Firewood dry down

In order to get green hardwood that is split, stacked, and tarped (oak, cherry) to dry down enough so that it burns reasonably well for firewood, would any of you guys in the mid west know how long that might take if you cut and split the wood in the late fall?

In the Midwest I like it to go through a full summer, double stack covered with steel roofing

Too many variables; how thick (or thin) the wood is split to, method of stacking, rain/humidity, wind, temp, contact with ground, etc.

If your wood pile is dense (meaning, multiple rows all together), then air cannot flow through as easily as if you had multiple stacks just 1 row thick.

And as mentioned, the thinner the wood is split to, the quicker that wood will dry.

If done properly, you can actually dry wood quite a bit during Winter. I've even seen bed sheets that were line-dried at extreme cold temps. Was so cold that there was very little moisture in the air. The air sucked moisture from the sheets.

I can burn black cherry as soon as it is split.
Burned some green black locust last night in shop heater that blew down about 10 days ago.
Richard in NW SC

My dad usually burned greenwood as did most neighbors. Now I burn dry wood in shop stove.

Oak takes the longest to dry. People are all over the place as for what is considered burnable as you can already see in this thread. Also depends on what your burning in. The newer EPA stoves are much more particular about what gets tossed in them than an old pot belly. After 55 years of burning wood I can attest to the fact that the drier it is the less you will burn. We are burning wood that has been drying 3 years, 1 year in dry storage. At the very least you should be cutting,splitting and stacking under cover a year ahead of burning IF you want to burn dry wood.

As loosehandle said you want it covered with steel roofing or equivalent so that you don't have anything blocking the draft weather breeze or convection.

We are burning wood now that was cut, split, and stacked last winter.

I actually would not plan on burning oak for a few years. It is very dense and hard to start unless in very small pieces. Then it burns too hot unless you really keep an eye on it. We have a wood stove in our living room that is usually our main source of heat, so we like to keep an even temperature. Cherry on the the other hand, is less dense and will dry and rot easier quicker. I try (or used to) to cut next year's wood this year, and stack it in my barn, and almost always cut only dead wood.
The fastest way to dry the oak wood be split it very small, keep it in somewhere warm (a paradox!), and wait a few years. Mark.

I use a moisture meter that you can buy at Lowes. The brand is General. I shoot for under 20%, but I like it between 10% and 15%.

Wood fresh from a tree can be made to burn, but energy is lost trying to boil out the water. The heavy smoke you also see is unburned gassed that accumulate in your chimney as creosote, and can lead to a chimney fire, or ------ off neighbors down wind.

Wood that is cut, but not split (5 diameter or larger in my book), takes longer to dry and burns with less ferocity than wood that is split. Like drying lumber, the thicker the wood, the longer it takes to dry.

I shoot to have my wood dry for at least a year. Stack it some place to allow the breeze to blow thru. It needs to be sheltered from rain, else you keep adding moisture back into it. Cover the top, but not the sides. I see people tarp wood all the way to the ground. Better if it can be in the sun too. Leave some room between your rows too, else the core row dries slower. Wood cut down in the winter has less moisture in it to begin with, so at least get the trees down in the winter if you can.

Takes me 3 weeks at most. I split green wood to 2 inch and stack in my basement all winter.
I have enough room in my house for 1 month. trees are pushed out in summer but are still green. I cut and split and bring into the house where they are right beside the stove 4 rows thick. I have a fan going on them all the time. If I split at 4 inch it never burns properly so I split 2 inch. I have a nice wood stove with glass door. I get 22 pieces into it in one fill just to give you an idea of how small I split it. I now use half as much wood with a good stove as what I did with a Valley Comfort. So I spend more time splitting instead of cutting. I prefer to have it one summer in a metal 1600 bushel bin with the top lid and door open, but I haven't been a year ahead of myself for 2 years now.

So if you are desperate to get it dry small pieces and a fan. Non split 12 inch oak tree can be dead 10 years and still not be dry. I did that for experiments one time to prove a point to someone.
Ps my house does not need a humidifier the last 2 years.

Best thing to do, is cut far enough ahead and stock pile for one year. Burning green wood is a PITA in my opinion. No need to be cutting green wood only far enough in advance to get it to burn. No need in burning wood boarder line to green to burn, all the time, when you can be burning seasoned wood all the time. Once you get a years worth stock piled, you don't have to cut any extra no more. Just enough to replace what you are burning. Same as your doing now, without a stock pile.

