Love your videos! I also have a piece of land which is mostly grassy and wet. You've convinced me that fast growing willow is a great option for me. I'm probably going to start planting within a couple of years and I'm very excited about getting started.
Im so grateful to live in a 12 acre , 100 year old Douglas fir forest. Just harvesting blow downs and standing dead can produce more top notch fire wood than we can burn
I'm in South Wales. Six years ago started planting an acre of hybrid willows for biomass. Last winter we took the first harvest. After a summer standing it is dry enough to burn. It burns fast and hot. I made a batch box type mass heater built to an ingle nook fire place in our stone cottage. Much of the heat is retained in the mass of the fire place and the surrounding stone walls. Our living room is still warm the morning after a burn. All the small twiggy bits of willow that were deemed too small to burn were put through a shredder and are now being used as a mulch in the garden. The later willow planting was inter planted with oak and chestnut well spaced out which were and grown from seed gathered locally. So far its working out well, and very rewarding.
@@theviewfromtheclouds Its difficult to quantify. Hopefully enough to get us through the winter without having to carry wood off the beach which gets more difficult as the years go by.
The last time I visited the Lammas Project near me in West Wales, I met some people who were growing willow for biomass. I scoffed a bit at the time, but judging by what I've read recently, including your report on how much heat it generates, I was wrong to. Speaking of woody mulch, this is the time of year that I gather brambles to feed in bundles through the wood chipper. Spread about an inch thick in spring, the chips make an excellent mulch that deters slugs and melts away in about a year.
at last someone does a video on the amount of land required compared the yield and time for the tree to grow to the heat it produces! So well put together.
The "for where you are" is a key point. We cleared a few acres of our land in New England and our pioneer trees are cherry and black Birch. Very fast growing and dense; about an inch of width per year, easy to split and fast drying. We get 2-3 harvests while one generation of oak grows in between.
Unfortunately, this is the entirely wrong way of looking at things. Comparing the volume of firewoods is meaningless because it's the weight per cord that matters. Willow isn't nearly as dense as oak. So willow burns hotter, but oak burns _much_ longer and is much more energy dense. So his claim that you're getting more because willow grows faster is not looking at it scientifically. Sure, you're getting more wood, but you're not getting more heat. Back when firewood and coal were the only way to heat your house. They already figured out the best trees to grow for firewood considering the: speed of growth, length of burn, ease of splitting, rot resistance and btu'sprovided. And it's the same now as it was back then. The best woods to heat a home with are: shagbark hickory, black locust (very rapid growth but invasive), white oak, cherry, yellow birch, and American beech (but it's more difficult to split than the others mentioned). Other things to consider are that those woods mentioned don't need to be seasoned, and with the exception of hickory are highly rot resistant. There's plenty of books and articles written by actual scientists on this topic. I'd read those instead of getting info from some rando on youtube who just sounds like they know what they're talking about, but leaving out crucial information.
@@BradleyBellwether-oy2qi He said that you got more heat from Oak, so would need less of it, It just takes a hell of a lot longer to grow, Maybe you need to watch it again.
@amimrie He also said, willow is one of the best for firewood. It's absolutely *_not_* "one of the best" by a longshot. So maybe you should re-watch the video. Then, go re-read my comment.
I bought some hybrid willow ,i planted years ago i use them for hedges and cut them to 4 ft high ,i use them more for kindling and cut them in winter ,then i put the timber into my greenhouse before the summer ,its like kilm dried by winter .The greenhouse gets to 90c in the summer ,works so well .
Very interesting. I'm french, south of France, we usé beech and oak, never Willow or trees like that because we say the wood isnt premium quality, but what you explain hère is very rational and smart, specialy for people that want to be self sufficient . Thank you
The difference between here in france and the uk is that france still has thousands of woods that are worked for fire wood . thr uk cut most of its woods down to build ships way back and then never replanted or did with fast growing quick cash softwoods.
I grow some Birch for coppicing in my garden too. I do have a range of trees, as I'm very mindful of the effect of monocultures on the environment. (I live close to Sitka plantations, and see the effect of monocultures environment on these and for the land around). So I have Birch, Willow, Hazel, Beech, common species of pine, Alder and a few Oak - as well as starting to clear the Ash from my little bit of established woodland, before the fungus gets it. Another in my garden is cherry, which I grew from fruit pips. These grow fast, and may often grow back from the original stump or somewhere along the root. I have Chinese plum trees, which both produce fruit and grow at a reasonable rate to produce the odd bit of firewood. Of course, cut one down and there's no fruit for a few years, so a few years ago I started transplanting the root suckers in order to propagate new plants, so it means I can always have a tree in fruit when another is coppiced. Good one-off firewood trees are Eucalyptus - especially E. viminalis. That can grow as much as 9ft a year in the right place. Plus, one log can take all day to burn, so it's very efficient in terms of your work with a chainsaw. They don't grow back from stumps (or if they do, they are often too weak to survive for long), but seed is still reasonably cheap and available from a good seed merchant. From seed, E.viminalis grows 6ft in its first year (in West Scotland climate).
I mostly use oak and hickory as firewood. But am lucky enough to have 40 acres of woodland in the hills of east tennessee . Just cutting the windfall up after the last storm will keep me in firewood for the next 4 years or so
tarted watching this because I thought it was relevant to me. At the end I'd been on a lovely journey and had forgotten all of the details. But I'm happy to watch it again
Great info thanks, we have about 7 acres mixed in the highlands for anout ten years, weve actually found processing the gorse to be very good, apparently it was once used for iron smelting, and has since got out of control, its not that hard to harvest with decent gloves and one of the only things the deer dont eat, it also lays really well and grows fast, we bought a processor which breaks it down to 2x3" chunks which we use in the log burner on a top down burn method, we think its a very under appreciated resource which grows readily in the uk most places and the smell in flower is amazing, it can also be crushed in winter for feed stock 😀
We do the same on the west coast, near Oban. We have some gorse that's so mature that the trunk can be 10 inches in diameter. It grows faster than we can burn it. Interesting what you said about using it for animal feed. What do you crush it with? We have a small flock of Soay sheep so that would be a brilliant resource to tap in to
@@theviewfromtheclouds to be fair, our land is the only place I've ever seen it as big as it is. When we first got the place we were looking at ways to get rid of it, not realising what a fantastic resource it is. Being pea family it fixes nitrogen too and the soil underneath the gorse canopy is unbelievable
@delektrik1 well we don't actually crush ot ourselves but when reading up on its uses, we found that gorse mills were once very much a thing where the young green shoots would be crushed, I'd imagine a roller of some sort, maybe a chipper would work nowadays, it's a member of the pea family so nitrogen fixer and protien, didn't say what the nutrient profile would be sorry
I live in Texas and had a mature live oak die that I cut into firewood. It is about 33% denser than typical white oak and loads more difficult to split. It burns very hot and works perfect for outdoor grilling because it doesn’t impart bad flavor. One of my favorite trees/woods
I'm from the Netherlands and willow basically grows like grass here, where i lived it really felt like an infinite source of wood. I made tents with the poles, birdfeeders, a very crude fence and when it's dry it burns great. The hardest part about drying actually was that it's so hardy that it will try to grow even without soil. Willow is a bit like potato in many regards. I loved it! Same as your video as not only did i learn a f ton it also gave background to many of the observations i saw but didn't know why. Thanks for the video!
In Virginia, US, we have a lot of somewhat-invasive THIORNY black locust trees which grow fast and make excellent firewood. The 1.5-3 inch thorns are no joke, so we're clearing the black locust from livestock fields, but we have black locust on hilly terrain that we'll harvest for years and years...
Black Locust is sort of a miracle working tree. I understand that you don't want the thorny branches in some areas, but we had them all over in our lawn when I was growing up. The grass grows great under them because they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and put it in the soil each year. The blossoms smell nice, and as you know, they make great firewood.
@@richtomlinson7090 oh, I had no idea red mulberry was on that list! Is white mulberry also rot resistant. I know, I know, invasive, but I live way too north for red mulberry to be an option…
@rtom675 I don't have any experience with the White Mulberry variety, but it seems it is rot resistant from what I have read. I also found that Red Mulberry can grow as far north as zone 4 maybe.
