# Anyone burn boxelder?



## lindnova (Dec 24, 2013)

No one ever talks about boxelder here.  I mostly burn oak, cherry and elm, but have a overabundance of box elder trees from clearing fence line and field edges.  I have been burning some of it mixed in with good results in the PE Spectrum.  Works good on cold starts and during the day.

I cut it last year and split the rounds this fall.  I have had a few sizzlers, but split smaller and waiting inside helps.  Moisture meter is 20 - 30% when first split, but after sitting in the basement for a couple weeks, they seem to dry a little more - after splitting again down to no higher than 25% with most under 20.

Of course it burns faster, but if I am around the house it is no big deal to feed it more often.  Also seems to coal ok.


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## EatenByLimestone (Dec 24, 2013)

Burn it.  It's a maple tree with a funny leaf and red streaks in the wood.


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## laynes69 (Dec 24, 2013)

I burned some at the beginning of the season. Seemed to burn okay, but did leave alot of ash behind.


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## EatenByLimestone (Dec 24, 2013)

Extra points if you take out some of these.


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## weatherguy (Dec 24, 2013)

I burned some a couple years ago, not crazy about it but if its free I'll take it. Burns like soft maple (maybe because it is ).


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## lindnova (Dec 24, 2013)

EatenByLimestone said:


> Extra points if you take out some of these.



I hate those bugs.  I saw a tree this fall with thousands of them on the trunk.  Weird how they congregated to that one tree out of hundreds.  We are cutting as many of our tree lines as we can to reclaim the field edges, but no hope of eradicating them.  I am salvaging the cleanest easy ones for firewood and we burn the rest (most) of them.  The red streaked ones seem to rot faster.

Soft maple doesn't rot as easily.  The box elder gets moldy pretty fast if not careful on location and drying.  I haven't let it dry for more than a year and use in the outdoor heatmor.  The biggest problem is that it won't hold coals out there, but in the wood stove it burns nice. It likes to mold under the bark and black mold really stinks when you get some smoke from it on you.


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## Backwoods Savage (Dec 24, 2013)

lindnova said:


> No one ever talks about boxelder here.  I mostly burn oak, cherry and elm, but have a overabundance of box elder trees from clearing fence line and field edges.  I have been burning some of it mixed in with good results in the PE Spectrum.  Works good on cold starts and during the day.
> 
> I cut it last year and split the rounds this fall.  I have had a few sizzlers, but split smaller and waiting inside helps.  Moisture meter is 20 - 30% when first split, but after sitting in the basement for a couple weeks, they seem to dry a little more - after splitting again down to no higher than 25% with most under 20.
> 
> Of course it burns faster, but if I am around the house it is no big deal to feed it more often.  Also seems to coal ok.



On the contrary lindnova, there has been much talk on this forum about box elder. As someone else stated, it is in the maple family. We've burned a good deal of it but normally tend to burn it in spring or fall as it won't hold a fire as long as other woods. Also good that you are clearing it from the fence rows and field edges. Might also get rid of some of those bugs now.


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## gyrfalcon (Dec 25, 2013)

lindnova said:


> I hate those bugs.  I saw a tree this fall with thousands of them on the trunk.  Weird how they congregated to that one tree out of hundreds.  We are cutting as many of our tree lines as we can to reclaim the field edges, but no hope of eradicating them.  I am salvaging the cleanest easy ones for firewood and we burn the rest (most) of them.  The red streaked ones seem to rot faster.
> 
> Soft maple doesn't rot as easily.  The box elder gets moldy pretty fast if not careful on location and drying.  I haven't let it dry for more than a year and use in the outdoor heatmor.  The biggest problem is that it won't hold coals out there, but in the wood stove it burns nice. It likes to mold under the bark and black mold really stinks when you get some smoke from it on you.


Far as I understand, these bugs are totally harmless. I don't like them in the house, but otherwise I leave them alone.  Do you know something about them I don't?

Also, I've burned some box elder.  As others say here, it's basically soft maple, perfectly good stuff for shoulder season, not something I take up room in the stove for in midwinter.


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## Pruning@trunk (Dec 25, 2013)

I have a lot of access to this wood too. Would it be best to get that stuff split right away? I have some logs that have been sitting for about 2 years now, they are starting to get soft and maybe a little punky, but I think they will be fine if I get then split and stacked so they dry out well. They have been in the sun and wind stacked but not split.  I can always burn the wood when I do maple syrup.


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## Applesister (Dec 25, 2013)

Its not considered invasive. But it grows back from the stump, it regenerates.
I read a funny thread on here about how it never appears in some vistaed wooded landscape, just between junk cars in vacant lots.


