Been doing a bit of reading on Russian olive

[NDtreehugger]

Their seems to be no BTU rating for Russian olive, but their is a lot of info on the tree.
It seem the Russian olive fit between the Ash and Red Oak

 

[gtsawyer]

I occasionally run into Russian olive, and wish there was more to be had around here.

 

[SAWFORD79]

I like burning it. Seems to have good btu's and coals nicely. The only draw back I have had with it is if you get a little smoke in the house when feeding the fire the smoke is a nasty smelling smoke (I think). We have some around here that people put in tree rows or windbreaks, most of it has a lot of limbs but is smaller easy to handle size logs.

 

[forestryworks]

The more of them burned, the better; that tree does not belong here all.

 

[dave_dj1]

Never heard of it up in these parts.

 

[stihly dan]

Its there. Its a bush with little red berries. You can see drunk birds at the end of winter on them.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Thorns + yellow/orange fruit, leaves silver both sides = Russian Olive

Few if any thorns, red fruit, leaves silver on bottom = Autumn Olive

Much more likely to see Autumn Olive in New England/New York but there is some Russian around.

Same genus, different species. Both are invasive plants. Both are similar to peas and soybeans in that they have simbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria so they colonize poor soils well. But they out compete native plants then interfering with normal successions.

My grandfather never met a plant the state was giving away free for conservation purposes he didn't take...so I get to fight autumn olive, multiflora rose, and Japanese knotweed on a regular basis. Plus the normal native pain the butts like grape vines and poison ivy

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

They were used here quite a bit as windbreaks. In fact, my brother and I planted fifty of them in my dad's garden back in the 1960s as a 4H forestry project. He took them out about 20 years later. A row of them is darn near impenetrable because of the thorns. Birds will eat the olives and drop the seeds, then they come up like weeds.

Now they're considered invasive here on the river bottom. We have a few on our place but none of them are big enough to be worth fooling with for firewood. I think most of them died in the 2002 drought anyway.

And, yes, they have a nasty smell when burned.

 

[turnkey4099]

I planted some of them on the edge of my garden as part of a windbreak - they disappeared when I got tired of thorn injuries.

Harry K

 

[Richard C]

We have a few at the Nevada ranch, and we planted a few from cuttings.

 

[ft. churchill]

I cleaned up up around some people's yards in order to get the Russian olive wood. It burns nice, with good coals. I haven't noticed any smell while burning, but I have a tight EPA woodstove and almost no visible smoke ever comes out of the flue.

 

[joesmith]

I think they are pretty cool trees for looks especially while it is windy...they are very dramatic...i dont like how springy they are when you climb them though...

 

[qweesdraw]

I never found Btu rating on Russian Olive till now,always knew it burned well.
It's amazingly light seasoned for the Btu's it gives you.
Boulder County will give you another tree if you cut one down since it seems to be a water hog in our semi desert climate.
I do what i call the Fat or Ugly chick burn on Cottonwood/ Russian Olive.
Bring it in when it's dark,put it in the firebox and gone by daylight!(nobody knows):msp_biggrin:

 

[NDtreehugger]

I like burning it. Seems to have good btu's and coals nicely. The only draw back I have had with it is if you get a little smoke in the house when feeding the fire the smoke is a nasty smelling smoke (I think). We have some around here that people put in tree rows or windbreaks, most of it has a lot of limbs but is smaller easy to handle size logs.

I grab the standing dead and use it to smoke beef.

 

[m37]

I get lots of it most people around here don't like to burn them. It is very pretty wood to make things out of.

 

[gtsawyer]

I grab the standing dead and use it to smoke beef.

I shoot the Living Dead.

 

[dsell]

23 million BTU according to this site:


Minot, Firewood BTU Chart

 

[Laird]

It's an invasive PITA. Fortunately Roundup works well on it.:msp_smile: