Present your logs some tinder love and care earlier than burning

I’ve some bushes to take away in my backyard over the following few years that embrace invasive buckthorn. I used to be questioning if I can use the wooden for an indoor fire?

— Joel Zimmerman, Waukegan

Crucial factor is to ensure that the wooden is correctly seasoned earlier than burning it within the fire to attenuate the buildup of creosote within the chimney.

Creosote is a extremely flamable substance that condenses in liquid type as wooden exhaust cools within the chimney after which solidifies because it dries. It’s a product of combustion and builds up when the hearth operation is cool and inefficient with smoky, smoldering wooden that’s unseasoned or moist. Correctly seasoned wooden produces essentially the most warmth and the least quantity of creosote. Freshly lower wooden incorporates as much as 80% moisture and must be seasoned (dried to 20-25% moisture content material) earlier than it may be burned indoors. Wooden containing greater than 25% moisture is taken into account inexperienced and will by no means be burned in a hearth or wooden range in a constructing. Make sure you have your chimney cleaned commonly when utilizing a hearth or wooden range. A educated, skilled chimney sweep will clear your chimney with the right tools and can even examine it for cracks, water leaks, misalignment and deterioration.

Season the wooden you generate with the removals by reducing up the logs and splitting them into fireplace-sized items which can be stacked out of the rain for not less than 9 months. Hardwoods like oak will burn higher if seasoned for greater than a 12 months. Improperly seasoned hardwoods can even smolder and result in the buildup of creosote. The most effective wooden is usually seasoned for one to 2 years however will begin to deteriorate after 4 to 5 years and never be good to burn. Stack the wooden off the bottom and in a means that permits air to flow into and carry away the moisture because it evaporates by way of each ends of every piece. Shield the woodpile from rain, however keep away from fully protecting it with plastic tarps as air circulation is critical for correct seasoning. If steam bubbles and hisses out of the tip grain because the firewood heats up on the fireplace, the wooden is moist or inexperienced and must be seasoned longer earlier than burning. Different indicators of unseasoned wooden are bark that’s tightly connected and a moist, fresh-looking heart with lighter and drier-looking wooden close to the sides or ends. Seasoned wooden has a darkish or grey look when in comparison with inexperienced wooden. Once you break up a seasoned piece of wooden, it can have extra of a white colour on the within with cracks working by way of each bit and lots of small cracks on the inside rings. The wooden will even be extra brittle.

I’ve had good success utilizing logs from quite a lot of totally different bushes similar to ash, oak, crabapple, buckthorn, birch and maple from pruning or removals for burning in my fire. Although it’s potential to burn correctly seasoned pine in a hearth, I keep away from doing so. Pine wooden incorporates lots of resinous sap, so it produces lots of creosote, particularly if it has not been seasoned correctly. I additionally keep away from wooden from juniper and arborvitae as they have an inclination to pop and spark as they burn, which makes me nervous about having embers blow out into the room.

For extra plant recommendation, contact the Plant Data Service on the Chicago Botanic Backyard at plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org. Tim Johnson is senior director of horticulture on the Chicago Botanic Backyard.