Willow Coppice For Firewood - Short Rotation Firewood

I love my little patch of willow I have growing for firewood. It's become such a great resource on the smallholding, great for firewood, sticks for scouts, even poles for jobs around the garden (if you strip the bark first).
It grows fast, is easy to manage once established and looks beautiful as it grows. My only regret is not planting more of it.
Thanks for watching!
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[@BrianJensen-ym5gk]

Hazel is also a pretty decent species for coppice rotation. Only issue I've seen with hazel is if there's a lot of deer, then they get absolutely mauled, when they are young. Fencing helps, but is of course an added expense. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of "snobbery" with firewood. Here in Denmark, where I live, beech seems to be the gold standard in firewood, everything else is hard to sell. In my opinion, free firewood = best firewood, regardless of species. If it can burn, it works for me 🙂

[@englishhomestead]

I put in some hazel about 10 years ago and keep thinking I should cut it back. But because I spaced it wider than the willow the blackthorn keeps growing between it. I really need to manage it better as I think Hazel is a more useful wood really. As for the deers we never uses to get affected, but just lately I keep seeing muntjac everywhere, they've become like the new grey squirrel.

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

Great video. Thank you. I'm adding additional willow on my small plot. Largely to replace the lost Ash. Getting good results from existing Hazel and the couple of Willows already here. Thanks again for the video.

[@englishhomestead]

I think it's great to get a bit in, a variety of materials growing is really useful. I'd like to have some basket varieties growing here so I might add that this winter.

[@mariedoyle6145]

Thanks for your response

[@robertcorradi8573]

Very good... Thank you & your dead on .... Willow as a firewood is vastly underated .

[@englishhomestead]

It has a lot going for it I think. I love the stuff.

[@clearmindscollective3127]

I feel like it takes a bit longer to dry than aspen, and definitely longer than pine/fir. It also sparks quite a bit, which can be a bit scary when you first open the door to put in a new log. Coppicing seems to be coming back into style though, and I’m definitely here for it.

[@englishhomestead]

Yeah, maybe thats where it reputation has come from as on an open fire it would be pretty vicious really as it can spit. I have mine in pallet type log stores with mesh on 4 sides, seems to really help the drying of it. I had a poplar tree (aspen) from a field I rented that fell. That tree heated out house for best part of two years! As for the coppicing I think we are surrounded by underutilised resources, the hedgerows and margins would have provided so much in the past, and its great when we can get things without having to spend more for it.

[@callumglass]

Cool idea with less labour against splitting. The point of splitting to burn is not only to speed up the drying process, it's to increase surface area of the wood, more efficient fire and more output 👍. Ive been tempted to do a willow coppice myself. Great video, thanks for the upload.

[@englishhomestead]

I have some great crates for drying the willow, let's wind get to all 4 sides. The willow dries pretty quickly anyway. I'd say ut a few strips in and see how it grows, so many other uses for it. I want to add some more, but basket varieties for weaving, but I'll probably do them as pollards.

[@callumglass]

@@englishhomestead Thanks, I may as well give a small patch a go hey! Looks a decent size with what you've done so far. Thanks again.

[@MartinaSchoppe]

Nice video. Cairn of Dunn Croft Permacuture as a video series on building a Rocket Mass heater oven. Those are supposedly awesome at using "tiny" sticks as fuel. I also ffollow the "Edible Acers" YT channel and he seems to use black locust as firewood and to produce biochar. I'd love to be able to grow my own, but my plot is 850m" incuding the house and garage - not enough space 😐

[@englishhomestead]

Black locust sounds greta fro fence posts as well, but it's not one thats really grown around here. We have a pizza oven we built from clay off the smallholding and that is great for burning smaller sticks, I'd love to build a rocket stove or a tandoori oven at some point - I need more hours in the day!

[@realitycheck3361]

I tend to burn a lot of the brash and scatter the ash around the other trees. They seem to thrive on it.

[@englishhomestead]

That's a good shout, I have thought about making bio char from it as well. A friend has a huge dish like thing they use to make big amounts which he said I could borrow.

[@AbellTo]

A builders bag is about 0.7 cu m and round here that sells for about £80 seasoned.

[@englishhomestead]

That's good to know. My brother used to sell a lot of firewood when he was a tree surgeon. But between him and me being a carpenter I've never yet bought any firewood. The few hours I've put in I've probably broke even then really.

[@rustical]

Willow has a bad press as, if mixed in with other species, it would still be wet when burned - it needs just that bit extra to dry. We have been using hybrid willow for logs and chunks for 25 years now and would definitely recommend it for a smallholding. Ignore the claims for hybrid poplar, it does grow quicker but is very poor firewood.

[@englishhomestead]

You know I nearly put some hybrid poplar in, but was unsure about it. Glad I went for the willow. Ideally I want to put some basket willow in as well. A good mix of species makes for a good smallholding, spread risks and rewards.

[@rustical]

I put in 6 species of basket making willow on two soil types. A real eye opener as to which did better on different land so would suggest getting a small quantity of a wider selection and then propagate the ones that do well. Harvest is very useful for a wide variety of crafts and products so very much worthwhile if you have the space

[@englishhomestead]

@@rustical do you fancy swapping some basket willow cuttings for hybrid fuel willow cuttings?

[@AbellTo]

Goat willow burns fantastic and so hot

[@englishhomestead]

I think all the willows burn pretty hot if dry. I think back in another time we would have all been good at controlling a fire by know which wood to put on depending on what we were doing with the fire. I have a load of cedar in the shed, it's no good if I want to use the oven in the kitchen, but brilliant at getting the fire up quickly and to temperature. I could cook with it, but I'd have to stay rhere to keep feeding it.

[@AbellTo]

@@englishhomestead that’s a good point, many have no idea about wood or fire. I am a bit of a pyromaniac

[@englishhomestead]

@@AbellTo Same here, always have been a bit obsessed with fire!

[@I.c.k.c]

How many years would it take to be able to harvest willow for firewood?

[@englishhomestead]

If you keep on top of weeds and it grows well you could be having your first crop in 5 years, but I've left mine longer so it's a bit bigger.

[@I.c.k.c]

@@englishhomestead oh thanks . We have some space on the back of our property, about 5m x 6m free space. Do you know any books about this topic? Also after his many years can the tree first be coppiced? And if left for over 5 years and then coppiced, will it still regrow ( I heard that older trees don't do well even coppiced ). . Thanks!

[@mariedoyle6145]

How old is the willow that you cut in this video for fire logs?

[@englishhomestead]

I'd say they're 9 years old. But I didn't suppress the weeds at all so they took a while to establish, putting on very little growth the first few years.

[@steveme120]

so you are doing a 5 year rotation ?

[@englishhomestead]

That's the plan. Although they've had longer to establish, so these are on there 8th or 9th year in. Then, once each section is cut I'll go into a five year cycle. Unless I don't think the growth is enough, where I can just leave it for a year or two to get to the right stage of growth I'm after.