What Kind of Pine/Evergreen Do You Burn?

[steved]

I'm not sure what the most common type of Christmas tree people buy but I think Doug fir is one of them. Damn it I just missed out on the best scrounging score in all of 2014! All those Christmas trees everyone just threw away was actually premium firewood!

I scrounged over four cords of Christmas tree gone wild...some was over 24" at the butt. It was a mix of the "old" species that were used for Christmas trees...white pine and red and/or scotch. Free for the taking...

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[Ambull01]

I scrounged over four cords of Christmas tree gone wild...some was over 24" at the butt. It was a mix of the "old" species that were used for Christmas trees...white pine and red and/or scotch. Free for the taking...

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I'm chasing you all over, from Scrounging to this thread lol. You just drove around neighborhoods picking them up? Damn I really missed out. Saw trees all over the damn place. Could have had my yard covered in awesome smelling firewood.

 

[steved]

Nah, woman's parents had a Christmas tree farm they abandoned. The trees got big, and were taking over the property


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[Ambull01]

Nah, woman's parents had a Christmas tree farm they abandoned. The trees got big, and were taking over the property


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I'm starting to HATE PA. State forests that allow you to cut downed trees, abandoned tree farms, cheap mini mansions near York, etc

 

[mr.finn]

Have a stack of mixed Hemlock/White pine. This is for firepit use only. I did burn some dry Hemlock this fall and it was nice. Tried burning some recently split stuff and was hissing. Will let it all dry out and prob wind up burning it this spring. Also have a small stash of dry cedar that is a lot of fun to burn.

 

[windthrown]

Lots of Christmas tree farms out where I live. Many species of firs are grown for x-mas trees here for local and export markets. Also there are hundreds of square miles of monoculture timber stands here in the Cascades, mostly Doug fir, and they are always being thinned or logged. There are also large swaths of alder/maple/cottonwood stands. Those faster growing hardwoods are the first to sprout after clear cutting, but they get crowned out by the taller conifers that become dominant stands over time. The commercial stuff here I cannot get wood from. Too many buyers of cull logs, mainly firewood processors and pulp mills. I get most of my wood for free from arborists taking trees down in the burbs. So I get and burn a lot of different species of firewood.

Doug fir on this side of the Cascades is denser and stronger than on the east side, and it has better heat. Doug fir in California is a separate sub species and is also less dense and does not command the premium that we get for it up here. Old growth conifers also have denser wood than new growth, so again the BTU numbers vary even within species, depending on the size, age and location. Spruce is similar to medium western pine species in density and heat value for burning. From a visual perspective spruce, having short needles spread along the branches, looks more like true firs to me than pines.

 

[Ambull01]

Lots of Christmas tree farms out where I live. Many species of firs are grown for x-mas trees here for local and export markets. Also there are hundreds of square miles of monoculture timber stands here in the Cascades, mostly Doug fir, and they are always being thinned or logged. There are also large swaths of alder/maple/cottonwood stands. Those faster growing hardwoods are the first to sprout after clear cutting, but they get crowned out by the taller conifers that become dominant stands over time. The commercial stuff here I cannot get wood from. Too many buyers of cull logs, mainly firewood processors and pulp mills. I get most of my wood for free from arborists taking trees down in the burbs. So I get and burn a lot of different species of firewood.

Doug fir on this side of the Cascades is denser and stronger than on the east side, and it has better heat. Doug fir in California is a separate sub species and is also less dense and does not command the premium that we get for it up here. Old growth conifers also have denser wood than new growth, so again the BTU numbers vary even within species, depending on the size, age and location. Spruce is similar to medium western pine species in density and heat value for burning. From a visual perspective spruce, having short needles spread along the branches, looks more like true firs to me than pines.

I wish I was getting most of my stuff from arborists. They probably deliver stuff already bucked right?

So I'm guess collecting and burning Christmas trees here in MD wouldn't be an ideal scrounge score. Most of the trees would probably be around 6' or so and small diameter. It would take a lot of them to be worthwhile. Plus all the daggone branches I would have to limb.

I really need to buy that tree identification book.

 

[windthrown]

I wish I was getting most of my stuff from arborists. They probably deliver stuff already bucked right?

So I'm guess collecting and burning Christmas trees here in MD wouldn't be an ideal scrounge score. Most of the trees would probably be around 6' or so and small diameter. It would take a lot of them to be worthwhile. Plus all the daggone branches I would have to limb.

I really need to buy that tree identification book.