Greetings from the north eastern USA. Respect to you for using as many parts of the tree as possible. I’ll use any wood for firewood, provided it’s not white pine, any kind of sumac or anything poisonous. We have a lot of firewood, snobs around here; some of them don’t actually even burn their own firewood, it’s just there for looks. In this part of the country, we have a disease affecting beech trees. It’s called Beech bark disease and it’s spread by a beetle. In 10 years, all of the beech trees will probably be dead, with a few immune survivors. BTW, your dog is totally adorable! 🌲🌳🪵🔥🐶🐾
I worked land where we had about 200acres of willow, used to harvest it for biomass. It's all been taken out now tho for a new broadleaf forest to go in, guess the owners couldn't turn down the government grant they got. So versatile willow, great for shelter building, and decorative purposes in the garden
After 40 plus years of traditional living and working professionally in many of these areas from Timberwright and Sawyer to Arborist, Tree Warden, and indigenous life skills facilitator your wisdom in this channel is excellent. Here are my highlight observation by time segment and additional observations: 00:11 Oak is for long term lumber production typically for furniture, and architecture...NOT FOR...firewood production at all. It is also (typically) generational, meaning the planter of the tree will not reap the benefit in most (not all) cases... A fast growing species, with way more uses like...Willows...is always a better choice for a teared and mixed forestry application. In the way of useful wood Willow far surpasses that of the oaks if one is truly practicing the "old ways" and trying to reap the most benefit from a species. Oak is wonderful in many ways, but as for fastest yield and broadist application willow will typically surpass oak. Shoes, baskets, firewood production, fencing, furniture and even timber framing can and did come from willow...with the list going on much further than this... 01:18 Beautifully stack wood in a shed is a marvelous thing to see and look at. If one has time for such things, I think that is wonderful! However, the time it takes to do this is...for most...is not practical in good "homestead" time management. All the wood needed for an entire years of heating and cooking should not require more than 1 full "man hour" week of time for the average homestead...if (?)...the traditional methods are being applied to the process of cutting and stacking and this is based on..."all manual"...applications...NO POWER EQUIPMENT...just sharp and properly employed wood cutting means and methods. Add modern power to this equation and it should take less than a week for all wood needs on a properly managed woodlot.... Traditional stacking methods be they in a "bin" within a shed, or simply outside in proper stacks like:... "holzhausen"...or..."holzhaufen"..."crib stacking"..."binning"...etc. are all fast methods of stanching firewood well for drying and later burning/cooking. Crib stacking is also one of the primary methods for "stack wood architecture"...such as found in the traditional formats (not the modern "DIYer" methods erroneously found in some popular books!!!)...e.g. 황토집, Klubbhus, Dizeme Duvarı, Bois Cordé, and related forms... 01:36 "Brash"...("Brush" here accross the pond...LOL)...when bundled properly is where the term..."Faggot"...originates. This was (and still is in many parts of rural Eastern Europe) what is properly burned once or twice a day in a masonry style wood heater...be that an above the floor style or the larger cooking and "infloor" styles we still have commonly in rural Asia such as the 온돌 "Ondol", or 炕 "Kang"...These Asian styles are similar to the Roman "Hypocausts" which is debated among academics as originating in concept and orgin with the Asian cultures... 02:50 This is a wonderful indicator of just how fast willows can grow. I've planted and harvest more than my share of such woodlots and harvest the wood from them as well...even to the "timber frame" structural size timber. Like the Asian..."18 year pine"...planted when a child is born to form their "dowry" at age 18 to build their own timber frame home is still practiced today found in the...穿鬥 "chuandou" style timber frames. Willow is a marvels wood species for this very fact in its own right... 03:59 I fully agree that some species do not "coppic" well at all. However, at this juncture in your video, you have unintentionally shared one of the primary sources for...山採り "Yamadori"... or the more ancient art of ...盆栽 "Pénzāi"...as it originated in ancient China well before moving to Japan. Once a woodlot manager connects to this esoteric group of cultivars, with only basic management in the "wild state" these can be a rather lucrative income stream without much effort, or time in maintaining the better "starts," whereas learning to properly pot and "air layering" these "suckers" you can generate more valued nursery stock...or...苗木盆栽 "Naegi bonsai." The U.K. has had a very thriving "Bonsai" enthusiast population since the Victorian age that always looking for new sources for trees that are indigenous to the local climate and thus already acclimated. I fully agree it is not a "good thing for a tree to do"...if...!!!...going for a normal tree. These are suckers after all and as you have correctly stated often (not alway) have a weak connection. However, these are robust starts and using a very strong mature root system that can generate planting stock for many years. 04:45 I can not tell you how often each year I hear the same nonsense often from those that consider themselves an "expert" on wood burning or the tree species..."most proper"...for wood burning. Seldom are they either..."experts"...nor are they correct at all from either the practical or historical perspective on the topic. PINES... are still, to this day, the number one species used for heating and cooking of meals with wood...NOT...!!!...the oaks and related hardwoods at all. All fast growing species historically (like willows and relates "soft" hardwoods) are the primary species just for the reasons you are listing. As a point of note, the "hottest" and best burning wood in the world is not a hardwood at all but that of the piñon pine Pinus edulis...as are many of the heavy producing "pitch pines" that are known for creating "lighter-wood." As with all burn unities for heating or cooking it is not the species that matters, when it comes to safety, but the proper maintenance and cleaning. Too often "the experts" will erroneously suggest you can't burn these "softwoods" (including willow) because the lead to chimney fires and destroy flues...all of which is complete untrue! What destroys a flue is not taking proper care of it... 06:00 Here in the United States we tend to employe British thermal unit (Btu) when examining the amount of heat a certain species of wood will generate. This alone however is not the best indicator...at all...!!!...for really examining this from a traditional, pragmatic, and functional perspective when management of a woodlot. "HOW" you burn your wood, and what "burn unit" device you employ as well as method of burning is just as important and why the masonry heater unites, and their ilk, came about as they often only burned "softwoods" and did so only once or perhaps twice a day...which is...way more efficient than what most "modern" wood burn unites do, or are design for...which is in turn...not efficient or proper at all... 07:00 This is a good time to mention, that on average, if using a traditional system of heating cooking (aka truly proper burn unit system) three acres of mature and/or well managed woodlot, without removal of primary "mother trees," will yield all the wood the average homestead needs. This is, of course, variable and only an average yet speaks to the fact that many today do not really understand these proven methods of firewood production for either heating, let alone cooking... 11:27 As an Arborist, it is important to stress to readers that neither..."Monolith pruning"...nor...traditional..."Pollarding" is a proper way to treat most mature trees. These are treatment methods for saving a tree (such as in this video)...or...for a structured type of decorative pruning. "Pollarding" and those doing this type of pruning professionally seldom do it well at all. When I was working daily as an Arborist or Tree Warden my advice to clients was unless a given Arborist trying to gain a contract had the skills and knowledge of finery proper ornamental pruning methods such as "espalier" ..."topiary"...or even bonsai. Without that level of knowledge and skill seldom is proper "pollarding" ever done...It is also worth noting here that pollarding is a wonderful way to "coppic" several species of mature tree which then lends itself to both a "mature forest" feel, as well as, good firewood production and wildlife habitat... Thank you so much for what you share and keeping traditional wisdoms alive. I could not be more pleased today that the algorithms sent me a link to your channel. If you find any of this information useful and/or wish to pin it so others may ask questions, by all means please do so, I will respond to everyone who asks a question whenever I'm online and get an update...
Thank you for that - it means a lot to us. My wife and I really love that we are able to create some traditional coppices and also some slower growing native woodland. It really is wonderful seeing the land change as the trees grow and provide useful material and plants that are much better for biodiversity.
That " brush" as you call it is what i used in spring and fall when i was only taking the chill from house , but once a week or so, i built a proper fire to burn out chiminy..i would stuff small boxes with sticks and newspaper for fire starters ( usually quart milk cartons)
I am amazed that your oak tree you are standing by took 22 years to grow! The oaks I have planted are massive after 20 years and indeed my friend climbed to the very top of one of them! Please note the land around my cottage is classified as poor land!
We bought a few acres of ‘wet’ woodland in the Southwest of England that was untouched for 50 years and predominantly Goat Willow mixed with Hazel, Beech, Oak, Alder & Aspen. By FAR the best firewood source has been Willow despite most people telling us it was poor wood for burning. I think most peoples views on good firewood stem from the age of open fires before the ‘Woodburner’ was common. In a properly controlled Woodburner anything will burn well, & our Willow is awesome and grows at a ridiculous rate. Your video makes perfect sense. Thank you
This guy should be a government minister of whatever the relevant dept is , knowledgable and well informed . Spoke well and explained his points . Complete opposite of our usual politicians .
Usual politicians are chosen for the presentation and compliance, it is a hybrid between appearing to engage with issues and acting. The 2024 intake has some really poor examples. They are just voting fodder, and hopefully help people in their constituencies.
In eastern Scotland we tend to burn Birch, bought by weight, a ton load works for the sole heat source for a small bungalow in a stove rather than an open fire, for the entire winter, November to April.
This is one of the most pleasant and informative videos on tree killing I have ever seen. It warmed my heart when you said you wouldn't cut down the lovely old beech tree.
Well, the best thing about coppicing is that it actually prolongs the life of the tree. It stops them maturing, so they can live much longer than they normally would. Amazing process!
Thats the point, Bro. Coppicing (and Pollarding) means, in fact, NO trees are (LOL) "killed". They (a) live longer (b) produce more wood and (c) are propagated to hell and back to farm wood - multiplying the number of actual live trees. Just look how many he both planted AND is keeping both alive and thriving the rest of his days. LOL "tree killing" ...
So peaceful while I watch, this is my way of life, living it on a smaller scale with my dog, I grow Willow in my garden, it's awesome stuff, I even called my old narrow boat Willow, new sub too 😊
I heated a home in the Colorado mountains with aspen, fir, pine and spruce. Basically whatever I could get. Perhaps the wood stove wasn't the most efficient model, and the nights at 8,500 feet in elevation I'm sure were much colder than in England. It was a rough go, frankly. The stove was insatiable, and I found myself obsessing about getting enough wood. I thought it would be fun, but I was wrong.
Lived in Cornwall a few years back and we still had a lot of Elm, it would get to about 30 feet before Dutch elm disease killed them. Very tough to cut and split but burned nice and slow when it had dried out. Fortunately the roots would throw up suckers and the trees would carry on.
Willow is one of the softest hardwoods and once seasoned correctly will give off decent heat, Ive been burning and re-growing willow for years and its much less hassle than other firewood!
I had some Sycamore at my last property, that seemed to regrow quickly and was a nice hard wood although brittle,and I often thought if I was going to plant for firewood. thet I would consider that.
Great informative video. I have produced willow and used it for heating for a couple of decades now and fully agree with you, I really like it. I have oak on the holding but fear it won’t be me harvesting it!
Hardwood like oak grow better and hardier in the woods and not in a prairie. Here in south of Quebec we do this to keep the hardwood as straight and less knotty as possible. Great informative video btw, never thought that willow would be that efficient for firewood
Subscribed half way through the video, such a joy it was to watch. I live in a city, and have no choice e in alternative heating methods. But it doesn’t matter. Going to go and watch previous content now :-)
What about Robinia pseudoacacia, known in the US as black locust? It is a fast growing tree with hard and dense wood with a high energy density. Here is a reference to an interesting study, a paper titled "Comparison of Different Wood Species as Raw Materials for Bioenergy" by Bojana Klašnja and coauthors.
