Following on from our 2019 update about our less than scientific ‘growing your own’ firewood trial, it was time to harvest the same stools again so thought it worthy of another post.
This hybrid willow stool pictured below is on its third cut since planting and was last harvested five years ago. The brash is mostly at the top which is left to rot down.
This one stool produced all the timber below. The stems are around 6″-8″ at the base and grow useable straight wood for around 18 – 20ft which makes for very easy extraction and processing.
Very little needs splitting so the only job is cutting it to firewood length and then seasoning it. We always leave it cut to length in cages for at least a calendar year minimum.
What we have found is that the willow was planted too close initially and some stools have died off with the more robust stools dominating. It isn’t a problem as it sorts itself out in the long term but as we continue to plant more stock the spacings are now at 6ft rather than the initial 3ft we started with.
Lessons learnt.
Willow. The more we cut, process and use it the more we like the hybrid willow. Especially as we get older! It’s easy, quick and worth doing. We still coppice other varieties and so we do have a mix available but the so called ‘better quality’ firewood is proving considerably harder to harvest, move and process. It inevitably requires much more chainsaw work (which I try and avoid), splitting (an additional processing step) and adds quite a bit more storage and handling.
Eucalyptus. The Eucalyptus Neglecta (Omeo) is the only variety I would suggest worth having. Frost tolerant, quick growing and very good firewood. Downsides are needing to learn the techniques to coppice it successfully, it grows fairly gnarly so is not really suited to processors making additional manual work and the need to cut it up asap as it quickly goes rock hard!
Poplar. I really wouldn’t bother. Even though it has similar growth characteristics of the hybrid willow, the end product is dramatically poorer quality so little point in selecting it over willow.