# hybrid poplar tree wood lot any one try this?



## cory (Nov 17, 2010)

Found an old mother earth mag that my dad had and there was an article about growing a hybrid poplar tree lot for fire wood. Thought about trying to do it. but would like to here other peoples opinions. And think it is worth talking about.


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## ISeeDeadBTUs (Nov 17, 2010)

Wife's GrandF planted some near his house years ago. Grew Very quickly. Great for shade. They drop their leaves after snow, which sucks on a residential lawn.

But they're still Poplar :-/  I would not waste my time on them.


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## CALJREICH (Nov 17, 2010)

I cut down some poplar trees I planted for some quick shade . They were about 12 years old some had started dying. I burned them after letting it season. Nothing great about how it burned it was heat but I don't think I would plant a bunch for fire wood. Its kinda of soft wood.


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## Backwoods Savage (Nov 18, 2010)

Cory, shortly after that article we did plant some. Now we wish we had not done so! They are a big, big mess, like many of the hybrids. 

The biggest problem with them is that they get weak spots and then the tops topple over. You never see so many limbs as you have on these stupid things. Another bad thing (and the same thing happened with some hybrid elm) is that the roots have a tendency to grow above ground a lot. If I think about it I may try to get a few pictures for you. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures with them in the background.

The first picture was taken at greenup in April.






This picture was taken before the leaves began growing. Look directly behind the splits and see how many limbs there are. There are a few broken ones. Maybe I can get a few pictures of the ones with bad spots to show how weak they get.





Another thing about these things is that the wood really stinks bad! Heavy when you cut and super light when they dry. They burn best on a brush pile. 

Have I mentioned that they are pretty much worthless?


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## chinkapin_oak (Nov 18, 2010)

Hybrid poplar is really fast growing.  The faster they grow, the faster they burn too.  My parents planted a bunch of white oaks 20 years ago, and I'm so glad they did.  Makes for nice firewood compared to poplar.


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## benjamin (Nov 18, 2010)

Backwoods Savage is exactly right, they grow so bushy that you wouldn't want to have to cut them down, too many dead and weak branches.  You wouldn't want to limb them. And if you did, you'd get poplar wood for all of your effort.

I don't know what you have available in ND, but I'd prefer even cottonwood or box elder by far to hybrid poplar for cutting by hand for firewood. There are biomass experiments that use willow, but that's harvested with a chopper, Claas or similar.


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## Wood Duck (Nov 18, 2010)

I definitely would not recommend hybrid poplars - they do grow fast, but they are weak limbed, non-native, have no wildlife value, are generally not very attractive (my opinion), and are among the worst firewood available. Instead, I would consider Black Locust, Oak, Pine, or best of all a mix of native species, although in ND there might not be many native trees in your local area. Black Locust grows fast, and produces a top quality wood for firewood or many other uses. It produces root sprouts (suckers) which grow fast to replace the trees you cut, which is a pain in your lawn, but ideal for a woodlot. Silver Maple grows fast too, and gets really big. It is a soft maple, but way better firewood than hybrid poplar. Even oaks grow reasonably fast once they are established, and are high value trees in many ways besides just firewood. How about pine? Norway Pine is native, fast growing, and I'd much rather have pine for firewood than hybrid poplar. If I was really planting a firewood woodlot, I'd probably include some of all of these plus other regionally appropriate choices. Also, I'd include Osage Orange which grows well in the plains and is the highest density firewood around.


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## thewoodlands (Nov 18, 2010)

In Massena New York Reynolds Metals planted a bunch of them and then planned on burning them to create power which they never did and that area looks like chit with all the broken trees and branches.

Or was this the real reason  http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/green-clean/


zap


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## stint9 (Nov 18, 2010)

Cut and burned a few poplar couple years ago but never again

Same effort to cut, buck haul, split and carry to stove as ash or oak, but *dramatically* less heat per log

And I mean dramatically

Reminded me of burning popcorn 

If free and already cut, split, and dropped at my woodpile, I would not refuse

But not for me workin it up

Just mi $.02


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## cory (Nov 18, 2010)

Wow thanks for the input. I sure am glade i asked the question. I was really thinking about diong that. Last winter i read a book called common sense forestry by Hans Morsbach. And really like the book it talks alot about a diversified forest. So last spring my county water shed had a tree sale i got a large verity of trees about 400 for less then a dollar a peice. So now i have a start on my own little forrest. With everyones input here i will not plant the rest in hybrid poplars i will continue my mixed forrest.


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## 3fordasho (Nov 18, 2010)

You might consider using Black Locust instead of hybrid popular.  I would if I had the land to do it.  I did plant 10 or so bare root seedlings last spring and some of them have more than doubled in size in one summer.  They were 3' high and 1/2" diameter trunk when I took them out of the box, now some are 7' high and over 1" diameter at the base.  Not bad for one growing season.
A few got the leaves chewed off by woodchucks....those are not doing as well.... Dang woodchucks!


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## Wood Duck (Nov 18, 2010)

Those hybrid poplar seem worse, from a firewood perspective, than either aspen or cottonwood, their closest native relatives. I actually like aspens such as Bigtooth Aspen or Quaking Aspen (aka popple/poplar) for firewood. I wouldn't choose it over oak or most other hardwoods, or maybe even pine, but it splits really easily, has mostly straight trunk and few branches, seasons fast, and doesn't burn TOO fast. Cottonwood is a step in the wrong direction, and hybrid poplars another big step down from cottonwood. I guess willow might be less desirable than hybrid poplar, so it isn't dead last, but it is close.

If you can find some local Black Locust trees, you might be able to collect seed and plant lots of them cheaply. I think they'd grow fast in a sunny bed of bare soil, scattered on the surface. i think the seeds are produced mid to late summer.


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