That looks very interesting - thanks for the reference. We have planted a number of them, but they are not very happy. Our climate is not to their liking. I think we will find the best possible spot on our land and try again.
excellent information thanks , i am trying to set up a coppiced willow and hazel wood on heavy clay land in Lincolnshire have got a selection of willows and am testing them out but have found that the local willows ( not surprisingly ) appear to be the most vigorous, i did wonder if anybody had used to brash ( the twigs ) to make pellets ? any thoughts or is it still better to use it to protect the coppice growth points from deer ?
Hi! Adding the brash to the new growth was a normal thing to do in medieval times, but is frowned on today becasue the new growth will get tangled in it and be a pain when it is harvest time - especially with something fast growing. If shredded, it does make good mulch.
Here in Canada we measure firewood in Cords. A cord of fire wood stacked is 4'x4'x8'. A face cord is 4'x4'x16" it takes 3 face cords to make half a bush cord. Or 6 face cords to make a full bush cord. Which is approximately 128 cubic feet of wood. Most of our firewood here is maple , birch ,poplar, oak ,beech, then soft woods , pine ,spruce , fir, larch, hemlock. and smattering of others.
Now you have me trying to do too many math calculations in my head. I'm going to need a fresh notebook and watch this a few more times. 🤔 Thank you for sharing such great information.
Hornbeam is meant to be good fire wood, maybe an alternative to ash? Oak is better used for timber really, just use the branches as fuel once felled as more of a by-product. Efficient stove, insulation and proper seasoning are also a massive factor in the self sufficient balance, but a slightly different topic, great video, thanks. What age did you first coppice the willow cuttings?
It was a real pleasure watching your video, I learned quite a bit from it. My parents have a small forest property in Slovakia and I started to harvest it for firewood this year after about a decade of it being undisturbed. Turns out it was overtaken by black locust trees mostly and they are great for firewood for heir very high wood density and fast growth. From what I gathered online they spread and grow so fast they might be prohibited in some parts of the world to be planted, but if you manage them properly it shouldn't be a problem. Keep up the great work!
This is the first video of yours I've watched. I have to admit I'm a little shocked and surprised. You're the first person I have seen that openly acknowledges that all wood (within a few %) has the same BTU content per given weight. Everyone around here tells me I'm "dumb" "don't know what I'm talking about" ECT when I try to inform them of that fact. And they stubbornly refuse to go research it themselves..... And yet these are the same people that bitch, whine, and complain about the cost of "hard" wood. Me personally; on the years I don't have time, weather window/s, broken machinery I'll happily buy a big load of soft wood to replenish what I wasn't able to harvest. I spend a 1/16th of what some other folks do and get the same (if not more) BTU content. I'll happily reload the boiler more often and clean creosote more often if I get to save several thousand dollars............ OH, And waving at ya from across the pond
Hi, thanks for that. There are similar ideas here! We burned softwood exclusively for many years and enjoyed it. You do have to load the fire more often, but that really is not a problem. And, if it is dry, there is no issue with creosote. Seems like you learned the same things that we did.
@@theviewfromtheclouds I absolutely agree. On this side of the pond, I think it relates back to our usage of "cords" as a unit of measurement. Not realizing that a cord is a volume measurement and Not a mass measurement. And there by erroneously equating BTU content with a volume measurement....... I have a rather large outdoor wood boiler. In moderate temps (NOT deep into winter) with hard woods I can get +-40-48 hrs of burn time (typical). And with soft woods I get 1/3-1/2 of the burn time. So, restocking it everyday VS every other day is not enough of additional work to justify the additional moneys spent. With regards to creosote; I tend to dry my fuel 2 years in advance in a couple of solar kiln's I built (transparent roof, mylar lined walls, with natural convection to remove the moisture). I always make it a point to get the empty kiln filled before fall/winter for adequate drying time. I do notice a difference between hard woods and soft woods. (of equivalent moisture content) But it's NOT a huge difference. Truth be told, these days my thought process has been leaning towards - Creosote "issues" (or lack thereof) are more related to the combustion cycle than tree species.
Excellent, well-rounded video. One aspect you did not touch on was the rate at which the wood is burned. Over the past 40 years we have progressed from an open fireplace to a slow-combustion heater, insulating the roof and ceiling, then the walls, then double glazing. Our firewood consumption has gone down while maintaining a warmer home. The oak you said would warm your house for a night, would heat ours for 2-3 nights. Our house is about 1,000 sq feet in area.
Willow burns fast, so you don't get to slowly juice out the BTUs like with a hardwood. Wood stove type can help mitigate this some, but not enough to truly compensate. A good mixture of the two, willow for daytime fire and hardwood for night might be the best you can get in the environment you're in though.
We went with Hybrid Willow, Hybrid Poplar, and American Sycamore. Not ony for faster growth rate but - just as importantly when starting out - super easy propagation. Literally just poke twigs in the ground in very late Winter and they'll be fully rooted out and thriving by summer. We do Pollarding instead, to keep new growth above Deer Browse Height.
@@theviewfromtheclouds Midwest America - Ohio River Valley (Cincinnati-ish). The Sycamore is a weed-tree around here. Grows everywhere and thrives. It doesnt grow quite as fast but fast enough. Maybe 80% the growth rate ... but has slightly more BTU so it's just about the same return. Not a really noticeable difference. The *real* reason for the Sycamore is Tree Hay. It produces significantly more leaf and the breeders in The Rabbitry prefer it over all others we've tried.
I've had success with alder on wet land, it coppices well and burns nicely. Plus you get the finches and occasional redpoll visiting in winter. Growing your own firewood has got to be better than the boight stuff, its always so much birch to bulk it up cheaply.
I live in the states and I found a wood I really liked was poplar. I had a reburn stove that was very efficient and air tight. Poplar is considered a crap wood by everyone here so there was no competition with cutting up downed trees. Plus many were two feet or more in diameter. I was not too happy with red oak because it took two years for it to dry out enough to provide good heat...the same with black locust. Another tree I liked even better is the silver maple or what is colloquially called a swamp maple because it grows good in damp soil. Once you have the wood the next thing I found that determined how much heat I got from the wood was how thick I split it. Thin pieces burned pretty quick while larger splits lasted a lot longer and made better coals. Another tree I likes was Elm. Even standing dead is a soggy wood while standing but once split and stacked it dried out great and burned steady and long too. The wife had a huge wolf spider jump out of a piece of wood she was getting ready to put in the stove and there was no talking to her about not burning wood anymore. After many deep discussions and a lot of research on my end I switched over to a pellet stove with a wall mounted thermostat. That was a real game changer. The down size is you cannot make your own pellets but there isa lot less work and mess involved...and not one wolf spider detected. Any bags left over from the season has to be wrapped securely in several layers of plastic (it comes wrapped in two big sheets of plastic) other wise it absorbs moisture and is useless.
The willow burns better than I had expected from my couple of heaters of 20 year old woodland. But it does hold a lot of moisture, and needs more seasoning to get it dry. However I have a massive supply of dead standing Ash. That being said, the willow needs Pollarding regularly, as it grows so fast it falls over if not cut back. The dead standing Ash is good to burn right from the saw. Ash is one of the only woods that can be burnt green, because it has such a low moisture content. I made a 2m wide x 1m deep charcoal making pot, as the Aztecs used. It has large buckets, (50 litre) all round and when it's got enough charcoal, can be quenched producing about 39% charcoal to make BioChar
this video popped up randomly in my feed, I am interested in such topics. My comment is for you. No 'er's, 'ah's, 'um's, repetitions, filler words, or deviations. Undoubtedly THE most well articulated article I have had the real pleasure of viewing in a long, long time. YOur presentation is rare in that it is so good. Thank you!
first time viewer, great filming, content and delivery, music got a bit loud towards the end but i could still make out what you were saying. i also am getting a grassy field that i want to plant trees in part of it. Sussex.
What a great video. Chestnut is lovely firewood, grows fast and coppices well, so that might be a contender in some places. It doesn't like very wet ground, though.
This is a very interesting video. We have a log burner in our house, but have heat pumps as our mainstay heat source. The fireplace is cozy and can really kick up the temperature on a cold winters day though. We have lots of ash and maple growing, and it turns out that maple also coppice quite willingly, at least the first time its cut back. We shall see about multiple cutbacks. I'm planting a lot of willow as well, not for firewood but for the early pollen supply for wild bees :D
Density is important for burn duration and there is an inverse relation between growth rate and density. However in my experience Goat Willow makes excellent firewood as part of general fuel mix, cheers
Have you forgotten about sycamore ? As a gardener in the north of England I had to deal with many a self sown sycamore sapling in the wrong place. If you don't get them young and small you find that they grow so fast that by the time you get around to dealing with them it's a lot more work - a stitch in time sort of thing.
I'm coppicing hazel, willow, chestnut and alder. If I could plant only one, on the experience of my last 7 years, it would be alder. Not as fast as the willow, but those you allow to grow a bit bigger are lovely and straight, a short seasoning from cutting and it splits a dream.
Hello. I live in a wet area in Northern Spain where soil is clayish and packed with organic matter, in fact it has an overdose of nitrogen. Alder trees are found near the rivers and they are absolutely beautiful. After reading your comment I am going to plant alder trees where all the rainwater ends up.
That souds really good. We do have an alder coppice as well, so I hope to show it in a future video. I really like the colour of the wood when you cut it!
I believe it is non native to England, however Pin Oak (you may call it Swamp Oak) is fast growing… slower than willow but around as fast as poplar or paperbirch. A 7 year old Pin Oak tree is 12 to 15 feet tall with a diameter of 4 inches (12.5 circumference). It will coppice (you can actually lay a hedge with it) and it produces far more heat and longer burn times than Willow. Just a thought to experiment with… but love what you are doing here!
