# Is Mulberry good fire wood?



## Shagbark (Jun 28, 2009)

Have the opportunity to cut some mulberry. Is it worth cutting for firewood?


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## Rookie1 (Jun 28, 2009)

If its what I think it is YES!


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## welder15725 (Jun 28, 2009)

It has alittle less BTU per cord than oak. So its good stuff. Let'r eat man!!


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## super3 (Jun 28, 2009)

Yep it's good,hard on chains,at least all iv'e cut around here is. Lots of sand and dust trapped in the bark.


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## ac900tc (Jun 28, 2009)

It is a very fast growing tree, but fortunately makes great firewood!


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## wdchuck (Jun 28, 2009)

It's a relative to osage orange, but yes, it does make fine firewood, just let it season for a couple years to get its full heating potential. 

The wood is beautiful yellow and ages to a deep amber/orange, great wood, hard and heavy.


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## outdoorlivin247 (Jun 28, 2009)

The only thing I can add is it splits easier after seasoned...


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## atlarge54 (Jun 28, 2009)

I've seen it on wood charts as having more BTU than ash, but you've gotta work to get it. Handling the brush seems more difficult than most trees, it's kind of knobby and wants to tangle. It also seems to season a bit slower than lots of other types of wood. I wouldn't recommend for a fireplace it's really sparkly like gold dust fireworks when burning. Open the door of the woodburner and a shower of sparks is not uncommon. Believe me I've cut a LOT of mulberry and it is pretty decent firewood.


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## unclemoustache (Jun 28, 2009)

No, those other guys don't know what they're talking about. Mulberry is no good at all. Just leave it where it is and don't touch it. Just tell me where it is and I'll come and haul it away for you.


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## welder15725 (Jun 28, 2009)

unclemoustache said:


> No, those other guys don't know what they're talking about. Mulberry is no good at all. Just leave it where it is and don't touch it. Just tell me where it is and I'll come and haul it away for you.


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## retired redneck (Jun 28, 2009)

When dry it burns as good as oak,but if you have to drag the brush it takes three times as long...


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## Brushwacker (Jun 29, 2009)

Most of the Mulberry around here is bushy and by the time you cut a pick up load you feel like you spent enough time to cut 2 or 3 with all the limbs. It burns good. I always thought it seasoned as fast as the harder oaks after split. Mabe not? I don't ever remember it splitting easiar after dry by hand splitting. Just about all hardwoods I worked with split best soon as you cut it unless it freezes after it drys.


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 29, 2009)

I've tried burning it several times and was disappointed. I know it's a cousin to hedge but it needs some serious cure time. The first time I tried it I had a huge 100 year old tree. It took me for ever to split it up. I let it cure in the sun and open air all summer and I was very dissappointed in how it burned. The next tree was smaller and I let it cure for a full year and it still didn't burn that great. I have a 1/2 cord of it right now curing and if I come across some more I will probably take it but I'm not expecting great things from it.

IMO it has a little better reputation that it deserves. I think its just to wet of a wood.


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## smokinj (Jun 29, 2009)

YCSTEVE said:


> I've tried burning it several times and was disappointed. I know it's a cousin to hedge but it needs some serious cure time. The first time I tried it I had a huge 100 year old tree. It took me for ever to split it up. I let it cure in the sun and open air all summer and I was very dissappointed in how it burned. The next tree was smaller and I let it cure for a full year and it still didn't burn that great. I have a 1/2 cord of it right now curing and if I come across some more I will probably take it but I'm not expecting great things from it.
> 
> IMO it has a little better reputation that it deserves. I think its just to wet of a wood.



give mulberry atleast 2 years to season.


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## KsWoodsMan (Jun 29, 2009)

YCSTEVE said:


> I've tried burning it several times and was disappointed. I know it's a cousin to hedge but it needs some serious cure time. The first time I tried it I had a huge 100 year old tree. It took me for ever to split it up. I let it cure in the sun and open air all summer and I was very dissappointed in how it burned. The next tree was smaller and I let it cure for a full year and it still didn't burn that great. I have a 1/2 cord of it right now curing and if I come across some more I will probably take it but I'm not expecting great things from it.
> 
> IMO it has a little better reputation that it deserves. I think its just to wet of a wood.


I've burned quite a bit also and have had different results. 

I have found it to be a very good firewood. Keeping it off the ground and the top covered is the key to wood seasoning for me. Other wise anything in the bottom 2 layers is still soaking wet from ground moisture and rain water running into the stack. Yeah. it is heavy and wet when first cut but never had much trouble getting it to split. I turn them upside down for best results.


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## Kansas (Jun 29, 2009)

Shagbark said:


> Have the opportunity to cut some mulberry. Is it worth cutting for firewood?



