managing woodland

[geordief]

Wondering what might be a  good tree to favour for the purpose of gathering logs.My ground has quite a lot of beech, holly, alder ,sycamore  as well as birch ,rhododendron,laurel,oak and conifers.
For the purposes of timber for burning should I really be looking for trees I can coppice ?
And is it the faster growing trees that make more sense?

[guydewdney]

The best wood is beech, birch and ash.

Ash you can burn green, virtually everything else needs drying off.

For volume of wood - go for fast growing tree - like laylandii - but dont expect much heat from it. For maximum heat per cubic foot - a hardwood - like oak is good - but it takes 2 years to dry out.

You are looking at a ten year plan.


http://www.aie.org.uk/aie_data/aie_firewood.html

[talisman]

Best combination for home fire is Ash and Oak mix

Old woodland saying "Ash and Oak is fit for kings toes"   

Of course Ash is probably the easiest to split

For WBS ..If you can get your hands on Yew will give out masses of heat with a 2nd burn when the oils catch, mix this with Beech and you will get serious heat (had this mix one year and the rads got so hot had to open all windows to loose heat)

Don't bother with silver Birch ... no heat at all

Don't burn Elder in the house .... Bad luck

Hazel is brilliant for coppicing ... cut on a 3 year rotation, cover the stools when cut with brush wood to stop the deer from eating the young shoots

[AlanM]

Seems to be a little bit the wrong way round. You should grow the trees which are most suited to the site. These will will give the best response to conditions and then you can manage that for fuelwood, as well as other requirements whatever they may be. As regards the value of different trees, the heat energy in different trees is related to their density, ie a conifer(spruce) may grow fast but may only have a density of 400kg/m3, wheras oak which grows slower will have a density of 750kg/m3. Incidentally birch has a density of 650kg/m3.
The relative "merits" of different species are more dependent on their moisture contents when placed in the stove, i would venture than, on each spp burning characteristics. That said, conifers, are more reactive, and good for a quick fire, with denser hardwoods, good for prolonged heat.

Alan

[Woodrascal]

Don't bother with silver Birch ... no heat at all

What...?  Send it over to me - it doesn't burn for as long as other wood but when properly dry, it burns very well and hot with a great flame picture in a decent stove.

[geordief]

The relative "merits" of different species are more dependent on their moisture contents when placed in the stove, i would venture than, on each spp burning characteristics. That said, conifers, are more reactive, and good for a quick fire, with denser hardwoods, good for prolonged heat.

Alan

if you just wanted to maximise the amount of heat from a given area of woodland over a ,say, 10year period  would it be more sensible to prioritise softwood trees over harwood trees or vice versa ?

[daftlad]

Seems to be a little bit the wrong way round. You should grow the trees which are most suited to the site. These will will give the best response to conditions and then you can manage that for fuelwood, as well as other requirements whatever they may be. As regards the value of different trees, the heat energy in different trees is related to their density, ie a conifer(spruce) may grow fast but may only have a density of 400kg/m3, wheras oak which grows slower will have a density of 750kg/m3. Incidentally birch has a density of 650kg/m3.
The relative "merits" of different species are more dependent on their moisture contents when placed in the stove, i would venture than, on each spp burning characteristics. That said, conifers, are more reactive, and good for a quick fire, with denser hardwoods, good for prolonged heat.

Alan

How does willow perform? I was thinking of some sort of super Willow such as Viminalis, Chinese, Dasyclados or Q83 (I copied and pasted these varieties from a willow website).
The plan is to burn it hard and fast (oooo errrr) in a masonry stove, it would be harvested on maybe a 1 or 2 year rotation to keep the branches thin so they burn faster.
Or is there something else better?
ta ta

[dhaslam]

The trees than can stay growing  while producing are best and the  trees growing naturally in the area should give most output.   I was thinking of hazel but the hazel growing in the hedge seems very sorry for itself, while ash is growing strongly so ash seems better.   They both coppice well but you don't seem to have either of these. In your case  of the ones listed possibly birch and holly are best.   Oak and beech need a long cycle, more than ten years.    The other trees I am as thinking of  are fruit trees but they need to be pollarded instead of being cut to the ground.    

http://swepstonecoppice.co.uk/coppicing.aspx  

[AlanM]

Morning,
having re-read the OP, i have some more comments. you mention that you already have some spp growing there so i'll look at those.
Beech, good firewood, not particularly suitable for coppicing iirc, slow growing
Holly, very good firewood, ditto above, nice to have in wood, red berries and winter greenery
Alder, good firewood, very good charcoal, fast growing likes wet conditions, is your ground wet?
Sycamore, good firewood, very fast growing, will coppice, so perhaps look at this one
Birch, good firewood, fast growing, poor at coppicing, but will seed readily
Rhododendron, dense wood, so good firewood but, contains a toxin, so should only be burnt when dry and in a stove, not open fire. shades everything else out(
and poisons the ground ) so I would suggest you should remove this completely from your wood(if it is R.ponticum, one with purple flowers)
Laurel, not sure, would guess density similar to Rhodo, not so invasive, usually, would use it but not encourage it
Oak, very good firewood, but better left to grow up to become decent trees to provide timber(and some firewood)
conifers, you didin't mention which type and there is a large difference between say, spruce and larch or douglas

As i said in previous post you need to think about what you want the woodland to do for you. Some of the trees will work and some wont.

Hope this helps,

Alan

[yorkwils]

I've planted 2,000 Willows over the last 4 years and hope to get a good coppice supply of wood-chips for a boiler. These are mainly Viminalis and are doing well despite being 1,000 feet above sea-level. I made a lot of stupid mistakes but eventually found a cheap, reliable way to get them started avoiding rabbits etc. You will almost certainly need irrigation in the first couple of years at least, I made my own irrigators at about 10p per tree all-in. Some pics are on my website (http://www.yotex.net), more details on request.

[Ancient Brewer]

I am mainly burning seasoned poplar in my stove. It burns ok but seems to leave loads of ash which has a tendency to fuse - its gritty, alomost like sand. Perhaps high amounts of silicon / calcium.


Any thoughts?

[paul-n]

I've planted 2,000 Willows over the last 4 years and hope to get a good coppice supply of wood-chips for a boiler. These are mainly Viminalis and are doing well despite being 1,000 feet above sea-level. I made a lot of stupid mistakes but eventually found a cheap, reliable way to get them started avoiding rabbits etc. You will almost certainly need irrigation in the first couple of years at least, I made my own irrigators at about 10p per tree all-in. Some pics are on my website (http://www.yotex.net), more details on request.

Hi there

Are you creating your own wood chips ? if so how ?

Nice site by the way.

regards Paul

[yorkwils]

Paul

Glad you like the site - gradually knocking it into shape, loads more stuff to add when time allows.

About 700 trees went in 4 years ago, and the rest in stages since, so I've not yet had a huge supply of branches to chip. From what I have seen so far, Willow whips are about as good as it gets. I'm using a Bosch low-speed chipper which I quite impressive but I don't think it will do when larger quantities are available. It's like a tapered chute with a rotating screw thing at the bottom. As a whip is pushed in, it's grabbed by the screw and cut into neat little chunks about 20mm long. Because the whip is drawn through automatically there's time to grab the next one and get ready before it's gone through. Smaller whips can go through together. It takes about an hour to do enough for 2 days heating for the house. The end result is similar to wood pellets.

If I had known at the beginning what I have learned since, I could have been a lot further ahead by now - possibly as much as 2 years. But then life isn't like that is it?
Are you thinking of planting some Willow or do you already have a local supply of wood?

Regards, Guy

[billi]

.... I am still not so sure what to do with my 3 acres of planted willows, poplar,alder 

-Shredder it into paper bags and burn it ?
-Let it grow bigger and make logs ?
-Shredder it  with leaves and make a compost heap  for heating without burning ?
- Sell the willows for basket making and buy firewod    (lazy billi  )

I guess time will tell 


Billi

[paul-n]

Guy

Are you thinking of planting some Willow or do you already have a local supply of wood?

Yes if I ever get enough land !

Need to move first from the executive rabbit hutch.

Hmmm your figures imply running your chipper for around 100 - 180 hours a year , wonder how long it will do that for ?

Maybe a tile/masonary stove would be better , removes the need for chipping so saving the electricity and manpower that takes ?

But then I love your wood chip burner , it looks a lot more like a mans tool , you sort of don't see anything happening with a masonary stove.

Keep up the good work , I will be following all you pioneers as soon as I can 

regards Paul