In response to your last question- I'm in sw Michigan, on 20 acres of woodland. It's a typical mix for this bioregion, predominantly oak, with maple, black cherry, beech, tupillo, big tooth aspen, sassafras and then some white pine and the occasional spruce. The maples here actually coppice quite well, even from mature trees. While I am working to introduce willow because our water table is excessively high (seasonally above ground high), I have not found it occurring here of its own. Much of my forest management work runs toward thinning, which means I'm taking a disproportionate number of small maples out. Some of that goes into fenceposts, the brash generally into dead hedges, so while it's a good portion of what I'm felling, not so much of what goes to our firewood. The firewood largely comes from the waste produced by my sawmill, which means mostly from the larger trees I take down, which run toward oaks. In short, our firewood is oak, maple and black cherry, in that order ;)
Hi, eastern Ontario here from east of Algonquin Park:- you're in a transition zone there between the Laurentian forest region in the lower lakes to the east and north, the Carolinian zone to the south, and the Prairie Savannah region to the west but the proximity of Lake Michigan tends to keep things on the cool side plus the wet ground is also slow to heat up in summer so that keeps it cool and wet:- suggest you try swamp white oak, black maple, yellow birch, and eastern white cedar on the wetter ground for high-value timber and brash the lower limbs as necessary and keep cleaning out the woody undergrowth. You might even experiment with white spruce and balsam fir on the wet ground but its main value is for pulpwood whereas the heavy hardwoods can be used for furniture making and birch plywood so they're more valuable long-term. The brashings and thinnings could be chipped in a wood-chipper like the Bearcat series which are designed for small woodlots and you can actually burn them in wood-chip furnaces like those from Heizomat and Froling:- check out Biothermic in Ontario for brochures and specs but you need to find a local distributor there. The Ontario Woodlot Association has a lot of useful info for woodlot owners in the Laurentian forest region and you can find them at www.ontariowoodlot.com/ :- they're very practical and not an eco-fanatic group.
In Hungary my 2 main fastgrowing hardwood trees are mulberry and acacia. Both act like invasive species, it's really hard to kill them. I usually dont cut back them to the ground, just the branches and even that gives us a lot of firewood. Mulberry has also fruits which I love ( and my chickens, too) and their leaves can be used as feed for rabbits and chickens, too. I have a third favourite kind of invasive tree: the tree of heaven (alianthus altissima) which has soft wood but grows really-really fast, no matter what weather is happening. The last 3 years we had 2-3 months without rain in the summer and this tree still thrives. I use its green and wood mass as mulch to cover the ground around other trees or on pathways but not so much for heating..
Have you looked in black locust? Growing speed of the willow with more BTU's than oak. Probably one of the highest BTU for a hardwood. Harvest able within four to six years. Also coppices well much like willow. It is very hard to split so should be cut before it's 8inches(200mm) in diameter. It also fixes nitrogen so improves soil quality.
Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is a great suggesting...but sadly...this would become an invasive species in the U.K. and not suited to that biome ecology...
Great video. I'm in Serbia and the only wood I use is Robinia pseudocasia otherwise known as black locust. It's classed as a hardwood and has similar calorie content to hardwoods such as ash and oak. It can even be burnt green. It has an incredible growth rate here growing at least 2m a year. It's my go to firewood though because it's a non native and has a negative effect on native species because of its invasive nature.
Very interesting video. Where I live in Michigan, USA our situation is a little different. Deer eat most of the stump sprouts. We do have fast growing maple, poplar and wild black cherry trees.
I’m afraid I have serious reservations about growing hybrid willow for firewood. These species have a huge amount of brash to get rid of ( ie. Waste) compared to ash or oak and their calorific value is very low compared to the slow growing species. I have 40acres of woods and willows are just waste material also wildlife value of a hybrid willow plantation is minimal
I coppice red maple, birch and stripped alder for firewood. Add to that windfallen and sick or leaning trees on a 25 acre woodlot. 4 cords per year is sufficient to keep my house warm here in Atlantic Canada. We mostly use willow to make wattle fences and various garden structures. After 5 or 6 years they start to look sad so we cut them up and use the dry sticks for kindling.
In the Midwest US, I’m pretty obsessed with River Birch. Something about my soil just kicks them up so fast and they are beautiful. I’m going to try to experiment to see if I can get western Quaking Aspen to grow here.
Really enjoyed this video, lots of really great information - thank you. We're experimenting with Eucalypts for a fast growing source of firewood - not loved by all I know, being non-native, it is a very useful and beautiful tree that give great fast growing hard wood though 💚✌🌿
We have tried several Eucalyptus varieties without success. Your place looks much drier and warmer than where we are. It would be nice if we could grow some.
@ yes, we are right down south which is an advantage .. there are some varieties I believe (Neglecta) which can tolerate shade and wetness, unfortunately they don’t grow so fast though… sounds like you know your stuff so I am sure you would have looked in to all of this 💚✌️🌿
Here in Florida we have both willows, mostly Salix caroliniana, and oaks of many species. I've seen that willows grow best in a wet area and are a pioneer species quickly establishing a canopy in areas with enough water. But oaks can also grow in much drier environments, far more slowly, but may thrive for centuries eventually dominating their ecosystems. Willow wood, and that of other fast growing wetland trees, often burns hot but burns out quickly. Slow growing oak wood contains more energy for longer burning fires.
I live in the SE US and there are trees here called Crepe Myrtle. They seem to fit the standards you set nicely, and while I have not seen it used for firewood I am interested to see if a system like your willow patch could be adapted to Crepe Myrtle. It grows on average about 2'/yr in my area, and lends itself very well to coppicing. It seems to be a bit denser than willow so may grow slightly slower than Willow, but much faster than Oak or Beech. They are also beautiful flowering trees; a lovely sight each spring in such a plot.
Hi, I lived in Alabama for a few years in high school. I remember Crepe Myrtle, but like you, never heard of it being used as a firewood crop. Let me know if you have success with it!
Love your videos! I also have a piece of land which is mostly grassy and wet. You've convinced me that fast growing willow is a great option for me. I'm probably going to start planting within a couple of years and I'm very excited about getting started.
Souds great - keep us updated. It is really nice to heat from people who are doing the same.
i cut willow saplings and shove them in wet ground as i walk along in wales in feb march i started by using a willow stick at 6yr old im now 58.
Your dog thinks that you're talking to it, not us. What a sweetheart!
She does. Filming time doubles as snuggle time!
I thought she thought "Dad is telling them about me !". And was looking self conscious.
Alder is worth a shout imo. Loves wet ground, coppices readily, fast drying and is even a nitrogen fixer to boot.
Very true. We have planted hundreds and are eagerly awaiting coppice time!
This is the kind of content that TH-cam is missing. Great video!
Im so grateful to live in a 12 acre , 100 year old Douglas fir forest. Just harvesting blow downs and standing dead can produce more top notch fire wood than we can burn
I'm in South Wales. Six years ago started planting an acre of hybrid willows for biomass. Last winter we took the first harvest. After a summer standing it is dry enough to burn. It burns fast and hot. I made a batch box type mass heater built to an ingle nook fire place in our stone cottage. Much of the heat is retained in the mass of the fire place and the surrounding stone walls. Our living room is still warm the morning after a burn.
All the small twiggy bits of willow that were deemed too small to burn were put through a shredder and are now being used as a mulch in the garden. The later willow planting was inter planted with oak and chestnut well spaced out which were and grown from seed gathered locally.
So far its working out well, and very rewarding.
That sounds really good - what sort of quantity of willow did you get?
@@theviewfromtheclouds Its difficult to quantify. Hopefully enough to get us through the winter without having to carry wood off the beach which gets more difficult as the years go by.
Does willow give of toxic chemical when burned ?
@@blueocean2510 No more thana any other firewood. Smoke isn't fantastic to breathe, but of course that's why we have chimneys.
The last time I visited the Lammas Project near me in West Wales, I met some people who were growing willow for biomass. I scoffed a bit at the time, but judging by what I've read recently, including your report on how much heat it generates, I was wrong to. Speaking of woody mulch, this is the time of year that I gather brambles to feed in bundles through the wood chipper. Spread about an inch thick in spring, the chips make an excellent mulch that deters slugs and melts away in about a year.
at last someone does a video on the amount of land required compared the yield and time for the tree to grow to the heat it produces! So well put together.
The "for where you are" is a key point. We cleared a few acres of our land in New England and our pioneer trees are cherry and black Birch. Very fast growing and dense; about an inch of width per year, easy to split and fast drying. We get 2-3 harvests while one generation of oak grows in between.
This felt illegal to watch for free!! Absolutely packed with information and delivered in such a pleasant manner, many, many thanks
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
Unfortunately, this is the entirely wrong way of looking at things.
Comparing the volume of firewoods is meaningless because it's the weight per cord that matters.
Willow isn't nearly as dense as oak. So willow burns hotter, but oak burns _much_ longer and is much more energy dense.
So his claim that you're getting more because willow grows faster is not looking at it scientifically.
Sure, you're getting more wood, but you're not getting more heat.
Back when firewood and coal were the only way to heat your house. They already figured out the best trees to grow for firewood considering the: speed of growth, length of burn, ease of splitting, rot resistance and btu'sprovided. And it's the same now as it was back then. The best woods to heat a home with are: shagbark hickory, black locust (very rapid growth but invasive), white oak, cherry, yellow birch, and American beech (but it's more difficult to split than the others mentioned).
Other things to consider are that those woods mentioned don't need to be seasoned, and with the exception of hickory are highly rot resistant.
There's plenty of books and articles written by actual scientists on this topic. I'd read those instead of getting info from some rando on youtube who just sounds like they know what they're talking about, but leaving out crucial information.
Ummm free? We're all google's raw material. They're mining us for a killing.
