Is Mulberry good fire wood?

[KsWoodsMan]

Some 6"-8" stuff will get split, some wont. I like to keep a few bigger chunks for 'all nighters'. I can always split them smaller later if needed. Anything over 8" gets split since it is a hassle to feed it into my stove.

If I had a bigger firebox oriented differently .... but since I don't ... .

One thing I might be doing different is I start cutting again in mid-July, when the ground is good and dry till the Fall rains start again. There is less moisture in the soil for the trees to take up.

Any Spring storm cleanup seems to take longer to season though.

 

[YCSTEVE]

I have a Hot Blast furnace so I used to just split them down small enough to where it would fit in the door. Now I have realized that if I split them down far enough that my wife can fit them in the door it works even better.

I get to spend more time using my recently purchased homemade log splitter and she gets to share in the wood burning experience.:greenchainsaw: I would hate to deny her the pleasure of helping me load the stove. I don't think she is excited about it as I am.

I try to put 8 pieces of wood in everytime I load my stove. Four Pieces on the bottom and 4 pieces on the top. I load my stove at 7:00 a.m my wife puts a little in around 1:00 p.m I put some more in around 4:30 p.m. and then I load it up again around 10:00 p.m. ALL WINTER LONG, every day it gets below 32 degrees. If I burn it when its any warmer then that I will run out of wood.

 

[CrappieKeith]

I have a Hot Blast furnace so I used to just split them down small enough to where it would fit in the door. Now I have realized that if I split them down far enough that my wife can fit them in the door it works even better.

I get to spend more time using my recently purchased homemade log splitter and she gets to share in the wood burning experience.:greenchainsaw: I would hate to deny her the pleasure of helping me load the stove. I don't think she is excited about it as I am.

I try to put 8 pieces of wood in everytime I load my stove. Four Pieces on the bottom and 4 pieces on the top. I load my stove at 7:00 a.m my wife puts a little in around 1:00 p.m I put some more in around 4:30 p.m. and then I load it up again around 10:00 p.m. ALL WINTER LONG, every day it gets below 32 degrees. If I burn it when its any warmer then that I will run out of wood.

Sounds to me like you need to upgrade.
With a heat load of only 32 degrees...loading that much...
When it's 20 bleow 0 I only fill mine twice a day and it never goes out.
When it's 32 degrees I hit mine once a day.

 

[YCSTEVE]

CrappieKeith,

I hear you, I have had this discussion on ArboristSite several times and compared it with other $1,000 furnaces and it seems to be about right. I burn 9-10 cords a year or 18-20 rik. I will burn starting Dec 1st and burn until I run out of wood which is usually around March 1st.

I have a 110 year old 3 story house with 49 windows and 3 doors. To say it is drafty it is an understatement. When it gets in the teens and the wind is blowing 30 mph ( like it does in Kansas) I have a hard time keeping the house in the 70's. When it gets in the single digits and the wind is blowing the gas furnace will start kicking on while the wood furnace is running. Its like heating a barn.

Thats why I hate it when I throw in some year old mullberry and listen to my gas furnace kick on.

I agree I should up grade, like to a better house but I can't blast my wife out of this one. I wish I had just a nice fireplace in the living room and the house stayed 85 degrees and I only burned about 4 cords of wood a year.

Then I would spend more time fishing.

BTW I hear those Yukons are nice stoves.

 

[YCSTEVE]

ShagBark,

Its a slow day at work so I will give my not worth much opinion on Mulberry.

If it is close to your house I would leave it alone and just come back every spring and eat the berries off of it.

If it is in your drive way and the birds are eating the berries and pooping purple stuff on your car I would cut it down wait 730 days then try and burn it.

If I had a smoker I would try to smoke some chickens with it but you better have a gas assist or it probably won't stay lit.

If I had limited storage I would save it for a wood that will cure in one season.

If I had a choice between piss elm and mulberry I would probably cut them both down just just because I like to run my Stihl. I would then push them in a brush pile and poor a whole bunch of motor oil and tires on them just so it would burn. Then I would set back in a lawn chair and drink some cold beer and watch it burn.

 

[CrappieKeith]

I guess you do have a problem.
I know that we could help with that even though your house is that drafty.
I'd probally upsize you too the SJ125.
Cut your wood consumption in half and keep that gas from coming on....no matter how cold you got in Kansas!

Working that Hotblast like you do,I can't imagine you'll get too much more out of her..so when she lets go,you know where to find us.Until then hump that wood and do the best you can with it.

 

[YCSTEVE]

Yukon Eagle was one of the first stoves I looked at online. If I remember right it had a round firebox. I also looked at the Fire Cheif.

It wasn't unusual for me to have a $500 gas bill in January. I originally purchased a pellet stove at the local farm store. On a 40 degree day it would not raise the temp in my house. That lasted about a week. I took it back and they had the Hot Blast on display so I swapped out the pellet stove for the Hot Blast. My house went from 68 degrees with a $500 gas bill to 78 degees with a $100 gas bill. We have two gas water heaters and a gas dryer.

Wood was the only way to go.

 

[boyland]

MB takes forever to dry out. I cut some in April and in my wood pile is has nice leaves and looks like it is growing. That stuff is crazy. It does burn very well but the smell is not good. I would use in OWB or Outside burner not in my fireplace.

 

[warjohn]

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.

When I cut hedge in the winter I take it straight to my MIL's. She will burn a pickup load every 2 or 3 weeks I have trouble keeping up with here so she almost never gets seasoned wood. Any seasoned wood I get I keep for myself. I have to season mulberry.

 

[Wood Doctor]

It has a little less BTU per cord than oak. So its good stuff. Let'r eat man!!

Correct. However, by some miracle, mulberry has just as much BTU per pound, if not more, than oak when dry. The reason is that when dry, it is less dense than oak, but when spring green (like now) it is more dense than oak. Mulberry drinks water like a drunkard in the spring.

Locust and mulberry are both plentiful and underrated firewood species, and both are almost disease free.