I guess I do it all wrong again. I hate cutting in hot weather and fall or spring cutting is not an option with planting in spring and combining all fall. SO I have to cut as I go with dead wood that may or may not be dry. Standing dead soft maple burns well and as long as it will go through the night I'm good.

(quoted from post at 04:14:56 01/13/22) I guess I do it all wrong again. I hate cutting in hot weather and fall or spring cutting is not an option with planting in spring and combining all fall. SO I have to cut as I go with dead wood that may or may not be dry. Standing dead soft maple burns well and as long as it will go through the night I'm good.

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Cat guy, what happened to winter??? don't you have winter there?? Winter is wood working up and putting in season.

Needs to dry over a summer while covered so rain and snow don't settle on top and drip down into the stack. Unless you are planning on moving or dyeing it's not wasted work to have a year or two ahead.

I would say 6 months minimum, if those months are over the summer. And split pieces will dry faster than rounds, for obvious reasons. Species has a lot to do with it also. Beech and Ash seem to dry faster than maple and oak. And if the tree is dead to begin with, versus live and green. Theres an old poem about ash wood wet, or ash wood dry, a king will warm his slippers by.

(quoted from post at 15:03:23 01/12/22) I actually would not plan on burning oak for a few years. It is very dense and hard to start unless in very small pieces. Then it burns too hot unless you really keep an eye on it. We have a wood stove in our living room that is usually our main source of heat, so we like to keep an even temperature. Cherry on the the other hand, is less dense and will dry and rot easier quicker. I try (or used to) to cut next year's wood this year, and stack it in my barn, and almost always cut only dead wood.
The fastest way to dry the oak wood be split it very small, keep it in somewhere warm (a paradox!), and wait a few years. Mark.

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Depends on the species of oak. White oak is very, very dense and takes a long time to dry. Red oak is comparatively porous and dries much faster. Both are slow drying compared to, say, popple or White birch.

From green, beginning of winter, you need some warmer temperatures to get it to dry out at a good pace, but if you split and stacked and just covered the top so air gets around it, depending on the species, you'll likely see some checking on the ends.
This weather we are having right now, hovering around 0 Deg F, cold dry air, seems to draw moisture out. Green, still has sap I assume, vs say you cut the logs and left in log length a year ago, which from my experience, is just moisture/H2O - I could be wrong LOL !

This year, I had no time to gather up the logs and process, so I ordered a 5 cord load from a sawmill we have dealt with for over 50n years at this point. They call it seasoned, air dried, and the logs are cut 1 year prior, then through their processor, which I have seen in operation when I used to haul sawdust from there. The processor leaves various sizes in split wood, even kindling, does a nice job. With that said, you could smell the fresh wood when it was delivered, none of it is checked on the ends etc. Mountain Ash, Hard Maple and another hardwood, I am not familiar with is in the mix. In that state, it does ignite, but there is some sizzle which dissipates after 15-20 min. So I use the Ash as kindling and or to start fires with, and surprisingly, it works well, albeit longer to good production heat fire, but it does get hot like it should to keep the flue temp up. Now I'll get some creosote towards the top of the clay tile 8x12 flue, but not enough to build up a thick layer that could take off once hot enough. What will happen is it will come off in sheets and plug the base of the flue where it transitions to horizontal and necks down to 7 round at the elbow. I monitor this anyways.

So this season, I play the game of bringing more wood inside, stacking in the area near the stove. The wood dries in days, and there is no sizzle, but it's still not like 1 year seasoned, but burns quite well. I would have paid double for kiln dried or full seasoned, and this load was exactly as described, very happy with it actually. I'll make the call in the spring as to whether I'll get mine done soon enough, order the same and stack then, good for next season. In the interim, I'll get what logs I can, and bolster my supply further. It's a racket burning wood for heat, but it is best to have it completely seasoned, however one can easily get by with less than that on dry time, just have to jockey the driest wood you have to get more dried down inside and repeat until heating season is over. it gets better as the winter drags on if stacked outside, black cherry will totally season in the cold if the top is kept covered and ash seems to burn immediately, better when seasoned.

Wood will generally dry much faster in the winter due to the generally very low humidity. Yes, high temperature can help, but when the air is humid the moisture in the wood is staying right there. Ice doesn't need to melt before it can evaporate. Ice evaporates very well.