@@BradleyBellwether-oy2qi He said that you got more heat from Oak, so would need less of it, It just takes a hell of a lot longer to grow, Maybe you need to watch it again.
@amimrie He also said, willow is one of the best for firewood. It's absolutely *_not_* "one of the best" by a longshot.
So maybe you should re-watch the video. Then, go re-read my comment.
Sweet doggo. I love you let her/him drag it's duck around. 😊
I bought some hybrid willow ,i planted years ago i use them for hedges and cut them to 4 ft high ,i use them more for kindling and cut them in winter ,then i put the timber into my greenhouse before the summer ,its like kilm dried by winter .The greenhouse gets to 90c in the summer ,works so well .
Very interesting. I'm french, south of France, we usé beech and oak, never Willow or trees like that because we say the wood isnt premium quality, but what you explain hère is very rational and smart, specialy for people that want to be self sufficient . Thank you
The difference between here in france and the uk is that france still has thousands of woods that are worked for fire wood . thr uk cut most of its woods down to build ships way back and then never replanted or did with fast growing quick cash softwoods.
High quality in this case means a lot less work. And a lot less volume moved.
I came across an article about Japanese intense foresting in which the trees are planted in such a natural way that it encourages fast growth
They prine that way so that every bud get the same amount of sunlight. This way they will produce tall straight (equal) branches.
Birch is what I saw all using when I grew up in Norway. Loved the burn and heat and smell.
I grow some Birch for coppicing in my garden too. I do have a range of trees, as I'm very mindful of the effect of monocultures on the environment.
(I live close to Sitka plantations, and see the effect of monocultures environment on these and for the land around).
So I have Birch, Willow, Hazel, Beech, common species of pine, Alder and a few Oak - as well as starting to clear the Ash from my little bit of established woodland, before the fungus gets it.
Another in my garden is cherry, which I grew from fruit pips. These grow fast, and may often grow back from the original stump or somewhere along the root.
I have Chinese plum trees, which both produce fruit and grow at a reasonable rate to produce the odd bit of firewood. Of course, cut one down and there's no fruit for a few years, so a few years ago I started transplanting the root suckers in order to propagate new plants, so it means I can always have a tree in fruit when another is coppiced.
Good one-off firewood trees are Eucalyptus - especially E. viminalis. That can grow as much as 9ft a year in the right place. Plus, one log can take all day to burn, so it's very efficient in terms of your work with a chainsaw.
They don't grow back from stumps (or if they do, they are often too weak to survive for long), but seed is still reasonably cheap and available from a good seed merchant.
From seed, E.viminalis grows 6ft in its first year (in West Scotland climate).
I have no practical need for this information, but I enjoyed every bit of it.
I mostly use oak and hickory as firewood. But am lucky enough to have 40 acres of woodland in the hills of east tennessee . Just cutting the windfall up after the last storm will keep me in firewood for the next 4 years or so
I think the brash is highly useful. It makes great kindling. I imagine you could bundle it to store, maybe even sell some at the farmers' market.
tarted watching this because I thought it was relevant to me. At the end I'd been on a lovely journey and had forgotten all of the details. But I'm happy to watch it again
Thanks for that! I'm glad you liked it.
Great info thanks, we have about 7 acres mixed in the highlands for anout ten years, weve actually found processing the gorse to be very good, apparently it was once used for iron smelting, and has since got out of control, its not that hard to harvest with decent gloves and one of the only things the deer dont eat, it also lays really well and grows fast, we bought a processor which breaks it down to 2x3" chunks which we use in the log burner on a top down burn method, we think its a very under appreciated resource which grows readily in the uk most places and the smell in flower is amazing, it can also be crushed in winter for feed stock 😀
We do the same on the west coast, near Oban. We have some gorse that's so mature that the trunk can be 10 inches in diameter. It grows faster than we can burn it. Interesting what you said about using it for animal feed. What do you crush it with? We have a small flock of Soay sheep so that would be a brilliant resource to tap in to
@delektrik1 I had no idea gorse could get that big! I do like the coconut smell from the flowers!
@@theviewfromtheclouds to be fair, our land is the only place I've ever seen it as big as it is. When we first got the place we were looking at ways to get rid of it, not realising what a fantastic resource it is. Being pea family it fixes nitrogen too and the soil underneath the gorse canopy is unbelievable
I hear rhododendron makes quite good firewood too!
@delektrik1 well we don't actually crush ot ourselves but when reading up on its uses, we found that gorse mills were once very much a thing where the young green shoots would be crushed, I'd imagine a roller of some sort, maybe a chipper would work nowadays, it's a member of the pea family so nitrogen fixer and protien, didn't say what the nutrient profile would be sorry
Very enlightening and a cracking dog too!
Information-dense, honest, well meaning video. Thank you.
That is just what I hoped it would be - thank you!
What a charming, elegant and graceful manner of presenting. Subscribed.
Thank you very much for that.
I live in Texas and had a mature live oak die that I cut into firewood. It is about 33% denser than typical white oak and loads more difficult to split. It burns very hot and works perfect for outdoor grilling because it doesn’t impart bad flavor. One of my favorite trees/woods
I don't think I ever experienced a BBQ with live oak. Mesquite, definitely.
@ I don’t smoke with it, just some grilling. Mesquite BBQ is definitely king here
I'm from the Netherlands and willow basically grows like grass here, where i lived it really felt like an infinite source of wood. I made tents with the poles, birdfeeders, a very crude fence and when it's dry it burns great. The hardest part about drying actually was that it's so hardy that it will try to grow even without soil. Willow is a bit like potato in many regards. I loved it! Same as your video as not only did i learn a f ton it also gave background to many of the observations i saw but didn't know why. Thanks for the video!
I am just a random guy but can't you coppice oak? I think i've seen old oak trees that used to be coppiced.
Yes you can coppice oak
@@rubenskiiiyeah you can but it will regrow very slowly.
In Virginia, US, we have a lot of somewhat-invasive THIORNY black locust trees which grow fast and make excellent firewood. The 1.5-3 inch thorns are no joke, so we're clearing the black locust from livestock fields, but we have black locust on hilly terrain that we'll harvest for years and years...
Black Locust is sort of a miracle working tree.
I understand that you don't want the thorny branches in some areas, but we had them all over in our lawn when I was growing up.
The grass grows great under them because they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and put it in the soil each year.
The blossoms smell nice, and as you know, they make great firewood.
@@richtomlinson7090and the wood is rot resistant and can be made into wooden stakes, etc!
@rtom675
Absolutely.
Black Locust with Orange Osage and Red Mulberry as some of the most rot resistant of the North American woods.
@@richtomlinson7090 oh, I had no idea red mulberry was on that list! Is white mulberry also rot resistant. I know, I know, invasive, but I live way too north for red mulberry to be an option…
@rtom675
I don't have any experience with the White Mulberry variety, but it seems it is rot resistant from what I have read.
I also found that Red Mulberry can grow as far north as zone 4 maybe.
Greetings from the north eastern USA. Respect to you for using as many parts of the tree as possible. I’ll use any wood for firewood, provided it’s not white pine, any kind of sumac or anything poisonous. We have a lot of firewood, snobs around here; some of them don’t actually even burn their own firewood, it’s just there for looks.
In this part of the country, we have a disease affecting beech trees. It’s called Beech bark disease and it’s spread by a beetle. In 10 years, all of the beech trees will probably be dead, with a few immune survivors. BTW, your dog is totally adorable! 🌲🌳🪵🔥🐶🐾
I worked land where we had about 200acres of willow, used to harvest it for biomass. It's all been taken out now tho for a new broadleaf forest to go in, guess the owners couldn't turn down the government grant they got.
So versatile willow, great for shelter building, and decorative purposes in the garden
After 40 plus years of traditional living and working professionally in many of these areas from Timberwright and Sawyer to Arborist, Tree Warden, and indigenous life skills facilitator your wisdom in this channel is excellent. Here are my highlight observation by time segment and additional observations:
00:11 Oak is for long term lumber production typically for furniture, and architecture...NOT FOR...firewood production at all. It is also (typically) generational, meaning the planter of the tree will not reap the benefit in most (not all) cases...
A fast growing species, with way more uses like...Willows...is always a better choice for a teared and mixed forestry application. In the way of useful wood Willow far surpasses that of the oaks if one is truly practicing the "old ways" and trying to reap the most benefit from a species. Oak is wonderful in many ways, but as for fastest yield and broadist application willow will typically surpass oak. Shoes, baskets, firewood production, fencing, furniture and even timber framing can and did come from willow...with the list going on much further than this...
01:18 Beautifully stack wood in a shed is a marvelous thing to see and look at. If one has time for such things, I think that is wonderful! However, the time it takes to do this is...for most...is not practical in good "homestead" time management. All the wood needed for an entire years of heating and cooking should not require more than 1 full "man hour" week of time for the average homestead...if (?)...the traditional methods are being applied to the process of cutting and stacking and this is based on..."all manual"...applications...NO POWER EQUIPMENT...just sharp and properly employed wood cutting means and methods. Add modern power to this equation and it should take less than a week for all wood needs on a properly managed woodlot....
Traditional stacking methods be they in a "bin" within a shed, or simply outside in proper stacks like:... "holzhausen"...or..."holzhaufen"..."crib stacking"..."binning"...etc. are all fast methods of stanching firewood well for drying and later burning/cooking. Crib stacking is also one of the primary methods for "stack wood architecture"...such as found in the traditional formats (not the modern "DIYer" methods erroneously found in some popular books!!!)...e.g. 황토집, Klubbhus, Dizeme Duvarı, Bois Cordé, and related forms...
01:36 "Brash"...("Brush" here accross the pond...LOL)...when bundled properly is where the term..."Faggot"...originates. This was (and still is in many parts of rural Eastern Europe) what is properly burned once or twice a day in a masonry style wood heater...be that an above the floor style or the larger cooking and "infloor" styles we still have commonly in rural Asia such as the 온돌 "Ondol", or 炕 "Kang"...These Asian styles are similar to the Roman "Hypocausts" which is debated among academics as originating in concept and orgin with the Asian cultures...
