# Drying time for poplar.



## Roundgunner (Dec 7, 2015)

I just got 2 truckloads of poplar. My space for drying is limited so I try to put wood in the racks so I don't have 3 year to dry oak in front of ash. How long do you think it takes poplar to get to 20% or less?


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## claydogg84 (Dec 7, 2015)

8 - 12 months.


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## English BoB (Dec 7, 2015)

It  will  be ready for next season.

bob


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## BrotherBart (Dec 7, 2015)

As you have noticed the stuff is heavy and wet. Holds a bunch of water. I dry it for two years. The stuff hardens the longer you dry it and the burn gets better the harder it gets. Heated this place a whole season with it years ago.


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## DougA (Dec 7, 2015)

My poplar dries in less than one year for sure. Cut and split in early summer can be burned that winter. I burn lots of it.


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## saskwoodburner (Dec 7, 2015)

If you cut and split over winter or early spring, you'll be okay to burn. There will be the random piece or two that needs to stay out of the stove, but for the most part it seasons quick. If you sit by the woodpile, you hear it cracking and splitting once it gets hot outside.

As BrotherBart points out though, after a couple years it burns even better. I've got my share of road allowance push down poplar that is 2-3 years old. The wood is a dark dark brown, it sometimes has a split on one side all the way to the center. I affectionately call it nuclear fuel rod.

How big of a diameter?


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## Applesister (Dec 7, 2015)

If you have any trouble with it, the worse that will come of it will be is burning it next spring (feb to may) but I think it will be burnable in fall if you split it now.
Bart is right, poplar grows really fast, most of its weight is water and cellulose, mostly water. It needs more time than you think. Soft maple dries quicker.


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## tsquini (Dec 7, 2015)

It will be dry by next burn season


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## LocustPocust (Dec 8, 2015)

claydogg84 said:


> 8 - 12 months.



Agreed. 

It's nothing I go out of my way to get but I've burned a lot of it. The other day I was on my friend's property and I found a Cottonwood that sheared off in the middle during one of the storms last summer and was laying across one of his roads. I bucked it and brought it home. The bark fell off when I split it (bonus!) It burns best mixed with a higher quality wood. Alone is burns "lazy" and coals lousy but It does throw heat.

When cutting and splitting green it's probably the worst smelling wood I've ever dealt with. Smells like rotten eggs and puke.


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## firefighterjake (Dec 8, 2015)

1-2 years.


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## Chimney Smoke (Dec 8, 2015)

I cut poplar every May for my hunting camp.  Single stacked in the sun all day and it burns great in October and November.


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## Little Digger (Dec 8, 2015)

Poplar generally is seasoned enough to burn after one year.

Last year I burned pine and poplar which was seasoned for three years. This year I'm stuck with the black birch, white oak, chestnut oak, and a few sticks of cherry. But next year I have a nice mix of poplar, black locust, white oak, and cherry which will have been seasoned 4 years. I might even sneak in some pine that will have been seasoned for one year because I absolutely love pine and poplar!

BTW, I'm 6 plus years ahead with my firewood.


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## Fred Wright (Dec 8, 2015)

Agreed. A year stacked is good. Two years is better.

Back in the day I had a pair of huge, dying forest poplars dropped in the front yard. Originally hoped to sell 'em to a sawmill ~ they were perfectly straight with no lower limbs. No one wanted 'em so they became firewood. Stacked about a year and a half, the stuff surprised me when fall came. To be lightweight as it was it made right smart heat.


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## billb3 (Dec 8, 2015)

I cut a dying white poplar/bigtooth aspen down near the house two years ago and decided to cut it up for firewood rather tun toss it in the dump.
I wasn't impressed with a year stacked ( no cover) . Burned the 1/2 cord this Fall.
I have a maple tree to put where the poplar was stacked.


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## CentralVAWoodHeat (Dec 8, 2015)

I love burning poplar and you probably will as well.  It burns bright and hot, with a slightly short burn time.  It lights easily and throws heat without any of the negatives of resinous evergreens.

As for drying/seasoning, I find it optimal in a single year.  What I cut in the winter will be fully ready to burn the following winter, even bigger splits and limbs I don't split.


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## LocustPocust (Dec 8, 2015)

CentralVAWoodHeat said:


> It lights easily and throws heat without any of the negatives of resinous evergreens.



Uh Oh..  here we go. haha


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## Paulywalnut (Dec 8, 2015)

I'll find out this year. My son had a 75 foot poplar taken down in his yard. He kept all the wood.  Well now there's about 20 rounds 3 and 4 ft. across. Plus all the branches. The tree guys actually took the biggest rounds because we could never handle them. Probably 3 or 4 cord there.