Yup around my area that and locust and walnut are the premium woods and fairly hard to find to cut get all you can!

It will pop and sparkle when you let air to it so its better in an airtight stove not quite as bad as hedge and not near as hard but good wood to have. 

You can smoke meats with it too fwtw.

Kansas


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 29, 2009)

Previously when I said it took forever to split I meant because it was a huge tree and I did it by a splitting maul and wedges. It's not a bad splitting wood. Right now I have it stacked on concrete. I'm sure once it gets dried down to 20% moisture it will burn fine. 

One year I cut pin oak, black jack oak and mulberry all in the spring. I stacked it in the same location outside in the open air but under some shade. 

The pin oak was ready to go by December. The black jack oak and mulberry wasn't read until the next December.

My neighbor had a very large old sterile mulberry that he needed cut down and removed because it was starting to split and fall over. The trunk had a hole in it and someone in the past dumped concrete down the center of the trunk trying to save the tree because it was a great shade tree. He paid someone to cut it down and it took that poor guy days and days to cut that tree down. Of course the tree was surrounded by houses.

I offered to haul off the tree thinking I was getting some easy firewood. I was wrong. The stuff was rotten in the center and green and wet on the outside.


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## woodbooga (Jun 29, 2009)

Haven't handled much myself, but I was impressed with the amount of heat in a hunk of wood with such wide grain.


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## KsWoodsMan (Jun 30, 2009)

YCSTEVE said:


> Previously when I said it took forever to split I meant because it was a huge tree and I did it by a splitting maul and wedges. It's not a bad splitting wood. Right now I have it stacked on concrete. I'm sure once it gets dried down to 20% moisture it will burn fine.
> ...



I guess I wasn't thinking about 4' dia firewood slabs or I misread part of your responce. By hand that would be a lot of time and work getting put up for firewood.

Mulberry does seem underrated as firewood, maybe because it is such a fast growing tree.


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## Bowtie (Jun 30, 2009)

How small do you guys split mulberry? I split anything under 6" diameter. Unless you are using a wood furnace or decent size stove, the harder woods need to be split small IMO, or dried for 2 years.

I have had the same moisture problem with hedge and mulberry when it hasnt seasoned long enough or is not split small enough to be seasoned right.

I had a bad opinion of hedge when I first tried it because it wouldnt burn. Turns out the outside looked dry, but the inside was green as heck. Mulberry is similar. The stuff can look dry as a bone, but if its very thick, the moisture holds inside for a long time.


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## KsWoodsMan (Jun 30, 2009)

Some 6"-8" stuff will get split, some wont. I like to keep a few bigger chunks for 'all nighters'. I can always split them smaller later if needed. Anything over 8" gets split since it is a hassle to feed it into my stove. 

If I had a bigger firebox oriented differently .... but since I don't ... .

One thing I might be doing different is I start cutting again in mid-July, when the ground is good and dry till the Fall rains start again. There is less moisture in the soil for the trees to take up. 

Any Spring storm cleanup seems to take longer to season though.


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 30, 2009)

I have a Hot Blast furnace so I used to just split them down small enough to where it would fit in the door. Now I have realized that if I split them down far enough that my *wife can fit them in the door *it works even better. 

I get to spend more time using my recently purchased homemade log splitter and she gets to share in the wood burning experience.:greenchainsaw: I would hate to deny her the pleasure of helping me load the stove. I don't think she is excited about it as I am.

I try to put 8 pieces of wood in everytime I load my stove. Four Pieces on the bottom and 4 pieces on the top. I load my stove at 7:00 a.m my wife puts a little in around 1:00 p.m I put some more in around 4:30 p.m. and then I load it up again around 10:00 p.m. ALL WINTER LONG, every day it gets below 32 degrees. If I burn it when its any warmer then that I will run out of wood.


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## CrappieKeith (Jun 30, 2009)

YCSTEVE said:


> I have a Hot Blast furnace so I used to just split them down small enough to where it would fit in the door. Now I have realized that if I split them down far enough that my *wife can fit them in the door *it works even better.
> 
> I get to spend more time using my recently purchased homemade log splitter and she gets to share in the wood burning experience.:greenchainsaw: I would hate to deny her the pleasure of helping me load the stove. I don't think she is excited about it as I am.
> 
> I try to put 8 pieces of wood in everytime I load my stove. Four Pieces on the bottom and 4 pieces on the top. I load my stove at 7:00 a.m my wife puts a little in around 1:00 p.m I put some more in around 4:30 p.m. and then I load it up again around 10:00 p.m. ALL WINTER LONG, every day it gets below 32 degrees. If I burn it when its any warmer then that I will run out of wood.




