Green Tree pile that didn't burn !

[J_J]

The green stuff will not burn well until you have cooked all the moisture out of it. It may take a while. Do you need a permit to burn in your area. One time even after getting a permit, the FD came screaming up to my burn pile which was in a depression just for burning, plus berm. and I also had two water hose ready. Some passerby thought I was a fire bug I guess.

 

[Richard]

So over the next two weeks I will get a hole cut into middle of pile and fill it with dry wood. Doesnt seem to be any accelerants that I really can use.

I've yet to meet a fire that I can't start...

Given what I saw in your picture here's what I'd do....

I have a garden sprayer. The pump kind that you might spray weed-b-gone around your flowers. I have one purchased just for diesel.

Fill it up with diesel, go your pile, spray an area (using wand to get INSIDE the pile). Light it and then use the sprayer from a distance (spraying more of a stream rather than a spray) to fuel/walk the fire to where you want it. You can sustain the flames in a certain area until it heats up enough to become self contained.

Having my backpack blower around is sometimes quite helpful too. I might also add that I typically have my backhoe/loader around in case I need to sling some dirt.

 

[EddieWalker]

Looking at your picture, I'm surprised it didn't burn either. The wood looks dry and well stacked. A pile that large can and will send out allot of embers. Be sure of the wind the day you get it started, and wait for a day right after it rains. Rain water on the wood pile wont matter at all. Water just evaporates, but moisture inside the wood is a problem.

I would abandon the foam idea. I think that if you got it to burn, it would just flame out and not accomplish anything. This is the same thing that happens with diesel. It burns on the surface of the wood and rarely lights the burn pile. Tires work pretty good, but depending on where you live, might or might not be illegal. Here, I can start a fire with a tire, but I cannot have a pile of tires in it. I don't remember what the exact law is on how many, but I just use one when I have them available, which is legal here. You mentioned gasoline. That is very, very dangerous. I would never use gasoline to start anything. It's just too combustible!!!!!

Here is what I do when I have a pile that I want to burn, and I burn allot of trees. My burn piles last for days at a time, and when I'm really taking out trees, I've had a fire going steady for several weeks.

Get the chainsaw and start cutting some smaller branches to make a smaller fire at the base of your log pile. Do just like you would a camp fire. Get a fire going where it will grow, but focus on just the one area. Use those small branches to get it going and to feed it until you get some good coals. Once you have a the coals, the fire will spread. I've had to cut logs and split them to get a really green burn pile going, but with a good starter fire, you will be able to burn anything.

I've also found that full trees are the hardest to get started, but if you cut them into lengths, and expose the end grain, they burn pretty good. I now cut my trees into quarters. The pines are the hardest to get going, but once cut into four pieces, they all burn pretty easy.

Instead of diesel fuel, I found that newspaper works the best for getting a fire started. Again, think of starting a camp fire and letting it get bigger and bigger.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Richard]

Do you need a permit to burn in your area. One time even after getting a permit, the FD came screaming up to my burn pile which was in a depression just for burning, plus berm. and I also had two water hose ready. Some passerby thought I was a fire bug I guess.

Good point on the permit. I need a permit. The farm was once timbered and we were left with HUGE piles of slash. Something like 150 feet long, looked to be 20' high and 30' or so wide? Frankly, it was a bit nerve racking to me... so I called the FD and they came out to look at it. Seems it made THEM a bit nervous too...

They actually had their FD bulldozer nearby so had him come out, cut a fire break around the entire pile, tidy the pile up and clean some other brush away. They did all this for free (though I do pay an annual fee to support them)

Anyways... one friday it rained ALLLLLLLLL day. From a nice drizzel to a downpour. Was a really wet day, UNTIL about 4:00 or so, when it stopped and the sun came out.

I thought this would be a perfect day to try to burn this very wet pile. I called to get my burn permits. Went home, started my diesel fires. I had my backhoe with me, burn permit, cell phone and a cooler of drinks.

There were actually two piles like this...they were really big. Well, the fire raged into the night. At 2:30 AM, I saw some headlights driving down our dead end road. I then saw a little flashlight bobbing its way through the woods.

A sherrif came upon me, sitting near the backhoe and close enough to the fire to keep warm.

"Good evening officer"
"What you got going here?" he said with a raised eyebrow
"We've had reports from across the lake that the woods over here are on fire....it's taken us an hour just to find you" he continued.

"Well... I'm burning these piles" I said.

"Just how you going to put these OUT?" he asked with a bit of a tone inflection in his voice that implied "boy" on the end of his comment.

Realizing he was expecting to see me stand up, evidently apologize to him for having a legal fire on private property... I said...

"uh... well... it rained all day today, the fire department has been out and prepped the site, I have my permit in my pocket, I have my cell phone in my pocket and I have my backhoe with me to attempt to take care of any small issue should I need to"

In other words, I was politely telling him that I had no intention of putting it out, regardless of what he said...besides... it would have been impossible for me to put it out, much too large.

With more of his redneck attitude beginning to show, he then asked me "I'm sure you realize that you are required to be here while it's burning then"

To which I responded..."Well... (looking at my watch) it's 2:30 and I'm here aren't I?"

Not having much else to say, Barney then turned away and said for me to have a good evening and I wished him the same.

30 minutes later at 3:00, I finally went home to bed.

 

[rrmccabe]

My brother in law just told me he has a 500,000 BTU weed torch. So after getting the core of this thing filled with dry wood, will have torch, leaf blower and matches ready.

Got thinking I might cut up a bunch of the 8" mulberry trees and haul to north part of land. Those can dry for the fireplace next year. Not all are accessible but can pull off what is easy.

