Hybrid Poplar For Firewood

[Billhook]

My father planted several acres of poplar in 1960 when Bryant and May were encouraging the idea.

The graph of match use was about forty five degrees upwards, everyone smoking like no tomorrow.

Father always said that I would make a fortune in the year 2000 out of them

 

The year 2000 came and most people had packed up smoking and those that still did used butane lighters..................

 

A chance remark from someone who had been living in Oregon gave me the idea to build a log cabin out of some of the straightest. He told me that poplar was used for house building there and that there was a 120 year old Church that had been built from it.

 

I went on a log cabin course in Devon with Dan Franklin at Woodenways.com

He came up in 2000 with a team and we built the cabin seen on his site in the first and third photos (with the swans)

 

Log Cabins | Woodenways

 

We used forty trees and built with the full scribe method.

The base was laid a couple of feet up on half a dozen large stones to have plenty of air around and keep it well away from moisture. It has no rot at all seventeen years later.

 

We have used quite a bit of the poplar on the fires and I would agree with the comments from Stubby, Skyhuck and Big J

 

As for growth rates a lot depends on the soil type, moisture content and which direction the slope is facing. If all is well they grow fast.