02:50 This is a wonderful indicator of just how fast willows can grow. I've planted and harvest more than my share of such woodlots and harvest the wood from them as well...even to the "timber frame" structural size timber. Like the Asian..."18 year pine"...planted when a child is born to form their "dowry" at age 18 to build their own timber frame home is still practiced today found in the...穿鬥 "chuandou" style timber frames. Willow is a marvels wood species for this very fact in its own right...
03:59 I fully agree that some species do not "coppic" well at all. However, at this juncture in your video, you have unintentionally shared one of the primary sources for...山採り "Yamadori"... or the more ancient art of ...盆栽 "Pénzāi"...as it originated in ancient China well before moving to Japan. Once a woodlot manager connects to this esoteric group of cultivars, with only basic management in the "wild state" these can be a rather lucrative income stream without much effort, or time in maintaining the better "starts," whereas learning to properly pot and "air layering" these "suckers" you can generate more valued nursery stock...or...苗木盆栽 "Naegi bonsai." The U.K. has had a very thriving "Bonsai" enthusiast population since the Victorian age that always looking for new sources for trees that are indigenous to the local climate and thus already acclimated. I fully agree it is not a "good thing for a tree to do"...if...!!!...going for a normal tree. These are suckers after all and as you have correctly stated often (not alway) have a weak connection. However, these are robust starts and using a very strong mature root system that can generate planting stock for many years.
04:45 I can not tell you how often each year I hear the same nonsense often from those that consider themselves an "expert" on wood burning or the tree species..."most proper"...for wood burning. Seldom are they either..."experts"...nor are they correct at all from either the practical or historical perspective on the topic. PINES... are still, to this day, the number one species used for heating and cooking of meals with wood...NOT...!!!...the oaks and related hardwoods at all. All fast growing species historically (like willows and relates "soft" hardwoods) are the primary species just for the reasons you are listing. As a point of note, the "hottest" and best burning wood in the world is not a hardwood at all but that of the piñon pine Pinus edulis...as are many of the heavy producing "pitch pines" that are known for creating "lighter-wood." As with all burn unities for heating or cooking it is not the species that matters, when it comes to safety, but the proper maintenance and cleaning. Too often "the experts" will erroneously suggest you can't burn these "softwoods" (including willow) because the lead to chimney fires and destroy flues...all of which is complete untrue! What destroys a flue is not taking proper care of it...
06:00 Here in the United States we tend to employe British thermal unit (Btu) when examining the amount of heat a certain species of wood will generate. This alone however is not the best indicator...at all...!!!...for really examining this from a traditional, pragmatic, and functional perspective when management of a woodlot. "HOW" you burn your wood, and what "burn unit" device you employ as well as method of burning is just as important and why the masonry heater unites, and their ilk, came about as they often only burned "softwoods" and did so only once or perhaps twice a day...which is...way more efficient than what most "modern" wood burn unites do, or are design for...which is in turn...not efficient or proper at all...
07:00 This is a good time to mention, that on average, if using a traditional system of heating cooking (aka truly proper burn unit system) three acres of mature and/or well managed woodlot, without removal of primary "mother trees," will yield all the wood the average homestead needs. This is, of course, variable and only an average yet speaks to the fact that many today do not really understand these proven methods of firewood production for either heating, let alone cooking...
11:27 As an Arborist, it is important to stress to readers that neither..."Monolith pruning"...nor...traditional..."Pollarding" is a proper way to treat most mature trees. These are treatment methods for saving a tree (such as in this video)...or...for a structured type of decorative pruning. "Pollarding" and those doing this type of pruning professionally seldom do it well at all. When I was working daily as an Arborist or Tree Warden my advice to clients was unless a given Arborist trying to gain a contract had the skills and knowledge of finery proper ornamental pruning methods such as "espalier" ..."topiary"...or even bonsai. Without that level of knowledge and skill seldom is proper "pollarding" ever done...It is also worth noting here that pollarding is a wonderful way to "coppic" several species of mature tree which then lends itself to both a "mature forest" feel, as well as, good firewood production and wildlife habitat...
Thank you so much for what you share and keeping traditional wisdoms alive. I could not be more pleased today that the algorithms sent me a link to your channel. If you find any of this information useful and/or wish to pin it so others may ask questions, by all means please do so, I will respond to everyone who asks a question whenever I'm online and get an update...
Thank you for that - it means a lot to us. My wife and I really love that we are able to create some traditional coppices and also some slower growing native woodland. It really is wonderful seeing the land change as the trees grow and provide useful material and plants that are much better for biodiversity.
Fantastic info, both the heat calculations, as well as the real life plant knowledge for that area.
Glad it was helpful!
That " brush" as you call it is what i used in spring and fall when i was only taking the chill from house , but once a week or so, i built a proper fire to burn out chiminy..i would stuff small boxes with sticks and newspaper for fire starters ( usually quart milk cartons)
In the old days it would have been used for heating up a brick bread oven.
@tombristowe846 when baking pizza or even a pie I used either nut or apple..
I am amazed that your oak tree you are standing by took 22 years to grow! The oaks I have planted are massive after 20 years and indeed my friend climbed to the very top of one of them! Please note the land around my cottage is classified as poor land!
That's impressive! I think the land where our oaks are is too wet and windy to suit them. Where in the world are your trees?
oak species is important, as well as. your soil and location. there are over 300 species of oak worldwide.
We bought a few acres of ‘wet’ woodland in the Southwest of England that was untouched for 50 years and predominantly Goat Willow mixed with Hazel, Beech, Oak, Alder & Aspen. By FAR the best firewood source has been Willow despite most people telling us it was poor wood for burning. I think most peoples views on good firewood stem from the age of open fires before the ‘Woodburner’ was common. In a properly controlled Woodburner anything will burn well, & our Willow is awesome and grows at a ridiculous rate. Your video makes perfect sense. Thank you
Love this content been saying for years to people that you burn whats readily available always hated wasting decent carving wood burning it.
Thank you for that.
Nothing better than stacking cut fire wood, standing back and looking at your hard work... Ps just subscribe after stumbling upon your channel.
Welcome aboard! I love looking at stacked wood - especially when someone else (my wife) stacks it!
Have you experimented with Mulberry at all? It grows super fast like willow but with a higher btu, I believe.
That dog loves to get loves. "You'll be cold for 22 years." That is a significant part of one's life.
This guy should be a government minister of whatever the relevant dept is , knowledgable and well informed . Spoke well and explained his points . Complete opposite of our usual politicians .
Why would you turn a happy man into a poor and grumpy politician?
yes gov needs people that have practical experience...not the usual bum boys
Governments have knowledge about what they do??? What part of the world are you in?
Usual politicians are chosen for the presentation and compliance, it is a hybrid between appearing to engage with issues and acting. The 2024 intake has some really poor examples. They are just voting fodder, and hopefully help people in their constituencies.
Unfortunately he's not a corrupt deviant who can be blackmailed to do what he's told 😐
In eastern Scotland we tend to burn Birch, bought by weight, a ton load works for the sole heat source for a small bungalow in a stove rather than an open fire, for the entire winter, November to April.
That is good going. Sadly our house is to 'leaky' and needs more heat if we don't want to freeze to death.
This is one of the most pleasant and informative videos on tree killing I have ever seen.
It warmed my heart when you said you wouldn't cut down the lovely old beech tree.
Well, the best thing about coppicing is that it actually prolongs the life of the tree. It stops them maturing, so they can live much longer than they normally would. Amazing process!
Thats the point, Bro.
Coppicing (and Pollarding) means, in fact, NO trees are (LOL) "killed". They (a) live longer (b) produce more wood and (c) are propagated to hell and back to farm wood - multiplying the number of actual live trees.
Just look how many he both planted AND is keeping both alive and thriving the rest of his days.
LOL "tree killing" ...
@@theviewfromtheclouds You're a great teacher and I really like your style.
Yes coppicing is like giving a good haircut.
Great video.
So peaceful while I watch, this is my way of life, living it on a smaller scale with my dog, I grow Willow in my garden, it's awesome stuff, I even called my old narrow boat Willow, new sub too 😊
I heated a home in the Colorado mountains with aspen, fir, pine and spruce. Basically whatever I could get. Perhaps the wood stove wasn't the most efficient model, and the nights at 8,500 feet in elevation I'm sure were much colder than in England. It was a rough go, frankly. The stove was insatiable, and I found myself obsessing about getting enough wood. I thought it would be fun, but I was wrong.
Thermal mass is your friend with poor wood soak up that heat in stone somehow
Just fell in love with your channel! Cinematic, great choice of music, soothing style and awesome topics
Just what I was aiming for, thanks!
Lived in Cornwall a few years back and we still had a lot of Elm, it would get to about 30 feet before Dutch elm disease killed them. Very tough to cut and split but burned nice and slow when it had dried out. Fortunately the roots would throw up suckers and the trees would carry on.
Great vid, incredibly well produced and your dog is way too adorable! I cant get enough of their squishy face.
Thank you - that is very nice of you to say so. Hazel is lovely. She also has wonderfully soft fur!
More hits with the dog
Trees are actually just solar panels with extra steps.
Less government regulations too
You mean less steps
The way you did yr mathematics on this was brilliant. I have often wondered what you covered. Thanks. 😊
Willow is one of the softest hardwoods and once seasoned correctly will give off decent heat, Ive been burning and re-growing willow for years and its much less hassle than other firewood!
I had some Sycamore at my last property, that seemed to regrow quickly and was a nice hard wood although brittle,and I often thought if I was going to plant for firewood. thet I would consider that.