 

[studor]

Ahh I can smell the brush burning now. Don't worry too much about getting to the center -- underneath is more important. As the smoke and heat rise it will boil the water out of the green stuff pretty quickly. Pick a spot with a bunch of small stuff and jamb the weed burner in as far as it will go, right near the bottom of the pile. As I have gotten used to using it , I don't even worry about collecting dry stuff any more, I just get the small stuff on the bottom going and it does the rest.
regards

 

[dangerdoc]

Greetings all. First post

We bought a 3 acre piece of land with about 500' of creek along the front. We had the land cleared and a large culvert installed for the drive. We ended up with a large brush pile that is about 80% green trees. You can see the pile here

I truly expected this pile to light off and burn easy. I piled dead wood on three sides that I had cut up in two foot lengths with the chainsaw. Since it was piled with a dozer I really did not have control of what went were. In retrospect I think I would have talked to them and started with some dead stuff on the bottom.

Anyway yesterday, I dumped about 24 gallons of diesel fuel on the pile and lit it off. Some of the small branches flashed off and the dry stuff I had piled caught fire and burned well. This dry stuff was under the green wood and I had 3 fires burning 6-8 feet tall. We even used a leaf blower to accelerate the burn. But once the dry stuff had burned up the fire was done !

I am going to try again in two weeks (have plans next weekend).

Here is what I am thinking. I have a bunch of 2" sheet stryrofoam and I am going to take three 5 gallon buckets and mix the stryrofoam into gasoline until is thickened.

I have an acre that is uncleared still and there is some dead stuff on it. I am thinking about climbing up on the pile and tossing as much dead stuff in the middle as I can. Most will stay on top I am sure. Then pour the gas/styro mix over the top of the pile with most of it in the center and light it off. I could easily stop by some local carpet places and pickup a couple rolls of padding if that would be a big help.

Any comments would be appreciated. I am really surprised it did not burn. The trees I could identify are Honey Locust, Hackberry and Mulberry. The dry stuff I used to start it was walnut.

I have 50' of dirt minimum around it so its pretty save to burn.

Thanks

When chlorinated hydrocarbons are burned, they release phosgene (used for chemical weapons) and hydrochloric acid (not good for you either), I would recommend not burning the styrofoam.

I lit off a pile that was two years old a couple of weeks ago and still had several stumps that weren't dry enough to burn. I never try to burn a green pile and unless you have a dozer that can get into the fire and move things around during the burn, you are unlikely to get good results with green wood.

If you have dry wood in equal to excess volume to the dry wood, you will not get enough embers to dry the green wood and get it to burn. If you can, I would recommend not trying again until next year.

 

[dangerdoc]

If you do want to try again, get a bale of hay. break it down into flakes. Pour about a cup of deisel on each flake and tuck them as deep into the pile as you can. They burn slower than plain deisel and soak it up so it doesn't just end up on the ground.

Good luck.

 

[rrmccabe]

Do you need a permit to burn in your area.

No. I already called the County and told them I was doing a controlled burn over the next two weeks not knowing when I would start it. They said OK, we have it tagged, call us back and let us know when you are done.

I have no houses for several hundred feet and as you can see from picture I have the lot graded to dirt all the way around the pile.

When chlorinated hydrocarbons are burned, they release phosgene (used for chemical weapons) and hydrochoric acid (not good for you either), I would recommend not burning the styrofoam.

Good info. I dont want to do anything like that. Was just trying to get this thing lit using methods found elsewere on this forum. LOL

If you have dry wood in equal to excess volume to the dry wood, you will not get enough embers to dry the green wood and get it to burn. If you can, I would recommend not trying again until next year.

Next year is not an option. House going right behind that pile in about two months.

If you do want to try again, get a bale of hay. break it down into flakes. Pour about a cup of deisel on each flake and tuck them as deep into the pile as you can. They burn slower than plain deisel and soak it up so it doesn't just end up on the ground.

Good luck.

Have easy access to hay.

I went out today and started cutting up a bunch of the green wood. So the trunks are in shorter sections. Or a lot of them anyway. I also looked around north part of land and I have about 3-5 pickup loads of dry wood I can cut and insert in the pile.

Studor the torch is on its way. Guess I need to rob a couple propane bottles from the grill and them filled so I can have extra gas. Think its time for my own leaf blower too. There is a small 6" metal culvert that is laying in creek (who knows where it came from). Its about 10' long and I might as well place it under the logs towards center. If needed I can force a little air in there.

Thanks all !

PS: I feel official here now as I now have a tractor. My brother in law just gave me a JD 750 4 wheel drive tractor with 3 cyl diesel to help get things in shape. So at least have something to pull a trailer around. Woo Hooo.

 

[BruceWard]

I have burned the trees that were not suitable for firewood from a 1.5 acre clearing this year. It was burned while green. I used two methods.

1. This was the most effective. I fitted my B21 with home made forks for moving trees. Then I built a fire out of smaller branches started using a large fire log. The cost a couple of dollars and burn for four hours. I found that 2" to 3" green logs would ignite when stacked with the fire log. I would continue to grow that file until I had a strong coal base and then start using the forks to move other trees into the fire. I also dropped stumps on top of the coals where they would burn up over a few days. Most of these fires burned for at least three days. Sometimes I found red coals when I spread the ashes the following weekend.

2. I burned existing bulldozer piles without moving them. I tried diesel to begin with and did not accomplish anything. The best method I found was to build a fire on the side of the pile that the wind was blowing from using a fire log and smaller branches pulled from the file. Initially I started multiple fires but I found it was best to start a single a single fire and continue adding fuel to it. Once a coal base was established I would use th tractor to push more of the pile onto the coals.