birch, the burn time and heat level will vary. The most important consideration is the dryness of the trunks. Firewood should not contain more than 15 to 20 percent moisture. With softwoods such as birch, this means a maturing process of at least three to six months.

RELATED: How to Clean a Chimney

Follow your state’s laws and guidelines for purchasing firewood.

This firewood map tells you exactly what to look for in your locale, including pest information. You can also check the USDA’s plant database to make sure you’re not accidentally buying an endangered species. Oleander and poisoned species of oak, ivy and sumac should never be burned as they release toxic substances.

Never burn these types of firewood inside

Moldy or rotten wood

green wood

driftwood

Poisonous wood (e.g. poison oak, poison oak)

Indoor fireplace maintenance tips

Chimney maintenance checklist to complete every fall

How to clean a chimney

How to prevent chimney fires

Q:

Between the job sites and the workshop we produce an abundance of plywood waste which we either incinerate on site or dump in a dumpster. Does burning plywood produce harmful emissions to the air? Is it better deposited?

Jim Ludwig, Tunbridge, VT

A:

Alex Wilson, editor of Environmental Building News in Brattleboro, Vt., replies: While many states either ban open burning of construction waste or at least ban burning it in more populated areas, few states differentiate between wood and processed wood products such as plywood, OSB or chipboard. Vermont is the only state I know that does that. It is illegal in Vermont to burn any type of wood except natural, untreated, unpainted wood; Plywood and related products cannot be legally burned.

According to Phillip Etter of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont’s ban on burning manufactured wood products is based on concerns that burning these products at low temperatures could release large amounts of formaldehyde and potentially more dangerous compounds. He says that ammonium chloride, used as a catalyst in some manufactured wood product resins, can lead to emissions of hydrochloric acid or dioxins under certain conditions.

The only studies I could find that compared the combustion emissions of natural wood to wood showed very little difference between the two. A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin examined total hydrocarbon, formaldehyde, total aldehyde and carbon monoxide emissions from the combustion of natural aspen and aspen flake boards. The study simulated industrial boiler firing conditions with high combustion temperatures (1,500 to 2,400°F) and increased air intakes. In the lower temperature and excess air range, the hydrocarbon, formaldehyde and carbon monoxide emissions of the chipboard were slightly higher than those of natural wood. Low combustion temperatures and low-oxygen conditions characteristic of open combustion or wood-burning stoves have not been studied, but it is reasonable to conclude that under such conditions there is more pollution from burning artificial wood than from natural wood, simply because the burning is at higher temperatures is more complete.

Whether burning processed wood on-site is significantly worse than burning natural wood on-site is still unknown. If you are considering burning scrap plywood in a catalytic combustion wood stove, be aware that the resins in the plywood can damage the catalytic converter.

While the merits of on-site incineration versus landfill can be widely debated, the best option is to do neither. Instead, try to design buildings to optimize the use of materials. that is, design on 4 feet. modules. You should also try to separate plywood and other wood scraps on site to make smaller pieces easier to locate and try to use scrap plywood instead of 2xs for nailers, spacers in headers and the like.

When it comes to choosing firewood for your wood-burning stove or fireplace, you have many options. There are two main factors to consider when choosing the best logs for a wood stove: wood species and wood moisture content. In this post, we explain which types of wood are the best logs for a wood stove or fireplace. To learn more about the moisture content of firewood, read our how-to article Wood Stove 101: Using Seasoned Firewood.

Why does it matter what type of wood I burn?

Choosing firewood is more complicated than you think. What you burn in your wood stove is critical to the performance and longevity of your wood stove. Whether you harvest your own firewood or use a delivery service, you need to be knowledgeable about wood species when choosing firewood. The type of wood affects the performance of your stove in several areas.

1. Efficiency: The efficiency of your stove can largely depend on the type of wood you are burning. Softwoods and resinous (oily) woods can burn inefficiently. Because of this, pine, eucalyptus, birch, aspen, and a few other species are not the best logs for a wood stove.

2. Appearance: Choosing firewood from a typically resinous species can produce thick black smoke that will cloud your stove’s front glass. Once cloudy, cleaning the glass can be more difficult.

Stop messing with your old, hard-to-use wood. Shop MF Fire today!

3. Reliability: Choosing soft and resinous firewood also has a negative effect on the reliability of your stove. Softwoods and resinous firewoods produce chemicals that are severely corrosive to a wood stove’s internal components. In particular, the Catalyst catalytic combustor and combustion fan can be adversely affected over time. Because of this, hardwoods wear out wood stoves much less and are the best logs for a wood stove.

4. Safety: Burning resinous woods also poses a potential safety hazard in your home. Resinous woods produce significant amounts of creosote, which accumulates in the chimney and is the leading cause of wood-burning chimney fires.

Use the best types of firewood

So what are the best logs for a wood stove? Any non-resinous hardwood can give you a good burn, but our three favorites are:

1. Oak: Known for its long, slow burning, oak is probably the best firewood. Oak is a dense hardwood available in most regions of North America. While oak can take a little longer to season properly than other firewoods, you can’t beat the fire of well-seasoned oak in your wood stove. This is the mainstream firewood favorite for wood stoves and probably one of the best all around logs for a wood stove.

2. Maple: Maple firewood burns very similar to ash. When properly seasoned, it will produce long and even burns in your wood stove. Maple is found throughout the continental United States, making it a preferred fuelwood choice for wood stoves.

Check out our beautiful, modern and easy to use wood stoves!

3. Ash: Burns evenly and splits easily – what more could you ask for? Ash provides some of the best wood to burn in a wood stove. It is found primarily in eastern and central North America, but is also available in other wood-burning regions, including the west coast of the United States. The emerald ash borer, an invasive species native to Northeast Asia, has killed many ash trees in the United States. These affected trees are perfect for responsible firewood harvesting.

While oak, ash, and maple are our top 3, there are many other types of firewood that are acceptable for wood stoves:

hawthorn

beech

cherry

mulberry

Apple

The worst types of firewood to use

Not every wood is the same. Just as there are types of firewood that we recommend, there are also some that we do not recommend using. Most of these are not recommended as they are either softwoods, very resinous, or both! Softwoods burn quickly, efficiently and produce harmful chemicals. Resinous woods produce thick oils that blacken glass and soil the inside of your stove. We do not recommend using the following types of firewood:

Jaw

poplar

cedar

eucalyptus

alder

With this guide, choosing the best wood to burn in your wood-burning stove is easy! Do you have any questions or comments about your experiences with these or other types of firewood? Need more help choosing firewood? Leave your comments below!

Ryan Fisher is MF Fire’s Chief Operating Officer