Sounds to me like you need to upgrade.
With a heat load of only 32 degrees...loading that much...
When it's 20 bleow 0 I only fill mine twice a day and it never goes out.
When it's 32 degrees I hit mine once a day.


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 30, 2009)

CrappieKeith,

I hear you, I have had this discussion on ArboristSite several times and compared it with other $1,000 furnaces and it seems to be about right. I burn 9-10 cords a year or 18-20 rik. I will burn starting Dec 1st and burn until I run out of wood which is usually around March 1st. 

I have a 110 year old 3 story house with 49 windows and 3 doors. To say it is drafty it is an understatement. When it gets in the teens and the wind is blowing 30 mph ( like it does in Kansas) I have a hard time keeping the house in the 70's. When it gets in the single digits and the wind is blowing the gas furnace will start kicking on while the wood furnace is running. Its like heating a barn.

*Thats why I hate it when I throw in some year old mullberry and listen to my gas furnace kick on.*

I agree I should up grade, like to a better house but I can't blast my wife out of this one. I wish I had just a nice fireplace in the living room and the house stayed 85 degrees and I only burned about 4 cords of wood a year.

Then I would spend more time fishing.

BTW I hear those Yukons are nice stoves.


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 30, 2009)

ShagBark,

Its a slow day at work so I will give my not worth much opinion on Mulberry. 

If it is close to your house I would leave it alone and just come back every spring and eat the berries off of it. 

If it is in your drive way and the birds are eating the berries and pooping purple stuff on your car I would cut it down wait 730 days then try and burn it.

If I had a smoker I would try to smoke some chickens with it but you better have a gas assist or it probably won't stay lit.

If I had limited storage I would save it for a wood that will cure in one season. 

If I had a choice between piss elm and mulberry I would probably cut them both down just just because I like to run my Stihl. I would then push them in a brush pile and poor a whole bunch of motor oil and tires on them just so it would burn. Then I would set back in a lawn chair and drink some cold beer and watch it burn.


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## CrappieKeith (Jun 30, 2009)

I guess you do have a problem.
I know that we could help with that even though your house is that drafty.
I'd probally upsize you too the SJ125.
Cut your wood consumption in half and keep that gas from coming on....no matter how cold you got in Kansas!

Working that Hotblast like you do,I can't imagine you'll get too much more out of her..so when she lets go,you know where to find us.Until then hump that wood and do the best you can with it.


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## YCSTEVE (Jun 30, 2009)

Yukon Eagle was one of the first stoves I looked at online. If I remember right it had a round firebox. I also looked at the Fire Cheif. 

It wasn't unusual for me to have a $500 gas bill in January. I originally purchased a pellet stove at the local farm store. On a 40 degree day it would not raise the temp in my house. That lasted about a week. I took it back and they had the Hot Blast on display so I swapped out the pellet stove for the Hot Blast. My house went from 68 degrees with a $500 gas bill to 78 degees with a $100 gas bill. We have two gas water heaters and a gas dryer.

Wood was the only way to go.


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## boyland (Jul 2, 2009)

MB takes forever to dry out. I cut some in April and in my wood pile is has nice leaves and looks like it is growing. That stuff is crazy. It does burn very well but the smell is not good. I would use in OWB or Outside burner not in my fireplace.


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## warjohn (Jul 2, 2009)

Bowtie said:


> How small do you guys split mulberry? I split anything under 6" diameter. Unless you are using a wood furnace or decent size stove, the harder woods need to be split small IMO, or dried for 2 years.
> 
> I have had the same moisture problem with hedge and mulberry when it hasnt seasoned long enough or is not split small enough to be seasoned right.
> 
> I had a bad opinion of hedge when I first tried it because it wouldnt burn. Turns out the outside looked dry, but the inside was green as heck. Mulberry is similar. The stuff can look dry as a bone, but if its very thick, the moisture holds inside for a long time.



When I cut hedge in the winter I take it straight to my MIL's. She will burn a pickup load every 2 or 3 weeks I have trouble keeping up with here so she almost never gets seasoned wood. Any seasoned wood I get I keep for myself. I have to season mulberry.


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## Wood Doctor (Jul 3, 2009)

welder15725 said:


> It has a little less BTU per cord than oak. So its good stuff. Let'r eat man!!


Correct. However, by some miracle, mulberry has just as much BTU per pound, if not more, than oak when dry. The reason is that when dry, it is less dense than oak, but when spring green (like now) it is more dense than oak. Mulberry drinks water like a drunkard in the spring.

Locust and mulberry are both plentiful and underrated firewood species, and both are almost disease free.


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