Coppice Trees for Firewood

For firewood we use already fallen branches. But we prefer to pollard rather than coppice if we are using unfallen wood.

White Mulberry pollards *really* well, and we get great kindling size wood yearly, easily, from a well grown tree.

Fruitless white mulberry is actually better, we’ve found. There was a preexisting fruitless white mulberry here, and it grows faster and is more carefree than the fruited we’ve planted.

I don’t think I’d plant more fruitless trees, but it’s an interesting observation. And we really appreciate the carefree and giving nature of that fruitless tree.

Eric, thanks for all the history on recovering the American chestnut.  I had no idea!

I guess this is good information when searching for chestnut trees.

I am going to research whether chestnuts are likely to tolerate the combination of alkaline soil, 7000 ft elevation and cold winter.  We got down to -3F  for a few nights in January.  I want to see if it’s worth a try.  I like the idea of planting this sort of gift to the future.

One thing I am curious about, I believe if they hadn’t cut down millions chestnuts, the few with a natural immunity might have shown themselves.  Are you referring to those trees when you say “a preproduction tree”?

Thanks, Thekla

Zone 9b here. Many years ago my Mexican and Honduran customers told me about this superfood Moringa tree. Every part is edible and vakuable. I bought seeds and quickly sold all the small ones. I took one home and planted it. It grows qucickly and is fairly narrow. However a hard freeze kills it, or so i thought. My wife cut it off at the base and i dried the leaves and the perfectly strait pole of about 1.5in in diameter. The next year three poles came up from the base. While one freeze takes it out, it is a nearly perfect copicing contender. I even made some dowels out of it. It needed no care. If you are in a warmish environment and want sturdy pole wood it is a good one.

Coppicing time of year for me here! Nearly finished the cut. This is the first year coppicing my hazel, so I'm excited to see how they will grow back
Alder is my hero - grows quickly, burns reasonably, likes it here in my damp climate and fixes nitrogen.

alder coppice in progress