Thank you! In Romania we call it energetic willow
Great informative video. I have produced willow and used it for heating for a couple of decades now and fully agree with you, I really like it. I have oak on the holding but fear it won’t be me harvesting it!
I just love when he says "IF we'd cut down this oak..." but then quicly adds "but we're not going to" while reassuringly petting the oak at 7'20'' 😂
Nice to see you back! You have a good, calming way of making your videos and I also enjoy the topic of woodland management/homesteading.
Thank you for that. We were just having a short break, but couldn't stay away!
Hardwood like oak grow better and hardier in the woods and not in a prairie. Here in south of Quebec we do this to keep the hardwood as straight and less knotty as possible.
Great informative video btw, never thought that willow would be that efficient for firewood
Subscribed half way through the video, such a joy it was to watch. I live in a city, and have no choice e in alternative heating methods. But it doesn’t matter. Going to go and watch previous content now :-)
That is very nice of you - I hope you enjoy some of our other videos too!
What about Robinia pseudoacacia, known in the US as black locust? It is a fast growing tree with hard and dense wood with a high energy density. Here is a reference to an interesting study, a paper titled "Comparison of Different Wood Species as Raw Materials for Bioenergy" by Bojana Klašnja and coauthors.
That looks very interesting - thanks for the reference. We have planted a number of them, but they are not very happy. Our climate is not to their liking. I think we will find the best possible spot on our land and try again.
excellent information thanks , i am trying to set up a coppiced willow and hazel wood on heavy clay land in Lincolnshire have got a selection of willows and am testing them out but have found that the local willows ( not surprisingly ) appear to be the most vigorous, i did wonder if anybody had used to brash ( the twigs ) to make pellets ? any thoughts or is it still better to use it to protect the coppice growth points from deer ?
Hi! Adding the brash to the new growth was a normal thing to do in medieval times, but is frowned on today becasue the new growth will get tangled in it and be a pain when it is harvest time - especially with something fast growing. If shredded, it does make good mulch.
Here in Canada we measure firewood in Cords. A cord of fire wood stacked is 4'x4'x8'. A face cord is 4'x4'x16" it takes 3 face cords to make half a bush cord. Or 6 face cords to make a full bush cord. Which is approximately 128 cubic feet of wood. Most of our firewood here is maple , birch ,poplar, oak ,beech, then soft woods , pine ,spruce , fir, larch, hemlock. and smattering of others.
Now you have me trying to do too many math calculations in my head. I'm going to need a fresh notebook and watch this a few more times. 🤔 Thank you for sharing such great information.
Hornbeam is meant to be good fire wood, maybe an alternative to ash? Oak is better used for timber really, just use the branches as fuel once felled as more of a by-product.
Efficient stove, insulation and proper seasoning are also a massive factor in the self sufficient balance, but a slightly different topic, great video, thanks.
What age did you first coppice the willow cuttings?
Try eucalyptus nitens...great for copice. Fast growth. Hard wood. Easy handling / cutting / splitting when wet. Grown well here in NZ.
Where do you grow in NZ?
It was a real pleasure watching your video, I learned quite a bit from it. My parents have a small forest property in Slovakia and I started to harvest it for firewood this year after about a decade of it being undisturbed. Turns out it was overtaken by black locust trees mostly and they are great for firewood for heir very high wood density and fast growth. From what I gathered online they spread and grow so fast they might be prohibited in some parts of the world to be planted, but if you manage them properly it shouldn't be a problem. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for that. Black Locust does sounds interesing. I think we might try some more this year.
Great video. Lovely to have you back on TH-cam
Thanks!
Is poplar a good fire wood ??? I have a popular that grows like crazy 8 to 10 inch diameter in 3 years from a cutting
This is the first video of yours I've watched. I have to admit I'm a little shocked and surprised. You're the first person I have seen that openly acknowledges that all wood (within a few %) has the same BTU content per given weight. Everyone around here tells me I'm "dumb" "don't know what I'm talking about" ECT when I try to inform them of that fact. And they stubbornly refuse to go research it themselves..... And yet these are the same people that bitch, whine, and complain about the cost of "hard" wood. Me personally; on the years I don't have time, weather window/s, broken machinery I'll happily buy a big load of soft wood to replenish what I wasn't able to harvest. I spend a 1/16th of what some other folks do and get the same (if not more) BTU content. I'll happily reload the boiler more often and clean creosote more often if I get to save several thousand dollars............ OH, And waving at ya from across the pond
Hi, thanks for that. There are similar ideas here! We burned softwood exclusively for many years and enjoyed it. You do have to load the fire more often, but that really is not a problem. And, if it is dry, there is no issue with creosote. Seems like you learned the same things that we did.
@@theviewfromtheclouds I absolutely agree. On this side of the pond, I think it relates back to our usage of "cords" as a unit of measurement. Not realizing that a cord is a volume measurement and Not a mass measurement. And there by erroneously equating BTU content with a volume measurement....... I have a rather large outdoor wood boiler. In moderate temps (NOT deep into winter) with hard woods I can get +-40-48 hrs of burn time (typical). And with soft woods I get 1/3-1/2 of the burn time. So, restocking it everyday VS every other day is not enough of additional work to justify the additional moneys spent. With regards to creosote; I tend to dry my fuel 2 years in advance in a couple of solar kiln's I built (transparent roof, mylar lined walls, with natural convection to remove the moisture). I always make it a point to get the empty kiln filled before fall/winter for adequate drying time. I do notice a difference between hard woods and soft woods. (of equivalent moisture content) But it's NOT a huge difference. Truth be told, these days my thought process has been leaning towards - Creosote "issues" (or lack thereof) are more related to the combustion cycle than tree species.
@@Venom2Uif your wood is wet creosote is an issue but sounds like you go above and beyond to make sure you have good dry wood!
Excellent, well-rounded video.
One aspect you did not touch on was the rate at which the wood is burned. Over the past 40 years we have progressed from an open fireplace to a slow-combustion heater, insulating the roof and ceiling, then the walls, then double glazing. Our firewood consumption has gone down while maintaining a warmer home. The oak you said would warm your house for a night, would heat ours for 2-3 nights. Our house is about 1,000 sq feet in area.
Thank you for giving us good information to make informed decisions
Thanks for that - I am glad you enjoyed it!
Willow burns fast, so you don't get to slowly juice out the BTUs like with a hardwood. Wood stove type can help mitigate this some, but not enough to truly compensate. A good mixture of the two, willow for daytime fire and hardwood for night might be the best you can get in the environment you're in though.
We went with Hybrid Willow, Hybrid Poplar, and American Sycamore.
Not ony for faster growth rate but - just as importantly when starting out - super easy propagation. Literally just poke twigs in the ground in very late Winter and they'll be fully rooted out and thriving by summer.
We do Pollarding instead, to keep new growth above Deer Browse Height.
Pollarding is wise - and a lot cheaper than a deer fence. How is the American Sycamore doing - are you in the UK?
@@theviewfromtheclouds
Midwest America - Ohio River Valley (Cincinnati-ish). The Sycamore is a weed-tree around here. Grows everywhere and thrives. It doesnt grow quite as fast but fast enough. Maybe 80% the growth rate ... but has slightly more BTU so it's just about the same return. Not a really noticeable difference.
The *real* reason for the Sycamore is Tree Hay. It produces significantly more leaf and the breeders in The Rabbitry prefer it over all others we've tried.
I've had success with alder on wet land, it coppices well and burns nicely. Plus you get the finches and occasional redpoll visiting in winter. Growing your own firewood has got to be better than the boight stuff, its always so much birch to bulk it up cheaply.
We have self seeded alder - one of the few trees that seem to self generate where we are (the squirrels don’t eat the cones!)
Man: thinking about how to sustain himself and not dying because of the cold or hunger.
Dog: belly rubs
I live in the states and I found a wood I really liked was poplar. I had a reburn stove that was very efficient and air tight. Poplar is considered a crap wood by everyone here so there was no competition with cutting up downed trees. Plus many were two feet or more in diameter. I was not too happy with red oak because it took two years for it to dry out enough to provide good heat...the same with black locust. Another tree I liked even better is the silver maple or what is colloquially called a swamp maple because it grows good in damp soil. Once you have the wood the next thing I found that determined how much heat I got from the wood was how thick I split it. Thin pieces burned pretty quick while larger splits lasted a lot longer and made better coals. Another tree I likes was Elm. Even standing dead is a soggy wood while standing but once split and stacked it dried out great and burned steady and long too.
The wife had a huge wolf spider jump out of a piece of wood she was getting ready to put in the stove and there was no talking to her about not burning wood anymore. After many deep discussions and a lot of research on my end I switched over to a pellet stove with a wall mounted thermostat. That was a real game changer. The down size is you cannot make your own pellets but there isa lot less work and mess involved...and not one wolf spider detected. Any bags left over from the season has to be wrapped securely in several layers of plastic (it comes wrapped in two big sheets of plastic) other wise it absorbs moisture and is useless.
What about Eucalyptus? It's a hard wood, grows straight and also very quickly in the UK, plus it has medical properties too 🌿
The willow burns better than I had expected from my couple of heaters of 20 year old woodland. But it does hold a lot of moisture, and needs more seasoning to get it dry. However I have a massive supply of dead standing Ash. That being said, the willow needs Pollarding regularly, as it grows so fast it falls over if not cut back. The dead standing Ash is good to burn right from the saw. Ash is one of the only woods that can be burnt green, because it has such a low moisture content.
I made a 2m wide x 1m deep charcoal making pot, as the Aztecs used. It has large buckets, (50 litre) all round and when it's got enough charcoal, can be quenched producing about 39% charcoal to make BioChar
We have been using a compressed sawdust blocks, we generically call them bio-Bricks. They are about $370 USD/ ton but vary by brand.
this video popped up randomly in my feed, I am interested in such topics. My comment is for you. No 'er's, 'ah's, 'um's, repetitions, filler words, or deviations. Undoubtedly THE most well articulated article I have had the real pleasure of viewing in a long, long time. YOur presentation is rare in that it is so good. Thank you!