Uh, they do not deliver any wood here. In many cases they do not even buck up the rounds on site any more. Firewood is hunted down by the mobs and hordes of wood zombies here. I have a few friends that cut trees and call me or I get leads from Craigslist. Some are duds, some are gems. Arbor guys here (meaning mostly Mexicans now) do the least amount of work possible, and do not have good skills or training from what I have seen. They climb with 660 saws with 36 inch B&C and hack and swak away on 8 inch limbs. They leave messy cuts. They leave stuff in long lengths. Which is fine with me, as I have the saws to buck and noodle them into manageable rounds that I can toss into my trailer and deal with later. If I am lucky and get a call from an old school arborist, and they have a mountain of bucked up rounds that need to be removed. I halve, quarter or cut them into 9s depending on the size, and haul them off for further processing here. I usually have 6-7 cords of wood here, enough for 2 years of heating. I always season them for at least a year, usually two, depending on the species. In November I got a cord of old growth western hemlock nicely bucked, in December I got a cord of maple that I had to cut into 9s from 6 foot rounds that I bucked from a huge log, and I just got a cord of cedar rounds that the owner thought was pine. Cedar is slightly better than pine in most cases.

Tree ID books are good. I have a half dozen. I know all the native species here, but there are so many eastern and European species planted here in the burbs it is insane. People rarely know what they are. I got some mimosa wood with some maple a few years ago and I had never heard of that. It burned good though. It is invasive as all crap here. I now have a lot of black locust that I got as well. Pioneers brought that and planted it here, and in many areas out here where there are nothing left of the towns that were here 100 years ago, all that is left are stands of black locust. Nobody knows what that is here any more though. I got a half cord of cut, split and seasoned black locust from an arborist 2 years ago. I could not believe my luck. He just said it did not burn well in his stove, and said that I would need a good stove to burn it in. Phuuut! Got me through the polar vortex last year. Burned great.

As for X-mas trees, if they are that small they are likely not worth the effort to cut and limb. That will be pretty light and pithy wood as well, and not very dense. If it were a hardwood it would be different. Smaller tree tops and limbs like that I just burn here in slash piles.

 

[dhskier2]

Spruce looks an awful lot like pine to me.

I really need to buy that tree identification book.

Spruce confused for pine seems like a stretch... now spruce confused for fir is a little more plausable.
Good idea on a tree ID book

 

[dhskier2]

Lots of misinformation out there (and here) about pine.

Thank you! Great post, very informative. I was reading through this thread and just shaking my head more and more. You saved my fingers a bunch of typing!

 

[slowp]

I live in a major Christmas tree growing area. Doug-fir and Noble Fir are the two main species. The trees have different breeding than their relatives planted for timber. Lots of work goes into them to make them perfect. You'll pay more for a Noble. We used to be able to get wild Nobles, but clearcutting stopped, which meant that replanting stopped, and the wild Nobles are now too big for Christmas trees.

When you talk of poplar, what do you mean? Aspen? Lombardy poplars?

I am going to get some of our native cedar on the ground. It can't go out as logs because so many trees on this place had nails pounded into them by the previous family that lived here. I guess I'll be burning it in a couple of years.

 

[Ambull01]

Spruce confused for pine seems like a stretch... now spruce confused for fir is a little more plausable.
Good idea on a tree ID book

Umm, are you calling me a liar? lol

No seriously, I know I'm a total idiot with this tree identification/wood burning thing. I'm mentioned before that I've lived most of my life in Hawaii. Moved to NC when I was 17, finished high school, and joined the Marines to see the world. They sent me right back to Hawaii for 3 1/2 years. I was stationed about 10 minutes from where I grew up. Such is my luck.

I don't think there's pine/spruce trees in Hawaii, at least not where I lived. If I saw a spruce tree with cones on it I would automatically think pine cone. I've never heard someone say spruce cone. The cones are what's screwing me up. Plus they all have needles. Needles have always equaled pine trees to this dumb Hawaii boy.

 

[svk]

Umm, are you calling me a liar? lol

No seriously, I know I'm a total idiot with this tree identification/wood burning thing. I'm mentioned before that I've lived most of my life in Hawaii. Moved to NC when I was 17, finished high school, and joined the Marines to see the world. They sent me right back to Hawaii for 3 1/2 years. I was stationed about 10 minutes from where I grew up. Such is my luck.

I don't think there's pine/spruce trees in Hawaii, at least not where I lived. If I saw a spruce tree with cones on it I would automatically think pine cone. I've never heard someone say spruce cone. The cones are what's screwing me up. Plus they all have needles. Needles have always equaled pine trees to this dumb Hawaii boy.

It's this easy

Smells like cat pee, its a spruce.

Smells good, its a pine.

 

[Ambull01]

It's this easy

Smells like cat pee, its a spruce.

Smells good, its a pine.

If it smells like cat pee why do people use it as Christmas trees? My dog would piss all over the tree if it smells like cat pee.

Anyway, I'm done with this nonsense lol. I'm going to buy a tree identification book and wait until the leaves grow back. I'll use the book and the VT phone app to ID trees and take pictures of them.

