I have a 2.2 cubic foot Lopi wood stove. I can load it with poplar and have coals in the morning. Also, always have some on hand for the mornings, when you have a very little coals and want to get the stove back up to temp for secondary burn. I actually heated my house here in Michigan in 2021 all winter with poplar.
Here in MN, Poplar grows everywhere, grows fast, Splits easily (as you mentioned) and smells nice. I did my sap boil with just poplar last year. I save oak for my indoor fires. Great video Phil, thanks for posting! Cheers!
I agree, I like to burn poplar as well. It does burn up quick but produces a good flame and catches up quick. It’s great for starting fires and quickly heating up the stove then I’ll mix in other hardwoods. Take care!
Nice mix. You got denser, heavier Ash to build a coal bed- and smell great- poplar for the bright n cheery, and maple for some of both. All three often split nice and clean, and look nice in a bundle as well.
I use poplar as kindling, in the woodstove and firepit. Then switch over to ash, oak, ...harder woods. Poplar takes a flame quickly, burns hot and fast. If split down to smaller pieces (for kindling) it dries fast. *Suggestion for production: put the bucket on your front loader and park behind your splitter. Leave just enough room to walk through. Split directly into the bucket for transport .OR. Position the splitter so it is flowing the wood out right next to the stacking area. Every step you can save, every time you don't have to pick up or handle the pieces of wood again adds up over time. For small batches, split directly into a wheel barrow or cart. I split kindling into plastic 55 gallon barrels, cut in half. They fit nicely in my FEL bucket.
I just got my hands on a bunch of spruce- some big, 2 year old logs- for an excellent price: free! Kinda knotty, but splits really easily anyway. Smells really nice, too. Got it to make kindling, ended up splitting much of it into campfire sized chunks, due to the knots. I'm happy with it! Nothing like the smell of pine or spruce on a campfire! And it's fantastic for kindling.
I can see it being nice for fire pits. For heating it definitely doesn’t have high energy content. Burns fast. Same work for less warmth! I mix it in when I have it - I’ll use anything if it needs to be cut, but I don’t seek it. In my experience poplar also doesn’t keep long. Need to use it as soon as it’s dry.
Good points. And yes, it doesn't like being out in the moisture, and will rot quickly. If you have a covered wood shed it'll keep much longer than in an exposed pile or outdoor stack. Thanks for watching
My brother just bought a piece of land dotted with poplar. Him and I bucked up a storm damaged one (maybe down for a year) and split it this past September. The moisture is around 20% at this time and it seems to burn alright. Better than pine and it's free. No complaints here.
Hey poplar beautiful wood for a fire place give off beautiful Color , dry real good plus good fire starter . Mill poplar wet , it’s best under your metal roof or metal siding to screw your metal screw into went wet . Went it’s dry your screw never back out in your life time . Think safety around the wood and in the wood yard put SAFETY FIRST . enjoy your day , keep up great video. All the best to you and your family .
It definitely does not heat like most hardwoods like oak, maple, beech or ash but like you said usually goes pretty tall without a ton of branches so easy to cut up and it splits great. If I were still selling firewood I would not sell it and if I was buying it I would not want it sold to me. I have an outdoor boiler and have lots of pine and other softwoods available so I consider poplar good wood for me even though I do burn quite a bit of better hardwoods.
You’re certainly increasing the firewood production. Nice work. I personally don’t like poplar for inside burning or camp fire burning. Usually if we have a camp fire, we like to have a great bed of coals for cooking over @ - poplar just doesn’t make great coals for cooking. It burns out too fast.
I use alot of popular for campground firewood bundles. I have 3 campgrounds that love it. But we bundle it in over sized bundles. Prolly like 1.25 cubic ft. It all burns. They like cottonwood too. But I only use the limbs out of cottonwood around Southern MN.
@@FlatCreekOutdoors most of the trunks get pretty soft and mushy once split. Almost like they absorb the moisture like a spong. But the limbs stay decent for a while once split.
Drunk campers, aka half my customers it seems like, don't care much what species it is as long as it lights easy and has a nice flame. I've sold pine, box elder, cottonwood, oak, mixed hardwood of all types. As long as the wood is dry and ready to burn, my customers are happy.
