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Thread: Catalpa for firewood, is it any good?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Broad Brook, Connecticut
    Posts
    540

    Default Catalpa for firewood, is it any good?

    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?
    2011-8 Taps on a very crude block arch
    2012- 38 taps 2 X 3 with blower.
    2013- 70 taps total-50 on tubing, 20 on buckets
    2014- 75 taps- Low vacuum, 2X4 drop flue
    2015- 100 taps-2X6 Mason Drop Tube, low vac
    2016-115 taps high vac, 60 taps buckets
    14X20 post and beam shack with attached 10X14 wood shed
    12 beehives and an avid waterfowl hunter.
    Wishing I can quit my day job, keep bees, farm, and make syrup!
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moshe...40072296064422

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Belchertown Ma.
    Posts
    2,660

    Default

    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

    sent from my Verizon Droid Charge using Tapatalk.
    Jim & Charlene Desjardins
    Belchertown MA.

    Had a good 13 year run, but circumstances ! and loss of tree use.. we are ending the Maple thing for now... maybe be back in a few years

    www.Desjardinsmaple.com

    facebook Jim Desjardins

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Glennie, Michigan
    Posts
    1,266

    Default

    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--

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Sunapee, NH
    Posts
    155

    Default

    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!
    Harding Hill Farm
    2650 taps
    3rd Generation Sugar Maker with a Chocolate Lab named Acer

    http://www.hardinghillfarm.com
    www.facebook.com/hardinghillfarmnh

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Broad Brook, Connecticut
    Posts
    540

    Default

    [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?
    2011-8 Taps on a very crude block arch
    2012- 38 taps 2 X 3 with blower.
    2013- 70 taps total-50 on tubing, 20 on buckets
    2014- 75 taps- Low vacuum, 2X4 drop flue
    2015- 100 taps-2X6 Mason Drop Tube, low vac
    2016-115 taps high vac, 60 taps buckets
    14X20 post and beam shack with attached 10X14 wood shed
    12 beehives and an avid waterfowl hunter.
    Wishing I can quit my day job, keep bees, farm, and make syrup!
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moshe...40072296064422

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Sunapee, NH
    Posts
    155

    Default

    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!
    Harding Hill Farm
    2650 taps
    3rd Generation Sugar Maker with a Chocolate Lab named Acer

    http://www.hardinghillfarm.com
    www.facebook.com/hardinghillfarmnh

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Broad Brook, Connecticut
    Posts
    540

    Default

    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.
    2011-8 Taps on a very crude block arch
    2012- 38 taps 2 X 3 with blower.
    2013- 70 taps total-50 on tubing, 20 on buckets
    2014- 75 taps- Low vacuum, 2X4 drop flue
    2015- 100 taps-2X6 Mason Drop Tube, low vac
    2016-115 taps high vac, 60 taps buckets
    14X20 post and beam shack with attached 10X14 wood shed
    12 beehives and an avid waterfowl hunter.
    Wishing I can quit my day job, keep bees, farm, and make syrup!
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moshe...40072296064422

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