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## Bigg_Redd (Dec 25, 2013)

lindnova said:


> No one ever talks about boxelder here.  I mostly burn oak, cherry and elm, but have a overabundance of box elder trees from clearing fence line and field edges.  I have been burning some of it mixed in with good results in the PE Spectrum.  Works good on cold starts and during the day.
> 
> I cut it last year and split the rounds this fall.  I have had a few sizzlers, but split smaller and waiting inside helps.  Moisture meter is 20 - 30% when first split, but after sitting in the basement for a couple weeks, they seem to dry a little more - after splitting again down to no higher than 25% with most under 20.
> 
> Of course it burns faster, but if I am around the house it is no big deal to feed it more often.  Also seems to coal ok.



Fabulous.  I also burn wood that is most abundant and convenient without regard to what others on this board do or do not burn.


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## Stubborn Dutchman (Dec 25, 2013)

I burn boxelder. However, I find it makes a great base row for my woodstacks. Six inch rounds have held up fine with direct contact with the ground for over three years now. I never have much luck scrounging pallets for the woodstacks. We have lots of boxelder here on the farm.


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## Osage (Dec 25, 2013)

EatenByLimestone said:


> Extra points if you take out some of these.


When my father was still alive (he was an old retired farmer) he would find reasons to go outside. Those democrats would gather on the south side of the house in the sun. He would go out there with a shop vac. and vaccume them up and throw them in the stove. They don't put out alot of btu's. But I guess it was his way of "political cleansing".


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## EatenByLimestone (Dec 25, 2013)

ROTFLMAO!  That's great!


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## Osage (Dec 25, 2013)

EatenByLimestone said:


> ROTFLMAO!  That's great!


Me seesa padlock in the future for this one.


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## lindnova (Dec 25, 2013)

Pruning@trunk said:


> I have a lot of access to this wood too. Would it be best to get that stuff split right away? I have some logs that have been sitting for about 2 years now, they are starting to get soft and maybe a little punky, but I think they will be fine if I get then split and stacked so they dry out well. They have been in the sun and wind stacked but not split.  I can always burn the wood when I do maple syrup.



I would use it for the maple syrup heating.  Depends on how you stack it and get it dry, but it can be a dirty wood and I wouldn't want any punky box elder inside my house.

No, the bugs are harmless and don't smell like the beetles, but they come in numbers.  Osage - interesting way of putting it; they will take over and cover the whole side of the house sunning themselves. They invite themselves to a big party at my house.  Those little bugs making a mess on my stuff.  I have a guy spray around the house in the fall and have no bugs anymore.  I hate spraying, but mostly is to get rid of the Asian beetles which do smell and leave a mess.

Yes they will resprout.  Tordon stump killer, 2-4-d or Garlon on resprouts are not 100% effective.  Multiple treatments and grubbing of stumps is best.  These trees cant grow straight, but don't like to die either.  We do have them in the woods where an elm dies, they take over and grow up right under oaks also.


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## Paulywalnut (Dec 25, 2013)

The wood stinks when cutting it down to throw in the yard debris dump. The bugs smell when burned. But I guess we all would too.


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## hrhunter (Dec 26, 2013)

On Thanksgiving day, we were at my sister's house. They are burning wood as well. Anyway, dad and I were talking about burning wood. I had just scored some red elm about a week earlier. Dad reminded me about a neighbor that cut a large truckload of box elder thinking it was red elm. He saw a streak of red and thought he had something. We have laughed about that several times over the years.


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## Backwoods Savage (Dec 28, 2013)

Pruning@trunk said:


> I have a lot of access to this wood too. Would it be best to get that stuff split right away? I have some logs that have been sitting for about 2 years now, they are starting to get soft and maybe a little punky, but I think they will be fine if I get then split and stacked so they dry out well. They have been in the sun and wind stacked but not split.  I can always burn the wood when I do maple syrup.



No matter what wood you get, it is always best to get it split right away or very soon after cutting. Wood basically will not dry until it has been split and stacked.


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## Osage (Dec 29, 2013)

Backwoods Savage said:


> No matter what wood you get, it is always best to get it split right away or very soon after cutting. Wood basically will not dry until it has been split and stacked.


Cut some dead mulberry this fall that was from a 2007 ice storm. Some of it was 24" dia. MM showed it at 11% when split.


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## PA. Woodsman (Dec 29, 2013)

Osage said:


> Cut some dead mulberry this fall that was from a 2007 ice storm. Some of it was 24" dia. MM showed it at 11% when split.


 


I'm guessing doing that was tough on the old chains.....almost like cutting concrete....


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## Osage (Dec 29, 2013)

PA. Woodsman said:


> I'm guessing doing that was tough on the old chains.....almost like cutting concrete....


Full chisel makes short work of it. Can get about a cord or a little more on one chain.


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## Dobish (Nov 24, 2015)

I know this is an old thread, but i figured i would add to it. we took down about 40 box elders in the back yard in april, and it seemed to eat through my chains. We had a super wet spring, so everything was soaked and there was a water/sap mixture in some of the stumps. Most of the stuff was around 3-6" diameter, but we had quite a few trees that were 12-15" dia.  I am just getting to split some of this stuff now, and some of it splits like warm butter, other pieces seem to deflect the axe like there is a force-field. Its not the best wood, but its free!

