BURN HAZEL TO KEEP YOU WARM ALL YEAR

Q With heating costs rising, I’d like to use my own firewood in our wood-burning stove. What sort of trees would be best and how many would I need to plant?
S Hudson, Lancashire


ALAN SAYS...

Wood-burning stove suppliers usually recommend oak or alder but they are inconvenient to grow at home as they take so long to mature.

I’d go for hazels, which are fast growing and withstand regular cutting (coppicing).

The original trunk is cut down to about a foot. Several long, slim stems grow from the “stool” and slowly thicken out into poles which you can cut any time after they are about as thick as your wrist.

It takes six to eight years before a newly planted tree can be coppiced and it then needs to grow for six years before it has regrown enough to be worth cutting again. Grow several blocks of trees so you harvest one batch each year while the rest continue growing.

As a very rough guide, one six-year-old coppiced tree, cut up into logs, could serve a small wood-burning stove for up to a week.

You probably need at least 25 trees a year. If you coppice every six years that means 150 or more trees over at least a quarter to half an acre. But anything you can grow will be worthwhile to back up your central heating during the coldest time of year.

You need to cut logs and stack them for two years before they are properly “seasoned”, so the moisture content has dropped below 20 per cent, for most stoves.