 

[svk]

If it smells like cat pee why do people use it as Christmas trees? My dog would piss all over the tree if it smells like cat pee.

Anyway, I'm done with this nonsense lol. I'm going to buy a tree identification book and wait until the leaves grow back. I'll use the book and the VT phone app to ID trees and take pictures of them.

I don't know may who use spruce for Christmas trees. Primarily balsam and a few Scotch pine around here for trees.

 

[Ambull01]

I don't know may who use spruce for Christmas trees. Primarily balsam and a few Scotch pine around here for trees.

http://treesandshrubs.about.com/od/selection/tp/Spruce-Trees-and-Shrubs.htm

Read it there.

 

[svk]

http://treesandshrubs.about.com/od/selection/tp/Spruce-Trees-and-Shrubs.htm

Read it there.

We've got lots of white and black spruce around. Blues also that were planted as yard trees. My mom has one that is probably 100 years old and easily 25" but it's dying from the top now. I'd love to get some saw logs out of it but I think she will sell the house before the tree needs to come down.

 

[slowp]

I think you have some fir trees, known as piss firs, confused with spruce. An easy way to ID spruce is to grab a branch. If you say OUCH, it is a spruce. It was said that spruce make good Christmas trees for people with little kids. They get stabbed when they grab it and they learn to leave it alone.

Spruce smell....sprucey. It is kind of a good smell. At least for the ones around here. Our natives are Engelmann (Picea engelmannii) and Sitka (Picea sitchensis).

 

[svk]

I think you have some fir trees, known as piss firs, confused with spruce. An easy way to ID spruce is to grab a branch. If you say OUCH, it is a spruce. It was said that spruce make good Christmas trees for people with little kids. They get stabbed when they grab it and they learn to leave it alone.

Spruce smell....sprucey. It is kind of a good smell. At least for the ones around here. Our natives are Engelmann and Sitka.

Without a doubt the trees here are white, black, and blue spruce. Sharpy pokey needles and especially white spruce smell strongly like cat pee , worse when disturbed.

 

[Ambull01]

Uh, they do not deliver any wood here. In many cases they do not even buck up the rounds on site any more. Firewood is hunted down by the mobs and hordes of wood zombies here. I have a few friends that cut trees and call me or I get leads from Craigslist. Some are duds, some are gems. Arbor guys here (meaning mostly Mexicans now) do the least amount of work possible, and do not have good skills or training from what I have seen. They climb with 660 saws with 36 inch B&C and hack and swak away on 8 inch limbs. They leave messy cuts. They leave stuff in long lengths. Which is fine with me, as I have the saws to buck and noodle them into manageable rounds that I can toss into my trailer and deal with later. If I am lucky and get a call from an old school arborist, and they have a mountain of bucked up rounds that need to be removed. I halve, quarter or cut them into 9s depending on the size, and haul them off for further processing here. I usually have 6-7 cords of wood here, enough for 2 years of heating. I always season them for at least a year, usually two, depending on the species. In November I got a cord of old growth western hemlock nicely bucked, in December I got a cord of maple that I had to cut into 9s from 6 foot rounds that I bucked from a huge log, and I just got a cord of cedar rounds that the owner thought was pine. Cedar is slightly better than pine in most cases.

Tree ID books are good. I have a half dozen. I know all the native species here, but there are so many eastern and European species planted here in the burbs it is insane. People rarely know what they are. I got some mimosa wood with some maple a few years ago and I had never heard of that. It burned good though. It is invasive as all crap here. I now have a lot of black locust that I got as well. Pioneers brought that and planted it here, and in many areas out here where there are nothing left of the towns that were here 100 years ago, all that is left are stands of black locust. Nobody knows what that is here any more though. I got a half cord of cut, split and seasoned black locust from an arborist 2 years ago. I could not believe my luck. He just said it did not burn well in his stove, and said that I would need a good stove to burn it in. Phuuut! Got me through the polar vortex last year. Burned great.

As for X-mas trees, if they are that small they are likely not worth the effort to cut and limb. That will be pretty light and pithy wood as well, and not very dense. If it were a hardwood it would be different. Smaller tree tops and limbs like that I just burn here in slash piles.

That sucks. I've heard of some lucky guys that have tree cutters drop off stuff right in their yard/driveway.

Can you call someone that sucks at cutting trees an arborist? Maybe tree hack would be a better term much like curing vs seasoning (I'm seeing a lot of people near me refer to seasoned wood as something that has been split for a season). There's tree guys near me that sell firewood at a premium price. What a business, charge someone to cut and haul away wood then resell that same stuff to someone else.

What's the best tree ID book you've read? I've heard black locust is premium firewood, I'll have to try it someday. I would also like a crack at splitting western hemlock, heard it's a PITA.

Yep my Christmas tree collecting for firewood is a big fail.