Here is a picture of the stump shortly after we cut down one of the trees, pretty crazy!


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## lindnova (Nov 24, 2015)

I have never seen box elder do that and I have cut a lot of them down. 

Siberian elm will do the sap / slime running thing in the picture - usually when girdled.

Everyone on here talks about how box elder is tough on chains.  I have not noticed that at all.  They cut easy for me like maple.  If they are hollow and full of dirt they dull a chain just like any other hollow tree would.


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## pma1123 (Nov 24, 2015)

Never seen the sap oozing in boxelder like Dobish has pictured above!

Boxelder has been keeping my house warm so far this season.  Not the longest burning, but is working just fine given the milder temps of this season.  
Like anything else, split it and stack it to dry.


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## baseroom (Nov 24, 2015)

If I find Boxelder in a scrounge......I burn it!  I have found up here it can be twisted which can make for challenging splitting.  That red streak in the middle sure does make it unmistakable though.


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## MikeK (Nov 24, 2015)

One of my favorite trees when I was little was a Boxelder, it was a great climbing tree.  I have read that you can make syrup from boxelder sap just like their maple relatives, but the sap is more dilute.   I believe I read the wild critters also like their seeds. 

 I have some drying for likely 2016-17.  The tree I have most of is Cottonwood, so the Boxelder can't be worse than that.


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## LocustPocust (Nov 26, 2015)

I burn a lot of boxelder, It's all I've been burning for over a month now except for a few splits of BL and Ash. It's a great shoulder season wood. It grows around here like a weed and people avoid it like the plague, dump it etc. I think it has a bad rap because it is a fast burning wood and as one of the old timers told me a long time ago: "When it's wet It'll put a good fire out". It's a soft maple and burns fast, hot, and clean if seasoned properly. It cut easy, splits easy, and dries fast. I also burn Eastern Cottonwood but that burns much better mixed with another low quality wood like boxelder. Overall, Maples make great firewood.

Growing up in the Eastern Hardwood forests we're taught that anything but Oak, Hickory, Ash, or Sugar Maple is lousy or even dangerous firewood. I bet a lot of you can relate to this. Boxelder will put your fire out. Cottonwood is junk. Ironwood is poisonous. Elm will cause a chimney fire. Black Locust will melt your stove. Pine will cause a chimney fire.  I've heard them all. 

Why burn your high BTU wood when it's 50 outside? Burn "junk" and save the good stuff for 0 degree weather. It's 24 right now and that "junk" had my house 76 degrees and I had to crack a window open.


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## Toomb (Nov 26, 2015)

LocustPocust said:


> I burn a lot of boxelder, It's all I've been burning for over a month now except for a few splits of BL and Ash. It's a great shoulder season wood. It grows around here like a weed and people avoid it like the plague, dump it etc. I think it has a bad rap because it is a fast burning wood and as one of the old timers told me a long time ago: "When it's wet It'll put a good fire out". It's a soft maple and burns fast, hot, and clean if seasoned properly. It cut easy, splits easy, and dries fast. I also burn Eastern Cottonwood but that burns much better mixed with another low quality wood like boxelder. Overall, Maples make great firewood.
> 
> Growing up in the Eastern Hardwood forests we're taught that anything but Oak, Hickory, Ash, or Sugar Maple is lousy or even dangerous firewood. I bet a lot of you can relate to this. Boxelder will put your fire out. Cottonwood is junk. Ironwood is poisonous. Elm will cause a chimney fire. Black Locust will melt your stove. Pine will cause a chimney fire.  I've heard them all.
> 
> Why burn your high BTU wood when it's 50 outside? Burn "junk" and save the good stuff for 0 degree weather. It's 24 right now and that "junk" had my house 76 degrees and I had to crack a window open.




I agree with most of this.......but i am one of those that avoids box elder and cotton wood.  I have burned both.....and would not say box elder splits easy.   If  you have a ton of it, have to get rid of it, or are desperate......burn it.  But for me the effort  and energy put into it is not worth it.


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## Squisher (Nov 26, 2015)

Box elder, commonly referred to up here in Canada as Manitoba maple is a low heat high ash wood but will certainly burn I suppose. Where I live in BC it's considered mostly a weed tree and borderline invasive , volunteering almost wherever it can. 

When I had my residential tree service I gave away lots of it under the guise of 'salmon maple'. Lol. In reference to the pinkish heartwood. Here where other species are readily available only the hardcore(or hard up) would burn it in a stove. 

Some of my earliest memories are firewooding with my dad and I've burned wood my whole life. Never burnt boxelder maple in a stove.  Burnt many in piles like this though:


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