That is extremely nice of you - thanks!
first time viewer, great filming, content and delivery, music got a bit loud towards the end but i could still make out what you were saying. i also am getting a grassy field that i want to plant trees in part of it. Sussex.
Yes, the music volume seemed to go wrong in the editing somehow. I will keep a closer eye on it in future. Thanks for these compliments!
What a great video. Chestnut is lovely firewood, grows fast and coppices well, so that might be a contender in some places. It doesn't like very wet ground, though.
Yes, that has been our experience here. We have one chestnut tree, and it is not doing too well. Too wet, I suspect.
This is a very interesting video. We have a log burner in our house, but have heat pumps as our mainstay heat source. The fireplace is cozy and can really kick up the temperature on a cold winters day though. We have lots of ash and maple growing, and it turns out that maple also coppice quite willingly, at least the first time its cut back. We shall see about multiple cutbacks. I'm planting a lot of willow as well, not for firewood but for the early pollen supply for wild bees :D
Density is important for burn duration and there is an inverse relation between growth rate and density. However in my experience Goat Willow makes excellent firewood as part of general fuel mix, cheers
Have you forgotten about sycamore ? As a gardener in the north of England I had to deal with many a self sown sycamore sapling in the wrong place. If you don't get them young and small you find that they grow so fast that by the time you get around to dealing with them it's a lot more work - a stitch in time sort of thing.
Sycamore will coppice nicely also!
Sycamore is ruined in my wood by grey squirrels which also have spoilt 15year oak trees.
@@robstart8643 how do grey squirrels ruin your trees?
@jameskniskern2261 by stripping the bark off.They usually wait until the trees are nicely developing ie. When tree is between 10 and 15 years old.
They strip the bark which cuts off the circulation and eventually kills the tree. Greys seem to particularly like sycamore bark
I'm coppicing hazel, willow, chestnut and alder. If I could plant only one, on the experience of my last 7 years, it would be alder. Not as fast as the willow, but those you allow to grow a bit bigger are lovely and straight, a short seasoning from cutting and it splits a dream.
Hello. I live in a wet area in Northern Spain where soil is clayish and packed with organic matter, in fact it has an overdose of nitrogen. Alder trees are found near the rivers and they are absolutely beautiful. After reading your comment I am going to plant alder trees where all the rainwater ends up.
That souds really good. We do have an alder coppice as well, so I hope to show it in a future video. I really like the colour of the wood when you cut it!
Just came across your channel. Looks like you're living the dream. Subbed.
Hi, we are deeply grateful every day to live here. It does still feel like a dream a lot of the time.
I believe it is non native to England, however Pin Oak (you may call it Swamp Oak) is fast growing… slower than willow but around as fast as poplar or paperbirch. A 7 year old Pin Oak tree is 12 to 15 feet tall with a diameter of 4 inches (12.5 circumference).
It will coppice (you can actually lay a hedge with it) and it produces far more heat and longer burn times than Willow. Just a thought to experiment with… but love what you are doing here!
In response to your last question- I'm in sw Michigan, on 20 acres of woodland. It's a typical mix for this bioregion, predominantly oak, with maple, black cherry, beech, tupillo, big tooth aspen, sassafras and then some white pine and the occasional spruce. The maples here actually coppice quite well, even from mature trees. While I am working to introduce willow because our water table is excessively high (seasonally above ground high), I have not found it occurring here of its own. Much of my forest management work runs toward thinning, which means I'm taking a disproportionate number of small maples out. Some of that goes into fenceposts, the brash generally into dead hedges, so while it's a good portion of what I'm felling, not so much of what goes to our firewood. The firewood largely comes from the waste produced by my sawmill, which means mostly from the larger trees I take down, which run toward oaks. In short, our firewood is oak, maple and black cherry, in that order ;)
That is a big range - a quite different from what we have here. Good luck with the willows - it is wet, they should feel right at home.
Hi, eastern Ontario here from east of Algonquin Park:- you're in a transition zone there between the Laurentian forest region in the lower lakes to the east and north, the Carolinian zone to the south, and the Prairie Savannah region to the west but the proximity of Lake Michigan tends to keep things on the cool side plus the wet ground is also slow to heat up in summer so that keeps it cool and wet:- suggest you try swamp white oak, black maple, yellow birch, and eastern white cedar on the wetter ground for high-value timber and brash the lower limbs as necessary and keep cleaning out the woody undergrowth. You might even experiment with white spruce and balsam fir on the wet ground but its main value is for pulpwood whereas the heavy hardwoods can be used for furniture making and birch plywood so they're more valuable long-term. The brashings and thinnings could be chipped in a wood-chipper like the Bearcat series which are designed for small woodlots and you can actually burn them in wood-chip furnaces like those from Heizomat and Froling:- check out Biothermic in Ontario for brochures and specs but you need to find a local distributor there. The Ontario Woodlot Association has a lot of useful info for woodlot owners in the Laurentian forest region and you can find them at www.ontariowoodlot.com/ :- they're very practical and not an eco-fanatic group.
In Hungary my 2 main fastgrowing hardwood trees are mulberry and acacia. Both act like invasive species, it's really hard to kill them. I usually dont cut back them to the ground, just the branches and even that gives us a lot of firewood. Mulberry has also fruits which I love ( and my chickens, too) and their leaves can be used as feed for rabbits and chickens, too. I have a third favourite kind of invasive tree: the tree of heaven (alianthus altissima) which has soft wood but grows really-really fast, no matter what weather is happening. The last 3 years we had 2-3 months without rain in the summer and this tree still thrives. I use its green and wood mass as mulch to cover the ground around other trees or on pathways but not so much for heating..
Have you looked in black locust? Growing speed of the willow with more BTU's than oak. Probably one of the highest BTU for a hardwood. Harvest able within four to six years. Also coppices well much like willow. It is very hard to split so should be cut before it's 8inches(200mm) in diameter. It also fixes nitrogen so improves soil quality.
Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is a great suggesting...but sadly...this would become an invasive species in the U.K. and not suited to that biome ecology...
Is weeping willow any good for firewood?
Great video. I'm in Serbia and the only wood I use is Robinia pseudocasia otherwise known as black locust. It's classed as a hardwood and has similar calorie content to hardwoods such as ash and oak. It can even be burnt green. It has an incredible growth rate here growing at least 2m a year. It's my go to firewood though because it's a non native and has a negative effect on native species because of its invasive nature.
Very interesting video. Where I live in Michigan, USA our situation is a little different. Deer eat most of the stump sprouts. We do have fast growing maple, poplar and wild black cherry trees.
Very good video! Good info and obviously well researched. Thank you. Cheers from HB NZ
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’m afraid I have serious reservations about growing hybrid willow for firewood. These species have a huge amount of brash to get rid of ( ie. Waste) compared to ash or oak and their calorific value is very low compared to the slow growing species. I have 40acres of woods and willows are just waste material also wildlife value of a hybrid willow plantation is minimal
I’m in Scotland and burn almost exclusively willow, thinning, felling, wind fall etc. properly seasoned it burns very well.
Sounds good - if you are on the west coast, there should be plenty of rain for willow!
@ too much rain some might say 😂
@oleww50 yup!
I coppice red maple, birch and stripped alder for firewood. Add to that windfallen and sick or leaning trees on a 25 acre woodlot. 4 cords per year is sufficient to keep my house warm here in Atlantic Canada. We mostly use willow to make wattle fences and various garden structures. After 5 or 6 years they start to look sad so we cut them up and use the dry sticks for kindling.
Black locust is incredible!! It grows fast and is very good firewood!! And spreads and is nitrogen fixing and has great flowers for pollinators.
It's related to the pea family
It does seem to be an amazing tree. I think we will try again to grow some. We need to find a bit of field that will suit it.
In the Midwest US, I’m pretty obsessed with River Birch. Something about my soil just kicks them up so fast and they are beautiful. I’m going to try to experiment to see if I can get western Quaking Aspen to grow here.
Really enjoyed this video, lots of really great information - thank you. We're experimenting with Eucalypts for a fast growing source of firewood - not loved by all I know, being non-native, it is a very useful and beautiful tree that give great fast growing hard wood though 💚✌🌿
We have tried several Eucalyptus varieties without success. Your place looks much drier and warmer than where we are. It would be nice if we could grow some.
@ yes, we are right down south which is an advantage .. there are some varieties I believe (Neglecta) which can tolerate shade and wetness, unfortunately they don’t grow so fast though… sounds like you know your stuff so I am sure you would have looked in to all of this 💚✌️🌿
Amazing channel! Relaxing as well as educational. Subscribed!
Thanks for that!
Here in Florida we have both willows, mostly Salix caroliniana, and oaks of many species. I've seen that willows grow best in a wet area and are a pioneer species quickly establishing a canopy in areas with enough water. But oaks can also grow in much drier environments, far more slowly, but may thrive for centuries eventually dominating their ecosystems.
Willow wood, and that of other fast growing wetland trees, often burns hot but burns out quickly. Slow growing oak wood contains more energy for longer burning fires.
A great video and so informative. Thank you.
I live in the SE US and there are trees here called Crepe Myrtle. They seem to fit the standards you set nicely, and while I have not seen it used for firewood I am interested to see if a system like your willow patch could be adapted to Crepe Myrtle. It grows on average about 2'/yr in my area, and lends itself very well to coppicing. It seems to be a bit denser than willow so may grow slightly slower than Willow, but much faster than Oak or Beech. They are also beautiful flowering trees; a lovely sight each spring in such a plot.
Hi, I lived in Alabama for a few years in high school. I remember Crepe Myrtle, but like you, never heard of it being used as a firewood crop. Let me know if you have success with it!