This stuff will all be ready this year. I've found that maple, elm, poplar and pine all season in 9 months or less while most oak takes at least 12-18 months. At this point, any oak I get my hands on will sit off to the side while I focus my time and attention on splitting the woods that I can sell this year
I LOVE poplar because I’m surrounded by poplar. 😅 This is the time of year I use it in my stove - 40 degree nights. Not cold enough for the good stuff.
I have tons of tulip poplar on my property, ill burn anything. I have a mix of ash, mostly beech, some oak and poplar this year. Only one fire this year so far, but thats gonna change next week
Poplar is not allways so loved where I live (europe) same with willow. As people prefer hardwoods like oak. Personally I like it as it gives of allot of heat quickly. So its good to burn in the first bit to get the stove up to temp. Then I burn it mixed with other hardwoods. If you got a swedish soapstone woodstove its even preferred to burn poplar, pine and willow. As it burns hard and quick getting the mass up to temp. You basically need to light it only 1 or 2 times a day to keep a decent temp in the home
I think it's hillarious that so many people just CAN'T think outside their own little bubbles. Or just refuse to question what they were told was "THE best" firewood by "The Internet" or perhaps by relatives growing up. Not everyone is trying to heat a house with it. In fact, most firewood guys I talk to sell mainly to fireplace people, BBQ guys, campers, or for backyard firepits. Same for the typical firewood youtuber. In that context, raw BTU's are largely irrelevant- you want FIRE, or quality smoke. The stuff Everyone raves about; Oak, locust, Hickory, Beech- tends to be the worst choice for recreational firewood, as it burns slow and long- smoldering as opposed to burning- due to the high density of it. Good BBQ oak and hickory will cost you a pretty penny, too. Throwing that on the firepit is an expensive waste, lol. For Ambiance inside, or a fire to sit around and hang out, you need something less dense, which will burn faster- giving you the nice cheery fire you want. Extra bonus, if it also smells really nice as it burns. Poplar is a good choice for campfires, as it burns hot and fast, is plentiful- and cheap- almost everywhere, and it's light- so anyone can easily handle it. Doesn't have much smell to the smoke, but that can be remedied by burning it with something that does, if that's important to you. (pine, cherry, maple, ash, etc) It just kills me that every one seems to have to justify their decision to process and offer other types of wood than what some consider "best". Trust me, guys- there are MANY customers who are perfectly happy with stuff like this- and many others who simply don't care- so long as it burns nice. Let em buy and enjoy it! Just means more oak for you! Personally, I love Ash and maple for my recreational fires. Both because I love the scent of the smoke- and the way they burn- and because they are incredibly plentiful around me. (and thus can be had for a very reasonable price. Or Free, if you're willing to do the work) I do have some poplar, and have split it up fine for kindling- great stuff for that! The rest burned quite nicely. I just ran out, lol.
I hear you. I stuffed my woodstove with maple and cottonwood all winter. The stove felt pretty damn warm to me. I split a bunch of black willow for campfire bundles. I've never burned black willow but I'm sure once dry it will burn just fine for people burning outdoors. I get all my wood from a tree service. He drops the logs off right in my woodyard. I take everything he brings from pine to oak. I'll turn it all into something useful!
@@jeffy1466 Hey, free = best wood, right? lol. The only thing I dislike about cottonwood, is that unless it is well seasoned, it gives off lots of smoke that kinda smells like fresh pee. Not actively unpleasant, but it's distinctive and not very pleasant, either. Otherwise, it burns just fine. Got two huge ones in my yard, and I collect the dead sticks and branches for kindling. May as well use them-I gotta pick em up anyway. Green, they take forever to dry... It can get very twisty and snarly, too- the stumps especially can be NASTY to split. Stuff likes to grow in a spiral, like a barber pole. Yep- I've become spoiled with all the beautiful ash, maple, beech, and cherry I've been splitting. It makes the not so fun stuff seem way worse in comparison. Found 3 great big sugar maple logs in a pile of tree service wood at my one honey hole. That stuff splits SO easily, and so clean, it almost looks sawn! Set that stack aside to reserve for my grill. Now that it's all split, I have to go back to wood that fights back...
