Catalpa for firewood, is it any good?

[Starting Small]

I have a dead Catalpa tree in my yard that I am going to take down and use as firewood for the evaporator. Is it any good? Also, I have some large branches that broke off in the Halloween snowstorm, I split it today and noticed toward the end that some of the twigs were green. Should I forgo the stuff from the storm and just use the dead tree? Or not use any of it and get some hard wood?

[mapleman3]

Burn it all! Mix it in for a hot fire.....an evaporator will eat anything. If its free..........I burned pine..hemlock..oak...birch maple poplar...it all burns

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[Ausable]

I agree with Jim - Burn it. Hey! a catalpa always has a bunch of leathery looking seed pods - do those things burn? --I have a crazy mix of fuel too and it all burns. -----Mike--

[sugaringman85]

I know catalpa doesn't have a very high btu rating and it may stink when burned but i agree with everyone else, if its free and easy to get to the sugar house burn it! a hot fire with a blower eats anything in its path...you may see a little change in the boiling rates using hardwood vs softwood but it all makes heat and heat makes syrup!

[Starting Small]

[QUOTE=...you may see a little change in the boiling rates using hardwood vs softwood but it all makes heat and heat makes syrup![/QUOTE] I am assuming that the boiling rate would be higher for hardwood? Or does softwood burn hotter than hardwood but just faster not lasting as long?

[sugaringman85]

hardwood lasts longer...which you want for heating your house. for sugaring we have found that its better to fire more often with softwood and have a hotter fire, which in turn makes you more syrup faster, than having a longer lasting fire. Hardwood coals also last longer and if your getting low, dangerously low, on sap its not good to have a huge bed of hardwood coals sitting in the firebox. it make for some serious nail biting situations and some scrambling around!

[Starting Small]

With the wood that went down in October in the storm...Some still had green twings on the ends ,should I just leave that for next year or should it dry in the next month? although it had been down for a few months I only just split it recently. I do plan on using the dead tree this year though.