Pine cones

[Mad Professor]

I've got a dozen +, > 40" dbh white pines in the front yard.

Every fall, the needles are always a mess to clean up, but they get used as mulch on my blueberries.

Every few years, they put out a bumper crop of pine cones. This was one of those years.

I put up 4 55-gal bags of cones before I did the needle clean up this year. Some of the best fire starter I've ever used. Really cuts down on my need for kindling to get fires started or make the embers jump to life.

Anybody else harvest a stash of pine cones?

 

[woodhounder]

Yep, I've used them on campfires, work really good.

 

[kevinlar]

I have 5-6 acres of planted white pine. Talk about having more pine cones then you know what to do with.

 

[Mad Professor]

I have 5-6 acres of planted white pine. Talk about having more pine cones then you know what to do with.

I have considered collecting them then selling/marketing bags full as "100% natural fire starter".

If people will $5-10 for a small bundle of wood.............

 

[moresnow]

My place is surrounded by a grove of very mature E. White Pine. The cones are thick every few years. The needles are a messy burden every year. I love burning the wood in my stove when I lose a tree. The cones only make it to my firepit.

 

[MrWhoopee]

I collect Ponderosa pine cones for my fire starters. I use very little kindling, just a couple of cones & maybe a slab of bark. Hit it with a blast of the torch, et voila, we have fire. They also look nice in the little wicker basket next to the stove. With the wildfire danger so high here, more and more of my yard waste is becoming stove fuel.

 

[Matt93eg]

Co workers wife does arts/crafts and what not, she will get pine cones, melt wax and put over it and use them and little gifts, puts them in little bags with a ribbon on them. Work good for fire starting.

She made some last year with green and red wax for Christmas time.

 

[svk]

Our next door neighbor at my parents home had a huge white pine. We’d fill several shopping bags full of cones each year and lots of needles too.

 

[Marine5068]

I have considered collecting them then selling/marketing bags full as "100% natural fire starter".

If people will $5-10 for a small bundle of wood.............

$5 ?
It's like $12 here at our local stores for a bag of mixed hardwood/softwood.
I sell around 100 pellet bags full of softwood a year from trash cuts I find in and around my area.
( I use my empty pellet bags from each burn season this way)
I sell for $6 a bag and sell out fast.

 

[jrider]

My white pines had a bumper crop of cones this year as well.

 

[alleyyooper]

You know there is a market for pine cones for the wreath making market for Xmas?

I used pine neddles for a while as smoker fuel to smoke th ebees with but found I liked Sumac berriers better for that.

Al