Thanks for the note and sharing your experience. I wish I could get more ash around me but they just aren't that abundant. I'm with you, I'll split and sell whatever I think people will buy and be satisfied burning. Everything else I burn myself. We have a 6x6ft fire pit we use when we're open for farm events and Christmas sales that'll blow through a half cord a weekend and it doesn't discriminate
Poplar is gopher wood...put a piece in and go for another. Poplar can be chainsawed in Michigan winters and it splits pretty easy, by hand, for a girl.
The wood you are splitting is "Liriodendron tulipifera" or Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar. Lumber stores make this confusing as well. Most folks think of aspen or cotton wood as "poplar". Anyway, aspen and yellow poplar are lighter woods that have value in many but not all heating situations. We prefer it for cooking...
Does cottonwood have any value other than kindling? My property is full of it and I'm not sure what to do with it after I cut it down. Campfire wood maybe?
Poplar is fine even for the coldest parts of winter. The issue is quantity. You'll be running to the woodpile twice as much as with a better wood.
I have a 2.2 cubic foot Lopi wood stove. I can load it with poplar and have coals in the morning. Also, always have some on hand for the mornings, when you have a very little coals and want to get the stove back up to temp for secondary burn. I actually heated my house here in Michigan in 2021 all winter with poplar.
What Lopi stove do you have?
@@denverbasshead Republic 1750, I think call it something else now.
Here in MN, Poplar grows everywhere, grows fast, Splits easily (as you mentioned) and smells nice. I did my sap boil with just poplar last year. I save oak for my indoor fires. Great video Phil, thanks for posting! Cheers!
Wow Phil. You’re really getting into large scale firewood production! Great looking splitter!
Thanks Ed. I want to sell a lot more firewood and its hard to do that without the inventory. Thanks for watching.
I agree, I like to burn poplar as well. It does burn up quick but produces a good flame and catches up quick. It’s great for starting fires and quickly heating up the stove then I’ll mix in other hardwoods. Take care!
That splitter is awesome!!!!
Thanks for the video.
great stuff to start a fire...makes great kindling....easy to split....fast to dry.....disregard the wood snobs
Thanks for sharing Phil!👍👍
Dry poplar and dry spruce make excellent kindling. Fast and furious, to get those slower woods going...
Nice video. I mix ash, poplar, and maple for my firewood bundles. People are very pleased with it.
Nice mix. You got denser, heavier Ash to build a coal bed- and smell great- poplar for the bright n cheery, and maple for some of both. All three often split nice and clean, and look nice in a bundle as well.
Interesting thoughts. I enjoyed the topic - enjoy the journey - cheers
I use poplar as kindling, in the woodstove and firepit. Then switch over to ash, oak, ...harder woods.
Poplar takes a flame quickly, burns hot and fast. If split down to smaller pieces (for kindling) it dries fast.
*Suggestion for production: put the bucket on your front loader and park behind your splitter. Leave just enough room to walk through.
Split directly into the bucket for transport .OR. Position the splitter so it is flowing the wood out right next to the stacking area.
Every step you can save, every time you don't have to pick up or handle the pieces of wood again adds up over time.
For small batches, split directly into a wheel barrow or cart.
I split kindling into plastic 55 gallon barrels, cut in half. They fit nicely in my FEL bucket.
thanks for the tips.
I like Aspen for the firepit, also pine and Maple
No Aspen around me but plenty of pine and maple! I haven't sold any pine but considering it. We usually burn all that ourselves in our big fire pit.
I burn everything I have which Is mostly spruce. But it heats good hear bc the winters don't get really cold
I just got my hands on a bunch of spruce- some big, 2 year old logs- for an excellent price: free! Kinda knotty, but splits really easily anyway. Smells really nice, too. Got it to make kindling, ended up splitting much of it into campfire sized chunks, due to the knots. I'm happy with it! Nothing like the smell of pine or spruce on a campfire! And it's fantastic for kindling.
@@pyroman6000 Thats right!