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## firefighterjake (Dec 9, 2015)

LocustPocust said:


> Uh Oh..  here we go. haha



Maybe he is referring to the messy sap ... surely no one here believes the old adage about pine causing more creosote in a chimney.


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## CentralVAWoodHeat (Dec 9, 2015)

firefighterjake said:


> Maybe he is referring to the messy sap ... surely no one here believes the old adage about pine causing more creosote in a chimney.


Nope.  I'm referring to resin/sap, not creosote.  We live in a big hickory/locust/oak/pine forest.  I burn plenty of pine, along with hard woods, and love it.  I'm not a'feared of the pine like lots of folks.


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## Pennsyltucky Chris (Dec 11, 2015)

I don't know what any of the above posters are talking about. I single stacked about a half cord of poplar in May and the moister readings of splits are 11-14%. That's slightly over 6 months. You can light it with match. 12-24 months? Pure nonsense. Some wood takes 3 years, some takes 3 months. Unless my moisture meter is lying. It's not what the calendar says, it's what the MM says.

I regularly have white pine in the single digits in 4 months.


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## 2broke2ride (Dec 11, 2015)

Yeah, I'm kinda not sure everyone is calling the same kind of wood poplar, it seems to me it is kind of a generic name covering a few different kinds of wood, I know where I am in Massachusetts, the poplar we have I believe is actually aspen and it seasons in pretty good in 9 months. Not sure about the "tulip poplar" they have more in the south that seems to grow in swamps......


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## LocustPocust (Dec 11, 2015)

2broke2ride said:


> I'm kinda not sure everyone is calling the same kind of wood poplar, it seems to me it is kind of a generic name covering a few different kinds of wood



Yep, basically any lower quality wood that's not pine. Linden, Cottonwood, and Aspen fall into that category in my neck of the woods. Tulip Poplar is a NY species but I've never seen one here.


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## 2broke2ride (Dec 11, 2015)

So that's what I'm saying, doesn't it stand to reason that "poplar" is gonna season differently depending on where you are and what actual species you're talking about? Hence the answers in this post being all over the place [emoji106][emoji2]


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## BrotherBart (Dec 11, 2015)

Yeah I am clueless. I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.


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## Starstuff (Dec 11, 2015)

I got about 1/3 cord back in June. It's been c/s/s since and is still well over 25%, so I definitely won't be burning it until next year.


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## Starstuff (Dec 11, 2015)

BrotherBart said:


> Yeah I am clueless. I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.



I have no experience burning poplar, but agree with you 100% on pine. Last year I burned pine that was about 8 months dried, and it certainly caught and burned, but this year I've been burning a lot of it that has been drying for close to 18 months, and it is burning wonderfully.


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## 2broke2ride (Dec 11, 2015)

I meant no disrespect to anyone, was just trying to wrap my head around it all, I'll go back in my corner now.


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## LocustPocust (Dec 12, 2015)

BrotherBart said:


> I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.



Completely agree. I've burned BL after being seasoned for 7 months. It burned hot and clean but it threw no where near the heat it would have if It was seasoned at least a year. It was wood I was saving for this winter but I ran out of wood and needed it to heat the house this past MAY!


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## LocustPocust (Dec 12, 2015)

2broke2ride said:


> I meant no disrespect to anyone



None taken my friend.


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## BrotherBart (Dec 12, 2015)

I have no idea what happens with the stuff. But it hardens and burns hotter and longer the longer it stays on the stacks. Found it out when I didn't need it for an extra year and was afraid it would burn like newspaper. Wrong!


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## LocustPocust (Dec 12, 2015)

"Crap" wood really is a different animal after years of seasoning compared to burning it ASAP isn't it? Back in the Spring I went hunting for some dry wood and I found a large Cottonwood limb that broke off during a storm. It was barkless and one end of it suspended off the ground. Perfect to take home and split and burn tonight! I don't know how long it was dead for but at least a few years. You'd think you were splitting dry BL. I couldn't believe how hard it split with the maul. Burned well though!


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## billb3 (Dec 12, 2015)

BrotherBart said:


> Yeah I am clueless. I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.




I know I've gotten really spoiled with many years well seasoned wood. A moisture meter may be a great tool, but having old wood that you don't struggle with at all to make fire makes making fire incredibly easy.
It's like having a case of Chardonnay or any alcohol that improves with age and letting it age for another year or two. It was drinkable a while back but not like it is now.
You can't appreciate it until you've done it.


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## Pennsyltucky Chris (Dec 12, 2015)

BrotherBart said:


> Yeah I am clueless. I dry poplar and pine two years. And even though it is moisture content wise burnable in six months to a year, you ain't gonna believe the burn time difference if you let it stay on the stacks longer. And that's my take.



I have a stack that was overflow which I put aside for next season. So I'll see what you are talking about next year. But when t comes to pine, I get splits of 7%. What  good would another year do?


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