cutting hedge how long to dry

[kscowboy]

will be putting in wood furnace and have unlimited supply of hedge tree how long after cutting down does it normaly take to season if it is green

 

[Wood Duck]

I see nobody who actually has burnt hedge is replying, so I'll go ahead and say that I think hedge, being really dense, would take at least a year after split and stacked. Probably two years is better for a stove, but out in Kansas, wood might dry a little faster than it does in some other places. Plus, I don't really know what quality of wood is required for a wood furnace. Final answer - two years for really nice hedge for an EPA wood stove, probably one year is OK for a furnace??

 

[smokinj]

I burn it when I can find it, 2 years split. Mulberry is really close to hedge in a lot of ways.

 

[onedog]

I mostly (90%) burn hedge but haven't ever tested any via a moisture meter. I'm in a position to where I'm 4-5 years ahead on supply so I don't worry about how wet it is. My folks used a wood stove for years and cut hedge in the spring and summer and burned it that winter without any problems. I'm sure it wasn't ideal firewood though.

 

[tfdchief]

I have burned a lot of hedge over the years. Most of it cut one winter and burned the next or following winter. So, one year will do it, but it will do a lot of popping and sparking. Two years is better. Longer will let the resins dry out and it won't pop and crack so bad. I just replied on another post here and commented that I save hedge in my end stacks just for the really cold weather. I just got into some that is 20+yrs old.....it doesn't pop or spark hardly at all. It doesn't ever get punky or rotten either :exclaim:

 

[Cutter]

Howdy all. Hedge is the only wood I cut and burn. Because it is the only wood that I have access to that is worth the effort. In an experiment I determined that hedge that is green with leaves intact has a moisture content of 25.25%. This test was not preformed not with a moisture meter but in a drying oven. The pieces were 5" rounds and equally sized splits. The pieces had the bark and thin layer of sapwood removed. I was using their weight in grams before and after drying. The test was run at 130 degrees for three months to start with. After five months the weights had not changed. Trees 28" diameters that were girddled last January and felled this fall had a content of 18-20% on freshly split faces. Three months after splitting green rounds. new split faces were in the 20-22% range. The wood is so dense that there is VERY little interior moisture. I am burning some hedge that was pushed into plies almost forty years ago.The bark is long gone and there is no evedence of any rot. This wood is measuring 7% moisture.
I have NO problem burning wood that has been processed for as little as 6 months. So Cowboy if you have access to these wind rows you will find alot of dead wood that you can burn the day you cut it if the outside isn't too wet. Maybe a quater of what I drop is already dead and burnable. So it goes first leaving the split rounds to loose the moisture from the bark and sapwood for later in the season.
Brad

 

[tfdchief]

Howdy all. Hedge is the only wood I cut and burn. Because it is the only wood that I have access to that is worth the effort. In an experiment I determined that hedge that is green with leaves intact has a moisture content of 25.25%. This test was not preformed not with a moisture meter but in a drying oven. The pieces were 5" rounds and equally sized splits. The pieces had the bark and thin layer of sapwood removed. I was using their weight in grams before and after drying. The test was run at 130 degrees for three months to start with. After five months the weights had not changed. Trees 28" diameters that were girddled last January and felled this fall had a content of 18-20% on freshly split faces. Three months after splitting green rounds. new split faces were in the 20-22% range. The wood is so dense that there is VERY little interior moisture. I am burning some hedge that was pushed into plies almost forty years ago.The bark is long gone and there is no evedence of any rot. This wood is measuring 7% moisture.
I have NO problem burning wood that has been processed for as little as 6 months. So Cowboy if you have access to these wind rows you will find alot of dead wood that you can burn the day you cut it if the outside isn't too wet. Maybe a quater of what I drop is already dead and burnable. So it goes first leaving the split rounds to loose the moisture from the bark and sapwood for later in the season.
Brad

Cutter, that is some great info. Thanks for the post. I have burned a lot of hedge but never had a moisture meter. However, most of the time, I found burning it that it performed in line with your test results. Sometimes when I cut though I would get LOTS of white sap from the cut ends and I always figured I should try to set that load aside for longer drying. Anyway, great post. Thanks, Steve

 

[Battenkiller]

This test was not preformed not with a moisture meter but in a drying oven. The test was run at 130 degrees for three months to start with. After five months the weights had not changed.

Small quibble, but FYI, you can't oven-dry wood at 130ºF no matter how long you leave it. Best you get is kiln-dried MC. You need to get it up to over 212º to drive the last of the water out. This can be accomplished within a couple of days if you use thin slices off the round. Don't go any hotter or longer than it takes to get it to stop losing weight or you will risk pyrolizing it and driving off other volatiles besides water.

You probably got pretty close, though.

 

[ddklahr]

I have actually cut down a standing hedge tree out of my grove and burned it with some dry wood this winter. It seemed to me that I got longer burn times with a piece or two of green hedge mixed in with the dry. I've had several old timers tell me if you have a good coal base, you can throw it in green and get along just fine. If we have another cold stretch like December and early January, my grove is going to disappear rather quickly!

 

[tfdchief]

I have actually cut down a standing hedge tree out of my grove and burned it with some dry wood this winter. It seemed to me that I got longer burn times with a piece or two of green hedge mixed in with the dry. I've had several old timers tell me if you have a good coal base, you can throw it in green and get along just fine. If we have another cold stretch like December and early January, my grove is going to disappear rather quickly!

I don't doubt that a bit. The only thing that is wet on green hedge is the very outside (phloem to be exact) The xylem is so dense it has very little moisture.

 

[mike1234]

Hedge almost always has a limb or 2 that is totally dead and ready to burn, I think the rest is ready in a year, 2 years of course is even better. My moisture meter has trouble getting any reading on a lot of my hedge, I just can't get the pins into the wood enough to get a reading. I have never seen a reading on hedge over 25%, but again, can't always get any reading.