I can see it being nice for fire pits. For heating it definitely doesn’t have high energy content. Burns fast. Same work for less warmth! I mix it in when I have it - I’ll use anything if it needs to be cut, but I don’t seek it. In my experience poplar also doesn’t keep long. Need to use it as soon as it’s dry.
Good points. And yes, it doesn't like being out in the moisture, and will rot quickly. If you have a covered wood shed it'll keep much longer than in an exposed pile or outdoor stack. Thanks for watching
My brother just bought a piece of land dotted with poplar. Him and I bucked up a storm damaged one (maybe down for a year) and split it this past September. The moisture is around 20% at this time and it seems to burn alright. Better than pine and it's free. No complaints here.
Hey poplar beautiful wood for a fire place give off beautiful Color , dry real good plus good fire starter . Mill poplar wet , it’s best under your metal roof or metal siding to screw your metal screw into went wet . Went it’s dry your screw never back out in your life time . Think safety around the wood and in the wood yard put SAFETY FIRST . enjoy your day , keep up great video. All the best to you and your family .
Your firewood processing area has really grown. You are going to be busy this fall delivering all that wood.
I hope so! Thanks for watching Brad. Take care
It definitely does not heat like most hardwoods like oak, maple, beech or ash but like you said usually goes pretty tall without a ton of branches so easy to cut up and it splits great. If I were still selling firewood I would not sell it and if I was buying it I would not want it sold to me. I have an outdoor boiler and have lots of pine and other softwoods available so I consider poplar good wood for me even though I do burn quite a bit of better hardwoods.
You’re certainly increasing the firewood production. Nice work. I personally don’t like poplar for inside burning or camp fire burning. Usually if we have a camp fire, we like to have a great bed of coals for cooking over @
- poplar just doesn’t make great coals for cooking. It burns out too fast.
You're right it doesn't make much coals, so if cooking is your focus, it's not the right wood for you. Thanks for the note Chad!
I use alot of popular for campground firewood bundles. I have 3 campgrounds that love it. But we bundle it in over sized bundles. Prolly like 1.25 cubic ft. It all burns. They like cottonwood too. But I only use the limbs out of cottonwood around Southern MN.
Interesting. I don't think we have cottonwood around here. Curious why you just use the branches?
@@FlatCreekOutdoors most of the trunks get pretty soft and mushy once split. Almost like they absorb the moisture like a spong. But the limbs stay decent for a while once split.
Drunk campers, aka half my customers it seems like, don't care much what species it is as long as it lights easy and has a nice flame. I've sold pine, box elder, cottonwood, oak, mixed hardwood of all types. As long as the wood is dry and ready to burn, my customers are happy.
hi there nice splitting well done . john
That pile is getting bigger and bigger...should be a good season this fall! (Or is all this for next year?)
This stuff will all be ready this year. I've found that maple, elm, poplar and pine all season in 9 months or less while most oak takes at least 12-18 months. At this point, any oak I get my hands on will sit off to the side while I focus my time and attention on splitting the woods that I can sell this year
I live in the ozarks on 80 acres of all the good hard woods. But i will burn any firewood as long as its seasoned.
I LOVE poplar because I’m surrounded by poplar. 😅 This is the time of year I use it in my stove - 40 degree nights. Not cold enough for the good stuff.
I have tons of tulip poplar on my property, ill burn anything. I have a mix of ash, mostly beech, some oak and poplar this year. Only one fire this year so far, but thats gonna change next week
Poplar is not allways so loved where I live (europe) same with willow. As people prefer hardwoods like oak.
Personally I like it as it gives of allot of heat quickly. So its good to burn in the first bit to get the stove up to temp. Then I burn it mixed with other hardwoods.
If you got a swedish soapstone woodstove its even preferred to burn poplar, pine and willow. As it burns hard and quick getting the mass up to temp. You basically need to light it only 1 or 2 times a day to keep a decent temp in the home
Poplar makes great camp fire bundle wood.
I agree!
I think it's hillarious that so many people just CAN'T think outside their own little bubbles. Or just refuse to question what they were told was "THE best" firewood by "The Internet" or perhaps by relatives growing up. Not everyone is trying to heat a house with it. In fact, most firewood guys I talk to sell mainly to fireplace people, BBQ guys, campers, or for backyard firepits. Same for the typical firewood youtuber. In that context, raw BTU's are largely irrelevant- you want FIRE, or quality smoke.
