Wood fuel rotation?

[farmerfred86]

Willow is often referred to as the best wood fuel source given the time it takes to grow vs quality of wood.

Is this still the case for 10/20ac of woodland on a farming system? Are there any better options of wood fuel to grow given the time taken?

Also is it correct that logs can be dried outside by stacking and then chipping in year 2/3?

 

[Pasty]

I think in terms of pure energy, hybrid willows are a good choice. Probably depends how you are going to harvest. Poplar also good and Alder grows pretty fast. I think in terms of drying coppiced wood, the usual idea is to stack billets (about 1m lengths) under a cover but with the wind blowing through them. I've done this with Alder and it was bone dry after 1 summer. When chopped and split, the very centre of the billet measured 16% on my cheap meter. But that's just me staggering about with a chainsaw and a hilux. On a bigger scale there might be other options.

Don't believe any of the rubbish you read about willow and poplar not being good firewoods. Any dry wood will burn well but in most cases, the faster it grows, the lighter it is once dry and hence less energy by volume. But it seems that most wood biomass is hybrid willow and I guess those guys have done their research.

The other good thing with willow is that you can't kill it if you try. So a good hardy crop. Plus, very, very easy to establish in soft ground.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

A couple of years ago I would have said ash was better because of the higher dm but now disease has put paid to that. See what does well round you and choose from those. Poplar perhaps as it roots so easily from cuttings.
You season wood outside in the rain for a year or 2 depending on species and then protect it to dry out.

 

[farmerfred86]

Any thoughts on alder wood?

 

[Kidds]

I would have said Ash too, I would look at Sycamore now.

 

[farmerfred86]

Isn't Sycamore quite slow growing? I'm thinking we should plant a few rows of williw now while we use our current stocks over the next 2/3 years...

 

[Kidds]

Sycamore grows very similar to Ash in my experience.

 

[Colin]

I would say anything where you don't have to keep replanting. So anything that can be coppiced or pollarded then. A lot of the folk that are into wood chip now forget to cost in planting etc. I reckon a good few acres of willow and one of those things on the front of the digger for felling them would be a good way to go.

 

[Pasty]

In terms of growing speed, it would be Alder, then Sycamore, then Ash. Syc is a good fast growing tree and like most broadleaves, is a good coppice plant. But I don't think any of these hard woods can come close to willow for energy output per acre. Fortunes were made from alder coppice but that was mainly from charcoal which it is very good for. I still love alder as a coppice tree for wood fuel and have a lot of it on the farm in various stages. Some I coppiced 5 years ago are just starting to look like firewood but I would still leave them a few more years. I think you can harvest hybrid willows about every 4 years. Have a look at the bowhayes trees website. They have some pics of growth stages I think.

 

[Goweresque]

The answer depends to some extent on what you want to do with the logs produced. If for sale, then getting customers to accept woods like willow and poplar over hardwoods like ash, beech and oak can be difficult, even if priced much cheaper. I'm selling logs off the farm and have managed to get a few customers to use willow (of which I have a lot) but most opt for hardwood despite it being nearly 40% dearer for the same sized bag , as I guess thats what they think is 'best'. If its for your own use then hybrid poplar and willow is the best bet by far. If it is for sale then ash or some other fast(ish) growing hardwood will have the best log sale value. But the area required for a rotation, and the number of years before that rotation can start, will be massively higher than poplar/willow.