Growing a Firewood Garden

[RockyMountainHeathen]

You will need firewood for heat post earth disaster. Cutting down regular trees will deplete your trees fast. Trees that can be coppiced are what you need. They grow back from shoots.
I have a wonderful book on Coppicing. Here in Colorado, we have several types of trees that can be coppiced for firewood. Cottonwood is a big one along with others.
Here's a ling to the book I have ... https://tinyurl.com/44yrh4ku

I also just watched a cool video about a tree I've never heard of, Paulownia. And yes, it will grow in Colorado zone 5 just fine.

This $12 Tree Grows Firewood… Then Grows Back After You Cut It

 

[Ark Barn Farmer]

You will need firewood for heat post earth disaster. Cutting down regular trees will deplete your trees fast. Trees that can be coppiced are what you need. They grow back from shoots.
I have a wonderful book on Coppicing. Here in Colorado, we have several types of trees that can be coppiced for firewood. Cottonwood is a big one along with others.
Here's a ling to the book I have ... https://tinyurl.com/44yrh4ku

I also just watched a cool video about a tree I've never heard of, Paulownia. And yes, it will grow in Colorado zone 5 just fine.

This $12 Tree Grows Firewood… Then Grows Back After You Cut It

Alder is another good one

 

[Megan BirdHaven]

You will need firewood for heat post earth disaster. Cutting down regular trees will deplete your trees fast. Trees that can be coppiced are what you need. They grow back from shoots.
I have a wonderful book on Coppicing. Here in Colorado, we have several types of trees that can be coppiced for firewood. Cottonwood is a big one along with others.
Here's a ling to the book I have ... https://tinyurl.com/44yrh4ku

I also just watched a cool video about a tree I've never heard of, Paulownia. And yes, it will grow in Colorado zone 5 just fine.

This $12 Tree Grows Firewood… Then Grows Back After You Cut It

Coppicing trees is also useful for animal care. Having trees that can be cut for fire wood means there will be leaves and small twigs. That part of the trees can be given to most livestock who will consume it. For that reason, I suggest to ensure that the trees you acquire for fire wood coppicing are healthy for animal consumption.

 

[S0NWO]

Coppice wood is high in creosote, due to the higher bark to heart wood ratio.
Ideally, you also want to design your wood burning systems in a way that uses the creosote as a fuel instead of depositing it in your chimney.

That means a very hot burn chamber, like rocket mass heaters.

The benefit of these is a very efficient and clean burn. The drawbacks include short burn times requiring constant feeding. You can't just load them up, close the flue, and let it slow burn all night for example. You also can't sit in front of it and stare at the fire in relaxed contemplation.

This means you'll likely need more than one type of fire system. A rocket mass heater for general space heating (being fed via some kind of mechanical means), and a traditional woodstove for your mental health.

 

[RockyMountainHeathen]

??? Coppiced wood itself is not inherently high in creosote. The creosote levels depend more on the species of the wood, its moisture content, and how it is burned. Therefore, coppiced wood can be low in creosote if it is a suitable species, well-seasoned, and burned under optimal conditions. I don't know anyone that would pile their wood all the way up to a flue by the chimney. Most folks here in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado depend on wood burning stoves for heat. We have one. Never in my life have we piled it up so high. This thread is about growing trees that are able to be coppiced.

 

[S0NWO]

The reason you clean a chimney in a wood burning stove, it to clear out the creosote deposits that build up from it condensing out of the smoke as it rises and cools. It's what fuels a chimney fire.

Creosote comes from the volatile oils in the wood, and those oils are concentrated in the outer, actively growing parts of the tree. Some woods do indeed have higher concentrations of these oils than others, but all woods have them.

It was just a side note since if you're going to the effort of a managed coppice woodlot, you might as well optimize the heating systems for the fuel you're using.

 

[RockyMountainHeathen]

Coppice wood is high in creosote, due to the higher bark to heart wood ratio.

yes, but I'm replying to what you stated. And I corrected it. Coppicing has nothing to do with the amount of creosote in any specific wood and everything to do with specific trees that grow multiple branches from being cut down. I know WHERE creosote comes from. I know creosote builds up in chimneys. Managing any firewood, whether it's able to be coppiced or not, is all part of heating homes without electricity. But the amount of creosote in any specific wood has nothing to do if the tree is able to be coppiced or not. This thread isn't about burning wood... it's about trees that can be coppiced. A thread on how to burn wood in a woodstove, a rocket mass heater, etc etc, would be a good thread to start though for those people who have never owned a fireplace, wood burning stove, or a rocket mass heater.

 

[Ark Barn Farmer]

Any of the Locust trees (Gleditsia) are excellent sources for firewood as they burn with some very high BTU’s. They’re also very rot resistant and make excellent fence posts. Splitting it without a mechanical splitter is very difficult especially once the wood has dried.

 

[RockyMountainHeathen]

the aspen trees up here in high altitude burn very hot too. Another great tree to be coppiced.

 

[Ark Barn Farmer]

Some Birch (Betula) burn hot as well. Many types of maple are good for coppicing. Salix, or willow trees will do the same but aren’t the best for firewood. Willow on the other hand has a wide range of uses. You can boil the bark into a rooting hormone. A cut willow branch can be planted directly into the soil and will grow in optimal conditions. Branches can be woven into animal enclosures, used in wattle and daub construction. It can be used for skin boat ribs bent into low housing etc……..

 

[Angela]

You will need firewood for heat post earth disaster. Cutting down regular trees will deplete your trees fast. Trees that can be coppiced are what you need. They grow back from shoots.
I have a wonderful book on Coppicing. Here in Colorado, we have several types of trees that can be coppiced for firewood. Cottonwood is a big one along with others.
Here's a ling to the book I have ... https://tinyurl.com/44yrh4ku

I also just watched a cool video about a tree I've never heard of, Paulownia. And yes, it will grow in Colorado zone 5 just fine.

This $12 Tree Grows Firewood… Then Grows Back After You Cut It

awesome about the $12 tree!! I love that you tube guy. he has excellent videos. and I remember a family friend having wood stove in his greenhouse so he could grow his pot plants to maturity with the short seasons up here. worked really well for him he had toads living in there salamanders too.

 

[S0NWO]

A good coppicing wood around my region is Manitoba Maple / Box Elder.

It makes a passable firewood (more BTUs than poplar or aspen). However it grows extremely fast, is almost impossible to kill, and while you're waiting for it to regrow to suitable size, you can tap it for sap and make syrup from it which tastes similar to butterscotch.

So it is a multi-function tree.