# tulip poplar



## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

I felled a ~45 foot tulip poplar in my yard last fall. It's been sitting on the ground, cut into 3 different sections between 8 and 12 feet that I plan(ned) to try milling once I finally convince my coworker to let me borrow his chainsaw mill or I pull the trigger on buying one.

After reading the most recent posts in this thread: 
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f26/log-score-now-15106/

I'm wondering whether there is likely to be any spalting in such a short time on poplar and if there is, whether it's worth having. I know some woods don't really spalt and just turn to crap instead, but I know almost nothing about poplar so I have no idea if I've already waited too long or if I can still salvage some useable wood from these.

Any ideas or references I can check?


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Poplar will spalt, eventually. One thing about it is it turns colors (some not attractive IMO) pretty soon after felling in warm weather. So either mill them asap to keep the wood the natural color...or let them lay ~ a year-18 months for some spalt. You can tell if they are spalting usually when you see shelf like fungus growing on the ends. I would say there is very little chance you have any spalting in such a short time (winter up north spalt goes dormant) depending on how late last fall you cut them they may still be pretty much "fresh" until the weather warms up for awhile.


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## Mizer (Mar 11, 2010)

I agree with what Daren said, If you cut in the fall it will still be relatively fresh. But I would saw it soon because once the heat gets to it it will start the decay process and you will get a lot of sap stain.


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## Nate1778 (Mar 10, 2008)

I have a ton of spalted Poplar and it is beautiful stuff. Heavy spalting and purple and red and white throughout. Here is a pic.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Thanks, Daren and Mizer. I'm hoping to get these milled in the next couple of months so they shouldn't be too bad it sounds like.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

So I still haven't milled this tree up but I've done a little milling of some branches of the "uh-oh" tree that came down in January. Also tulip popular. You were right about some colors, Daren. It has green, pink, and purple in it. When I get home tonight I have a bunch of pics to upload so I'll try and get those up too. I also got some spalting in a few pieces but I haven't opened those up yet. Hopefully they'll at least be interesting.


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