The stuff Everyone raves about; Oak, locust, Hickory, Beech- tends to be the worst choice for recreational firewood, as it burns slow and long- smoldering as opposed to burning- due to the high density of it. Good BBQ oak and hickory will cost you a pretty penny, too. Throwing that on the firepit is an expensive waste, lol.
For Ambiance inside, or a fire to sit around and hang out, you need something less dense, which will burn faster- giving you the nice cheery fire you want. Extra bonus, if it also smells really nice as it burns. Poplar is a good choice for campfires, as it burns hot and fast, is plentiful- and cheap- almost everywhere, and it's light- so anyone can easily handle it. Doesn't have much smell to the smoke, but that can be remedied by burning it with something that does, if that's important to you. (pine, cherry, maple, ash, etc)
It just kills me that every one seems to have to justify their decision to process and offer other types of wood than what some consider "best". Trust me, guys- there are MANY customers who are perfectly happy with stuff like this- and many others who simply don't care- so long as it burns nice. Let em buy and enjoy it! Just means more oak for you!
Personally, I love Ash and maple for my recreational fires. Both because I love the scent of the smoke- and the way they burn- and because they are incredibly plentiful around me. (and thus can be had for a very reasonable price. Or Free, if you're willing to do the work) I do have some poplar, and
have split it up fine for kindling- great stuff for that! The rest burned quite nicely. I just ran out, lol.
I hear you. I stuffed my woodstove with maple and cottonwood all winter. The stove felt pretty damn warm to me. I split a bunch of black willow for campfire bundles. I've never burned black willow but I'm sure once dry it will burn just fine for people burning outdoors. I get all my wood from a tree service. He drops the logs off right in my woodyard. I take everything he brings from pine to oak. I'll turn it all into something useful!
@@jeffy1466 Hey, free = best wood, right? lol. The only thing I dislike about cottonwood, is that unless it is well seasoned, it gives off lots of smoke that kinda smells like fresh pee. Not actively unpleasant, but it's distinctive and not very pleasant, either. Otherwise, it burns just fine. Got two huge ones in my yard, and I collect the dead sticks and branches for kindling. May as well use them-I gotta pick em up anyway. Green, they take forever to dry... It can get very twisty and snarly, too- the stumps especially can be NASTY to split. Stuff likes to grow in a spiral, like a barber pole.
Yep- I've become spoiled with all the beautiful ash, maple, beech, and cherry I've been splitting. It makes the not so fun stuff seem way worse in comparison. Found 3 great big sugar maple logs in a pile of tree service wood at my one honey hole. That stuff splits SO easily, and so clean, it almost looks sawn! Set that stack aside to reserve for my grill. Now that it's all split, I have to go back to wood that fights back...
Thanks for the note and sharing your experience. I wish I could get more ash around me but they just aren't that abundant. I'm with you, I'll split and sell whatever I think people will buy and be satisfied burning. Everything else I burn myself. We have a 6x6ft fire pit we use when we're open for farm events and Christmas sales that'll blow through a half cord a weekend and it doesn't discriminate
Poplar is gopher wood...put a piece in and go for another. Poplar can be chainsawed in Michigan winters and it splits pretty easy, by hand, for a girl.
The wood you are splitting is "Liriodendron tulipifera" or Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar. Lumber stores make this confusing as well. Most folks think of aspen or cotton wood as "poplar". Anyway, aspen and yellow poplar are lighter woods that have value in many but not all heating situations. We prefer it for cooking...
Does cottonwood have any value other than kindling? My property is full of it and I'm not sure what to do with it after I cut it down. Campfire wood maybe?
Can poplar be used for BBQ smoking? Is it safe?
Safe maybe but would not give it flavor like maple, oak, cherry, or apple.
Been burning wood for 30 years. I burn whatever is around as long as it's not punky. If it's not punky, it's good to go.
Poplar and soft maple make way too much cresote no matter how long you let it dry
Interesting.... I've never heard that before