Green Ash

[Dr ROK]

Anybody ever used ash for their smoking wood? I have a bunch of green ash from a tree I cut down.

[Huskee]

Love ash. Very good with pork & chicken. The smoke doesn't smell as sweet as apple but it is mild on food. I'm not sure about green, I'm pretty sure mine is white but I am not 100% positive.

[DWCowles]

I think what he means by "green" is not season. I have never seen green ash not saying it doesn't exist. Maybe Dr ROK can clear that up for us.

[Marauderer]

Just google green ash and you will get all the info you want. Does not discuss using it in a stick burner but, it is a hardwood.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green ash or red ash) is a species of ash native to eastern and central North America, from Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta and eastern Colorado, south to northern Florida, and southwest to eastern Texas. It has spread and become naturalized in much of the western United States and also in central Europe from Spain to Russia.^[1][2][3]

Bark

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree reaching 12â€"25 m (rarely to 45 m) tall with a trunk up to 60 cm in diameter. The bark is smooth and gray on young trees, becoming thick and fissured with age. The winter buds are reddish-brown, with a velvety texture. The leaves are 15â€"30 cm long, pinnately compound with seven to nine (occasionally five or eleven) leaflets, these 5â€"15 cm (rarely 18 cm) long and 1.2â€"9 cm broad, with serrated margins and short but distinct, downy petiolules a few millimeters long. They are green both above and below. The autumn color is golden-yellow and depending on the climate, Green Ash's leaves may begin changing color the first week of September. The flowers are produced in spring at the same time as the new leaves, in compact panicles; they are inconspicuous with no petals, and are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a samara 2.5-7.5 cm long comprising a single seed 1.5â€"3 cm long with an elongated apical wing 2â€"4 cm long and 3–7 mm broad.^[4][5][6][7]
It is sometimes divided into two varieties, Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. pennsylvanica (red ash) and Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. lanceolata (Borkh.) Sarg. (syn. var. subintegerrima (Vahl) Fern.; green ash) on the basis of the hairless leaves with narrower leaflets of the latter, but the two intergrade completely, and the distinction is no longer upheld by most botanists.^[1]

[DWCowles]

Thanks Barry. I have cut white ash and I have also cut trees where the wood was the color green but didn't know what kind of tree it was. Maybe it was green ash.

[DWCowles]

Oh BTW I wasn't smart enough to do a Google search

[Huskee]

Yes white green and black ash are all around the US. You cannot tell by the bark. The best way to tell the different ash species apart is by the buds on the limb in the springtime, then next best is the leaves themselves in the summer. In case anyone cares here is an excellently detailed video from a horticulture student on teh different ash species. I watched this back last summer. Alas, the trees I've been harvesting were dead and fallen so I couldn't use the bud or leaf method. I still estimate mine is white.

[Dr ROK]

This is from a green ash tree, not an ash tree that hasn't dried. I planted two of them at my folks house when I was about a third grader. It was for Arbor day and they were nothing but a twig that was about a foot tall. Never expected much to come of them, but they grew into two very nice trees. One has died so we cut it down and the other is still kicking, but probably be a couple years and it will be time cut it down too.

[DWCowles]

Who said an old dog can't learn something new?

[Dr ROK]

I learn something every day from this place.

[DWCowles]

Yeah I do to Dr ROK There is tons of info here

[Ray]

I'm with you guys. The info and learning just keeps comin'. Can't get enough!