Cutting standing dead ash

[mainewoods]

Ash with the "yellows" can take up to 10 years to die, which can make the tree look more dead than it really is. Black ash also has more moisture content than white ash. Perhaps you have black ash with the "yellows".

 

[CRThomas]

We farm and around our fields tree line I've got enough to last me a life time I guess got 2 semi loads of Ash and a semi load of cherry

 

[Wood Doctor]

Ash with the "yellows" can take up to 10 years to die, which can make the tree look deader than it really is. Black ash also has more moisture content than white ash. Perhaps you have black ash with the "yellows".

I've had a similar experience with "dead" elm. Some elm tress will be leafless for three years and when cut down, the trunks are still wet and you even have to wait a month or two in the round for them to split easily. Then you have to wait another two months to burn them. However, it's worth the wait.

 

[CRThomas]

I cut up/ down 6 standing dead ash trees yesterday. They were dead for going on 3 years now. They were from 5 to 10 inch diameter at the trunks. I was under the impression that I would be able to cut, split and burn these trees within days.

I was wrong. To my surpise the trunk wood was very wet and on most of them even most of the 1 1/2 inch sized limbs were sizzling were spitting when I burned the sticks in the burn barrel.

Ash must still draw moisture after EAB kills it. But there was no leaves on these trees for 2 years. They were in my yard so I kept an eye on them. Of course the small twigs shattered like glass when they fell making clean-up an all day event. I'll split it later today.

You should have cut it while the leaves were still on it that stops water from coming in the roots then the leaves will pull the water out I always cut my trees in the summer and leave them lay A downed tree with the leaves on it will pull more water out of the tree then splitting and dry be cause the leaves need water they have to get it some place. (Later)

 

[Saddle Mander]

- that old poem about ash green and ash dry a king to warm his slippers buy? Never worked for me.

Hasn't worked for me, either.

 

[CRThomas]

I cut ash trees in the summer drop a ash chunk and split in the kiln next day at noon the ash is down to 8 to 10 on the ends resplit check center it 14 to 15 per cent. Check it 2 times with two different checkers. Your ash and my ash are different. I'm in southern illinois

 

[Wood Doctor]

Ash dries faster than any really good firewood that you can cut. That works for me.

 

[woodbooga]

No experience here with eab ash, but I've burnt a lot of dead and down and dead standing. Some of it is on the truck into the stove. Some, not so much. Any tree will wick up moisture even after it's dead. The pipelines remain intact.

Curious if the ash in question was on ridge/ledge or in a swampy bottomland. Much of the white ash I cut is sawmpash and it will wick up water.

Likewise, I bucked up half a cord of oak Sunday that hasn't seen an acorn since Clinton was President and folks dialed onto the Web using aol disks. Wood at the butt was soaked and still had the acrid tang of green cut. This stuff came from the bottomlands and just got chucked into the pile for 2015-16.

 

[taskswap]

Curious if the ash in question was on ridge/ledge or in a swampy bottomland. Much of the white ash I cut is sawmpash and it will wick up water.

What I played with was both log and cut/split. This was last winter - I blasted through my whole pile and had to call around for whatever I could get. I know I'm not the only one. I ended up with two cords "split / seasoned" (they didn't say how long it was seasoned for but it seemed to ME it must have been a couple of days...!) and two-ish cords of log from a landscaper that had done some take-downs.

Ash isn't uncommon here in CT but we have a huge amount of oak and maple so that's mostly what I get. But the cut/split delivery had some ash pieces in it, so I picked through to find them and set them aside. Also, two of the logs the other guy brought were young ash trees, probably 8"-10" dia. It seems a shame to have cut them - I didn't see any signs of EAB , and they weren't "standing dead". They were freshly cut. I always look for that when I get a delivery - there isn't an ash tree around for several acres, but I don't want to be "that guy", you know? Any signs of any kind of insect damage and I always cut and burn those bits first, while it's cold and they're inactive.

As for the species I can't tell one from another when it's already split, but I'm 90% sure the logs were Green Ash.

Anyway, I was disappointed in both. I don't know if I really trust my moisture meter - it's a cheap-o off eBay - but they tested at like 28%, even after the end of a week. I have a boiler and it's normally pretty tolerant of "junk" but I just felt like I was wasting it.

Everybody thinks I'm crazy, but that's when I fell in love with sycamore. I had some from another "landscaper special" and THREE WEEKS after splitting it, it was down to 21% (same meter) and lit and burned like paper. OK, it's junk wood - lots of ash, definitely not honey locust. But I'll take it any day when things get tight. I think because it's a swamp species (almost a woody grass itself) it dries as fast as it gets wet?

 

[XSKIER]

I've been cutting ash in two different areas lately, both long standing dead. One area is a wooded knoll, high and dry but shaded. It takes a year to season when CSS. The other, a wet swale in the middle of a wind swept hay field. It's ready to burn as soon as it's drug out the water.