Shagbark
ArboristSite Guru
Have the opportunity to cut some mulberry. Is it worth cutting for firewood?
Is Mulberry good fire wood?
- Thread starter Shagbark
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Rookie1
Addicted to ArboristSite
If its what I think it is YES!
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welder15725
ArboristSite Operative
It has alittle less BTU per cord than oak. So its good stuff. Let'r eat man!!
ac900tc
ArboristSite Lurker
It is a very fast growing tree, but fortunately makes great firewood!
wdchuck
Addicted to ArboristSite
It's a relative to osage orange, but yes, it does make fine firewood, just let it season for a couple years to get its full heating potential.
The wood is beautiful yellow and ages to a deep amber/orange, great wood, hard and heavy.
The wood is beautiful yellow and ages to a deep amber/orange, great wood, hard and heavy.
outdoorlivin247
Addicted to ArboristSite
The only thing I can add is it splits easier after seasoned...
I've seen it on wood charts as having more BTU than ash, but you've gotta work to get it. Handling the brush seems more difficult than most trees, it's kind of knobby and wants to tangle. It also seems to season a bit slower than lots of other types of wood. I wouldn't recommend for a fireplace it's really sparkly like gold dust fireworks when burning. Open the door of the woodburner and a shower of sparks is not uncommon. Believe me I've cut a LOT of mulberry and it is pretty decent firewood.
No, those other guys don't know what they're talking about. Mulberry is no good at all. Just leave it where it is and don't touch it. Just tell me where it is and I'll come and haul it away for you.
welder15725
ArboristSite Operative
retired redneck
ArboristSite Guru
When dry it burns as good as oak,but if you have to drag the brush it takes three times as long...
Most of the Mulberry around here is bushy and by the time you cut a pick up load you feel like you spent enough time to cut 2 or 3 with all the limbs. It burns good. I always thought it seasoned as fast as the harder oaks after split. Mabe not? I don't ever remember it splitting easiar after dry by hand splitting. Just about all hardwoods I worked with split best soon as you cut it unless it freezes after it drys.
YCSTEVE
ArboristSite Operative
I've tried burning it several times and was disappointed. I know it's a cousin to hedge but it needs some serious cure time. The first time I tried it I had a huge 100 year old tree. It took me for ever to split it up. I let it cure in the sun and open air all summer and I was very dissappointed in how it burned. The next tree was smaller and I let it cure for a full year and it still didn't burn that great. I have a 1/2 cord of it right now curing and if I come across some more I will probably take it but I'm not expecting great things from it.
IMO it has a little better reputation that it deserves. I think its just to wet of a wood.
IMO it has a little better reputation that it deserves. I think its just to wet of a wood.
smokinj
Addicted to ArboristSite
give mulberry atleast 2 years to season.
KsWoodsMan
Addicted to ArboristSite
I've burned quite a bit also and have had different results.
I have found it to be a very good firewood. Keeping it off the ground and the top covered is the key to wood seasoning for me. Other wise anything in the bottom 2 layers is still soaking wet from ground moisture and rain water running into the stack. Yeah. it is heavy and wet when first cut but never had much trouble getting it to split. I turn them upside down for best results.
Yup around my area that and locust and walnut are the premium woods and fairly hard to find to cut get all you can!
It will pop and sparkle when you let air to it so its better in an airtight stove not quite as bad as hedge and not near as hard but good wood to have.
You can smoke meats with it too fwtw.
Kansas
YCSTEVE
ArboristSite Operative
Previously when I said it took forever to split I meant because it was a huge tree and I did it by a splitting maul and wedges. It's not a bad splitting wood. Right now I have it stacked on concrete. I'm sure once it gets dried down to 20% moisture it will burn fine.
One year I cut pin oak, black jack oak and mulberry all in the spring. I stacked it in the same location outside in the open air but under some shade.
The pin oak was ready to go by December. The black jack oak and mulberry wasn't read until the next December.
My neighbor had a very large old sterile mulberry that he needed cut down and removed because it was starting to split and fall over. The trunk had a hole in it and someone in the past dumped concrete down the center of the trunk trying to save the tree because it was a great shade tree. He paid someone to cut it down and it took that poor guy days and days to cut that tree down. Of course the tree was surrounded by houses.
I offered to haul off the tree thinking I was getting some easy firewood. I was wrong. The stuff was rotten in the center and green and wet on the outside.
One year I cut pin oak, black jack oak and mulberry all in the spring. I stacked it in the same location outside in the open air but under some shade.
The pin oak was ready to go by December. The black jack oak and mulberry wasn't read until the next December.
My neighbor had a very large old sterile mulberry that he needed cut down and removed because it was starting to split and fall over. The trunk had a hole in it and someone in the past dumped concrete down the center of the trunk trying to save the tree because it was a great shade tree. He paid someone to cut it down and it took that poor guy days and days to cut that tree down. Of course the tree was surrounded by houses.
I offered to haul off the tree thinking I was getting some easy firewood. I was wrong. The stuff was rotten in the center and green and wet on the outside.
woodbooga
cords of mystic memory
Haven't handled much myself, but I was impressed with the amount of heat in a hunk of wood with such wide grain.
KsWoodsMan
Addicted to ArboristSite
I guess I wasn't thinking about 4' dia firewood slabs or I misread part of your responce. By hand that would be a lot of time and work getting put up for firewood.
Mulberry does seem underrated as firewood, maybe because it is such a fast growing tree.
Bowtie
Gearhead
How small do you guys split mulberry? I split anything under 6" diameter. Unless you are using a wood furnace or decent size stove, the harder woods need to be split small IMO, or dried for 2 years.
I have had the same moisture problem with hedge and mulberry when it hasnt seasoned long enough or is not split small enough to be seasoned right.
I had a bad opinion of hedge when I first tried it because it wouldnt burn. Turns out the outside looked dry, but the inside was green as heck. Mulberry is similar. The stuff can look dry as a bone, but if its very thick, the moisture holds inside for a long time.
I have had the same moisture problem with hedge and mulberry when it hasnt seasoned long enough or is not split small enough to be seasoned right.
I had a bad opinion of hedge when I first tried it because it wouldnt burn. Turns out the outside looked dry, but the inside was green as heck. Mulberry is similar. The stuff can look dry as a bone, but if its very thick, the moisture holds inside for a long time.
