Do you have a bit of land and a wood stove or log boiler? If so, you might want to plant your own trees to grow firewood. The type of trees can be split into two categories: slow-growing and fast-growing. But which one is best for you?
If you do a search online for the best trees for firewood, you’ll find the same list reproduced again and again, with information that’s not strictly accurate. A long, long time ago, someone spent some effort developing this directory and it’s been repeated and plagiarised without mercy. So often, in fact, that it is now believed to be undeniably true.
I’m no conspiracy theorist – overall I agree with a lot of the information. However, there is also a great deal of received wisdom and some spurious misinformation about the lack of virtue of some woods. In particular fast-growing options such as willow, poplar and eucalyptus come way down the league table of desirable woodfuels. They’re often described as too wet, too fast burning, having a putrid smell, tough to split, and so on.
Reading this, you couldn’t be blamed for believing that there is no good fast-growing options for burning. You might be put right off and either decide to plant some hardwoods or continue to buy from your local log merchant. Both of these options have real downsides: with the former, you need to ask yourself whether you have 20 years to wait for oak, ash or hornbeam to grow and produce decent logs. They are fantastic trees but they have dense wood for a reason: because they are slow growing.
If you continue to buy in logs, you will almost certainly be aware of the rise in prices in recent months and years. Everyone and their dog has a log stove these days. There are 20,000+ biomass boilers in the UK and lots of power stations all competing for cheap sources of wood. Demand is outstripping supply.
Instead, let’s take a closer look at the benefits of fast-growing trees as firewood. In the meantime, we might debunk some myths about these versatile plants.
So if you have a bit of land and want to grow your own firewood quickly, then there’s absolutely no need to overlook short rotation trees. Here’s my alternative guide to the best trees for firewood.
Willow comes in for all sorts of criticism as a firewood. I have lost count of the number of people who say that they wouldn’t waste their time with this fuel.
One of the main criticisms is that it’s wet wood that takes ages to season. Yes, willow is considered “wet wood” – on average it has a 55% moisture content when harvester. However, unlike oak, which takes 2 years to season, willow logs can be ready to burn in as little as 3 months – you can almost watch it dry! Put in on bearers under cover with a nice breeze circulating through it and you’ll see the cracks appearing almost immediately. Willow is probably the quickest drying wood., period!
The reason for this quick drying is also often presented as a criticism for willow: its lightness. I have heard countless people say that it burns quickly, doesn’t produce much heat, and has a poor flame. But the criticism about heat output and poor flame is simply not true. I use all sorts of willow on my stove and honestly can report that I am delighted by both. I tend to use willow along with some pine, some hardwoods and some briquettes. It’s a really good combination as the willow and pine get the fire going quickly and help the hard woods and briquettes ignite so they don’t slumber and produce smoke.
So, now that we’ve debunked the so-called cons, let’s look at the pros of willow as a firewood: it’s easy to grow, cheap planting stock is available, it grows extremely fast, and it has an excellent yield and good form. You can produce log scale willow in just 4 years.
Most of our biomass varieties are excellent coppicing but there are some that can be encouraged to grow as a single stem from a 2 metre sett.
If cost, growth speed and high yield is important to you, then the (over-egged) cons of willow as firewood will be easily outweighed.
Try these willow varieties for firewood:
Browse all varieties in our online shop for willow rods, setts and cuttings.
The oft-said criticism of poplar is that it burns with a putrid smell. This is simply not the case if you season your logs properly rather than leaving it to the elements where it will soak up water like a sponge. If you use wet poplar with its bark on then, yes, it is likely to be smelly, but that’s why this is not the right way to season the wood.
Follow best practices to get the most out of poplar as a woodfuel, seasoning it under cover and off the ground. Do this, and you’ll have a wood with similar properties to willow.
Most poplars we sell are perfect for single stem production. Over 5-8 years you’ll end up with some very sizable logs that are easy to harvest. At this point you can allow to coppice or spray off and replant.
Try these poplar varieties for firewood:
Browse all our available varieties of poplar rods, setts and cuttings.
The biggest problem that people have with Eucalyptus as a wood-burning tree is that it is difficult to split. Like with willow, this is perhaps another case of tarring all with the same brush because there are a wide range of varieties available. It’s true that some species will be a bit stringy: Eucalyptus gunnii is one such example as it can be quite a wild, sprawling tree with unpredictable grain (though has excellent tolerance). However, many eucalyptus species and provenances – especially those that we sell – have excellent form. You should have no problem whatsoever splitting them.
Eucalyptus is notable for having a much higher density than both willow and poplar, so will produce longer-burning logs and complement the other species well. Plant at 1,667 per hectare and after 4 years you’ll be able to thin out with a good harvest. After 8 years you’ll be able to fell the rest and have an excellent log resource on your hands. Some Eucs can coppice well so you can allow them to grow back or spray off and restock.
Browse our full selection of Eucalyptus plug plants for sale.
All in all, if you want a fast-growing, high-yielding woodfuel for growing yourself, I would urge you to consider willow, poplar and eucalyptus. Have a go with them and I really do think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised, not only by their yields and quality of the firewood, but also by the savings you’ll make against bought-in firewood. The other key thing to remember about short rotation trees is that this land use change is reversible. Any tree that has a rotation of less than 20 years is not classified as forestry. So, if you change your mind in the years ahead, you can restore the land to agriculture or other uses.
Browse our online shop for willow, poplar and eucalyptus.
