OT — Cedar post? Is there a difference in the cedars?

I was told that some cedars make better fence post than others. Is that because some folks cut junipers thinking they are cedars? Or the other way around?


Just curious. I have an offer to cut some cedar to finish out my fence and I don't know anything about this subject.

I know that Port Orford cedar has no rot resistance.

Red Cedar makes good posts - White is not so good. Just my opinion.

The cedar trees that we have here in Texas will work for you.

One of my neighbors just put up a fence on our common property line using cedar posts.

Red Cedar makes average fence posts. Not sure but I dont think that is considered a Juniper. Central Missouri is overloaded with the danged stuff. It is almost an invasive species.

Good for brushpiles for the bunnies.

Gene

(quoted from post at 00:16:39 02/16/12) The cedar trees that we have here in Texas will work for you.

One of my neighbors just put up a fence on our common property line using cedar posts.

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Which is the red cedar. Right? lol.


I believe we have either red cedar or ash juniper down here. ...and yes, it grows like weeds here as well.

My father always said the same thing.

Eastern red ceder makes excellent posts. The key is the amount of red present. Ceder that grows quickly, on good ground, has a lot of white and a small red center. These make really poor posts. Ive got a section of fence we built in 1990, good solid heartwood posts, about 10 inches in diameter. The outside 2 inches or so thats white wood is starting to get soft, the red centers still perfect. Thats about typical for these posts. If you use class I galvanized wire the posts and fence fail about the same time. If you use the good class III wire, then about 25 years in, restretch and restaple the fence and its good another 20. HTH, David

Eastern red ceder makes excellent posts. The key is the amount of red present. Ceder that grows quickly, on good ground, has a lot of white and a small red center. These make really poor posts. Ive got a section of fence we built in 1990, good solid heartwood posts, about 10 inches in diameter. The outside 2 inches or so thats white wood is starting to get soft, the red centers still perfect. Thats about typical for these posts. If you use class I galvanized wire the posts and fence fail about the same time. If you use the good class III wire, then about 25 years in, restretch and restaple the fence and its good another 20. HTH, David

Ditto what Kyhayman said, for Western Red Cedar. The "old growth" (which you almost never find anymore) is all red heartwood, fine grained, and makes great posts. The younger trees have a lot of white sapwood, and its not good.

The stuff you buy at Home Depot, etc is all western red cedar. Probably gets harvested at a 40 year cycle or so.
Here in MN we have two varieties - red and white.
The red cedar is much denser and is the aromatic kind that you see/smell in cedar chests and would make great fenceposts. The white variety is much softer and and has neither the lasting power nor the aroma. That was the kind I peeled as a kid for fenceposts.
We also used some tamarack from our own swamp.

What kyhayman said. We have red cedar here that is slow growth. I've got some cedar corner posts that are 50 years old.

What we commonly call "red cedar,aromatic cedar"is actualy juniper and as everyone agrees,makes great fence posts. But the champion is still Bois d arc when you can find it.

Just had a lesson in Cedar today. KY hay man is right. The red center will stay with you, the outside will slu off. The guy told me today he just cuts dead ones, make better posts. He even splits them with a chainsaw. Most of his buildings were built with Cedar posts, he sawed out just the heart. and he said the redder the better. Located in deep southern Il. Vic

I'm not so sure that they would make good fence posts unless treated. I had several cedars on my property near the house when I bought in 2004. Cut the better part down about then, left stumps. A couple of years ago I burned most of the stumps with charcoal, but not all. Some of the ones left were the biggest that popped right out last summer with my smaller Deere, a 950, using a loader. A couple of years ago, that little Deere wouldn't budge them. The bigger Deere would've, but no loader. Anyway, a couple of years ago, spun tires. Last summer, popped right off because of rot. So, would they make good fence posts? Maybe, if treated. Going from experience with the cedars I took down? Don't think so, from personal experience.

Good luck.

Mark

Hmm? Reading the posts below, "red" cedar makes great posts. Aparently I don't have red cedar. I have no idea what kind of cedars I have, but don't have many left, an they're gone. What ever kind I have, are lousy.

Mark

Had some red cedar or perhaps more correctly juniper posts that were still standing after more than 100 years. Were quite weathered and the "knots" extended roughly 1/3 to 1/2 inch beyond the general surface. Had weathered to that extent. Still held up the fence (not much remained) and barb wire which was added to supplement the woven wire. But they were becoming fragile. Would easily hold sheep but wouldn't bet they could keep hungry cattle out of a corn field.

all the cedar post i have experience with are from the Texas Hill Country...they call em mountain cedar...more brush than trees...i"ve seen some real straight cedar posts at auction but they were "pencil cedar" lil red center and the rest was white...will rot out quick...i rebuilt fence around my place about 5 years ago...east fence had a section of cedar posts that were old when we got the place in "65...i pulled em up and re-used them...had to drill pilot holes for new steeples...wood was that hard.

(quoted from post at 00:00:18 02/16/12) all the cedar post i have experience with are from the Texas Hill Country...they call em mountain cedar..had to drill pilot holes for new steeples...wood was that hard.

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Mountain Cedar is what I've always heard the plant called that the post were cut from. Dang I always thought the u-shaped nails for wire fencing were call "staples" not "steeples" :roll:

"The key is the amount of red present and the redder the better!" Got it!

You can't get an education like this in school!

Thanks fellas!

I think it depends a lot on where you are, and what kind of cedar you get. About 50 years ago, my Dad got a load of split cedar posts from a local guy. We treated the posts by soaking them for months standing up in barrels full of used crankcase oil (and maybe some other ingredients, like "penta"). Then the posts were turned over to soak the other ends for a while. When we were going to be using posts, Dad would take them out of the oil and put them in an empty barrel to let the excess oil drip off. The soaked posts were a lot heavier than untreated posts.

I hate to think of how many post holes I dug over the years in our rocky soil! Certainly hundreds. Anyhow, we used those treated cedar posts most of the time. They were messy to handle, but usually they stayed put if you dug the post hole deep enough.

Lots of those posts I set 50 years ago are still holding up barb wire fence pretty well. The tops of the posts have weathered and are mostly pointed and not looking too good. But the shaft of the posts are still sound. And the part of the posts that has been in the ground all these years doesn"t look that much different than when we first buried them.

I believe that the posts are Western Red Cedar, since that is what grows in damp areas near here. From the size of the split posts, I would guess that the tree trunks they came from were not much bigger than about 14", so I doubt they were old growth.

We tried treating Ponderosa pine posts the same way, since that is what grows on our property. Unfortunately the Ponderosa pine posts didn"t last very well and mostly rotted away in the ground within 5 to 10 years. Untreated pine would rot away in the ground in about 3 years.

I suppose split cedar posts are still available around here, but since I started mostly using steel T posts, I haven"t bought any. Building fence with T posts is incredibly easier, especially if you install the posts as soon as the ground thaws in the Spring.

The cedar posts were what we had way back when, and were probably about the cheapest fence posts you could get that would last a while.