# Apple wood takes forever to dry



## gzecc (Mar 5, 2013)

Is this just my experience or do any of you guys have experience with this? At least 3 yrs?


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## Lumber-Jack (Mar 5, 2013)

Yep. In the past I use to live in orchard area where the trend for orchardist at the time was to rip out all their old giant apple trees and plant the new smaller varieties. The result was lots of access to apple wood, problem was we live in softwood country where everyone was use to cutting dead coniferous trees and burning them within a year. Now these same people get their hands on a bunch of green apple wood they are anxious to try and burn. You can imagine the results.
I would imaging apple takes as long as oak to season.


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## ScotO (Mar 5, 2013)

I have around a half cord left that I cut and split 4 years ago come April.  and if you re-split it, it's still moist inside.  Now, it's been sitting behind the main woodstack, uncovered, the whole time since i cut it.  But I only use it for cooking on the firepit, so I'm OK with it being wet.....in fact I want it that way.


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 5, 2013)

Forever is a very long, long time.


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## Thistle (Mar 5, 2013)

2 yrs max around here,when you're lucky enough to find some.Most all the orchards around here sell the stuff for a premium now,wasnt that way 20 yrs ago.Used to be you could go in & clean up their culls,storm damage & sometimes they even had a few small piles already cut to length at their public entrance for a reasonable charge.


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## tigeroak (Mar 5, 2013)

I keep all apple to cook with. I can taste the FREE [ we get a free hog every year from a buddy ]pork chops cooked in the pit then sause them up and my goodness , I am slobbering like a dog.


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## jackatc1 (Mar 5, 2013)

If you have to split it best have hydraulics.
Apple wood makes the best hand saw handles.


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## tigeroak (Mar 5, 2013)

I split EVERY one by hand . They split just fine , even if it is notty and I haven't had one that wasn't notty.


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## jackatc1 (Mar 6, 2013)

tigeroak said:


> I split EVERY one by hand . They split just fine , even if it is notty and I haven't had one that wasn't notty.


At 77 I guess I am getting soft


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## Applesister (Mar 6, 2013)

I usually only have sticks anyway. Small stuff gets chipped. I have two neighbors that smoke meat. One pork and the other Venison. I agree with Scotty its best saved for open fires and cooking and green wood is best. It does take forever but Plum is worse.  I have 40 acres of apple trees and I would freeze to death if I only had apple to heat with.


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## ArsenalDon (Mar 6, 2013)

not much better wood to smoke with tho


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 6, 2013)

jackatc1 said:


> At 77 I guess I am getting soft


It's incredibly tough stuff.  Waste of energy to try to split by hand if you have a splitter.  I have a small electric, and even it can't handle apple more than 4 or 5 inches in diameter, so I have to take it to a neighbor who has a big old splitter to do it for me.  Green, it's so heavy with sap, it weighs twice as much as anything else that size.  Smaller tops I split down this summer and stacked out in the open are coming along more quickly than I thought, full of big cracks on the ends, but I'm going to hang onto it for at least another year before even thinking of using it.  Love the stuff, burns hot as heck.


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## billb3 (Mar 6, 2013)

I have a tiny bit of apple from wild trees. ( maybe from the orchard up the street, maybe from people throwing cores in the woods) 
I throw apple in with the oak. ( only because the ( first pieces of) apple that got thrown in with the cherry for a year took several days to burn and I just kept loading over it rather than take it out. )
Dogwood too, but that's based on how damned hard it is to cut not because I've ever struggled burning it.


I remember the apple orchard up the street having huge piles of tree trimming rotting in piles.
Now it gets sold, bartered, used.


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## Woody Stover (Mar 6, 2013)

Seems like most of the truly dense woods take time...Dogwood is the same way. Then again, Hedge-apple and BL are supposed to dry a little quicker so I guess it must all come down to the microscopic structure of each wood...


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