Ever burn hackberry????
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rjh245
ArboristSite Operative
I have burned a large amount of it this year. I cleared a fence lot and hated to send all the wood through a chipper. It is ok wood, better than pine.
Rob
Rob
Dadatwins
Addicted to ArboristSite
Burns well, it is a bear to split though.
PWB
ArboristSite Guru
Got a bunch here I cut/split this year for next year, looks like good stuff. Didn't have any trouble splittling it, easier than the elm that grows around here.....
Hackberry is listed on this chart (page 2).
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf
In my area, Hackberry is a cousin of Elm, known for splitting hard, but not as bad as elm. We have plenty of cold weather, so most hand splitters will wait for cold weather...or burn elm and hackberry in an outdoor boiler, where if you can wrestle it into the stove you can get by without splitting! If you split with a hydraulic splitter, it really doesn't matter.
It is a little lighter and less dense than oak, birch and maple, for example, and doesn't seem to make as good coals, but is about as good as ash, and better by far than basswood, popple (aspen) and willow.
The smoke doesn't smell very nice, and in my area the wood seems supsceptible to a fungus disease that causes dry rot in the pile...it stinks even worse then. If you use it up within a year or so that won't be a problem
It is a little lighter and less dense than oak, birch and maple, for example, and doesn't seem to make as good coals, but is about as good as ash, and better by far than basswood, popple (aspen) and willow.
The smoke doesn't smell very nice, and in my area the wood seems supsceptible to a fungus disease that causes dry rot in the pile...it stinks even worse then. If you use it up within a year or so that won't be a problem
West Texas
ArboristSite Guru
I've only cut up a couple of them; and, both burned in the fireplace well. I don't recall any particular odor problems; but they were 'dead' trees when I cut them up.
I have burned a lot.
When splitting freshly cut (with a log splitter) the wood tends to hang together or be stringy. I recently split a lot of fresh cut silver maple with the same behavior (i think the silver maple is much worse). You get the strands betwen the pieces and it is a PITA to finish the split by pulling the parts in two by hand.
I have some big hackberry chunks I put in the wood stove and they last mostly through the night. Not as good as locust or hedge apple or oak but not bad either (whatever that means).
I just finished burning some 2 year old hackberry that was in one of my wood racks for 2 years. It is noticably more susceptable to the boring insects than the other wood in the racks.
When splitting freshly cut (with a log splitter) the wood tends to hang together or be stringy. I recently split a lot of fresh cut silver maple with the same behavior (i think the silver maple is much worse). You get the strands betwen the pieces and it is a PITA to finish the split by pulling the parts in two by hand.
I have some big hackberry chunks I put in the wood stove and they last mostly through the night. Not as good as locust or hedge apple or oak but not bad either (whatever that means).
I just finished burning some 2 year old hackberry that was in one of my wood racks for 2 years. It is noticably more susceptable to the boring insects than the other wood in the racks.
rickyrooster
ArboristSite Guru
Hi, I live in the midwest and seem to get a lot of hackberry. I burn in a wood furnace so I havent noticed the smell others have spoke of. I feel that it is a very good firewood. I use a home built hydraulic spitter so splitting isnt a problem. The one thing I have noticed is that it doesnt hold up very well if it is left laying unsplit. I split some this winter that had been on the ground for two years and it was almost rotten. Rick!!! 
sredlin
ArboristSite Operative
Better than green ash---I go out of my way for it--love the stuff
West Texas
ArboristSite Guru
+1
I dropped a 3 foot hackberry in my driveway, and the rounds got punky before I could get it split. You cannot leave it on the ground for any length of time. I think it is less dense than elm. Burns OK, but doesn't last all night for me. I have a four and 1/2 footer that is way hollow, that shades my whole house. Eventually I will need to drop it, it is a HUGE tree, about 75-80 feet tall, very wide, over two houses. That will be a project.
uh, that was huge by midwest standards, not PNW standards.
uh, that was huge by midwest standards, not PNW standards.
ScoutmasterRick
ArboristSite Operative
When I was a teenager we burned a bunch of hackberry that we had cleaned out of a fence row. As others noted it burns well enough. What I remember most was that little chunks of the bark tended to pop out of the fireplace as it burned.
foxeye
ArboristSite Member
I have cut and split a fair amount of hackberry over the years and have not had any complainits with it, other than around here the limbs are always covered in spanish moss and it makes clean up more of a mess.
