Guessing weight

[Mick Dempsey]

Look at the leaf springs as a rough guide to your likelihood of getting a tug.

[Ty Korrigan]

Why would the wood have different weights depending on the season? (excluding leaf)

I thought the moisture content remained stable Summer or Winter.

[peds]

Well I'm perfectly happy to have my assumptions destroyed and my errors corrected, but I will need to see everything laid out on that nice neat little table. 

[Steven P]

anecdotal evidence of course, but firewood cut and delivered in the winter dries quicker than that cut in the summer

[peds]

That's what I'm basing my assumptions on, certainly. 

[Ty Korrigan]

I always thought that in Winter, the sap stops flowing but it is still there.

The xylem doesn't close up nor fill with air.

Therefore, the wood weight remains the same Summer or Winter.

Happy to be proven wrong because then I would learn the facts.

A quick glance at readily available info on Google only mentions cut wood and changes due to hygroscopic nature of cut lumber.

Nothing about living wood.

Edited September 11, 2024 by Ty Korrigan

[sime42]

I've always thought timber was drier in the winter. No hard evidence for that, more just a feeling based on stuff I've seen and heard. Like the firewood example above, or coppicing being done in the winter because the poles last longer due to being drier, (one of the reasons). Or spring being the time to tap Birch trees for wine making.

 

I think there's obviously still sap there in the winter, just less of it.

 

Just found this.

 

In this very commendable book.

[Ty Korrigan]

How can there be less unless the xylem walls either shrink or empty and fill with air?

In Spring wood appears wetter due to the hygroscopic pressure of sap rising thus creating the illusion of wetter wood.

 

[GarethM]

Would it be a change in the sugar content of the cells.

 

Higher sugar & less water in winter to resist freezing as one would assume you couldn't just drain a living cell and replace it with air without it permanently dying?.

 

I had a similar theory about ADB, harsh winter seems to help the bacteria spread through the cells due to sugar, mild winter and the tree doesn't hibernate as much, so less sugar storage and slower ADB growth.

[Mark Bolam]

1 hour ago, Ty Korrigan said:

How can there be less unless the xylem walls either shrink or empty and fill with air?

In Spring wood appears wetter due to the hygroscopic pressure of sap rising thus creating the illusion of wetter wood.

 

 

No one cares about your theories Stu.

Just get on and come up with the accurate tables for us please.