Cottonwood Firewood
Cottonwood firewood is a low density hardwood with a low BTU rating. Cottonwood can be tough to split when green and sometimes takes longer to dry than a lot of other tree species. When it is dry it burns fast and produces fast heat but doesn’t last long and leaves a lot of ash.
It’s common to hear people say they have had bad experiences with cottonwood firewood and that it makes lousy firewood and they will never burn cottonwood again. Some would rather leave it to rot or haul it to a landfill than use it for firewood. Much of this is just personal preference so take it lightly.
Cottonwood is definitely not the best firewood to heat your home but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless as firewood. You probably wouldn’t want to pay much for it but if you can get it really cheap or free it will make heat and you might as well use it. In some areas cottonwood is all they have available and they make the best of it.
Some say cottonwood firewood is hard to burn and all it does is smolder and make smoke. When people say that it’s probably because it wasn’t dry. Cottonwood can hold a lot of water but once it is dry it can split easy and it is easy to burn. This makes cottonwood good for starting fires and getting quick heat. It also makes decent campfire wood.
Cottonwood Firewood BTU Rating
Post your experiences with cottonwood firewood below.
I love cottonwood! I feel that it burns and produces more heat than alot of pine in my area. Let it dry, split it the right size, pack your stove full, your good to go. The other plus is you can get it for free or close to it.But I’m not a wood snob.
Recently pulled some cottonwood out of the local landfill. It was dry and all I had to do was cut it to size. Yes, it is light in weight compared to other harder woods, but it burned just fine and made some great fires in our fireplace. Best of all it was free. Just make sure it’s seasoned (dry) and cottonwood works fine as firewood.
I heat the house with a wood stove. We have a cord of cottonwood and a cord of spruce/hemlock that we’re working through. The dry cottonwood splits well for kindling. I start with that and one cottonwood log to build the fire in the morning and then feed the harder woods in the rest of the day once the fire is going.