Wood guide
Cherry, Apple and Other Fruitwoods as Firewood
Fruitwoods make good firewood once they're well seasoned. Apple is very dense and burns slowly, cherry burns well with a sweetly scented smoke, and pear burns nicely with a pleasant smell. They're rarely sold in bulk, so most fruitwood comes from pruning or a felled garden tree, in small pieces.
The Logs Local team Kiln-dried logs from our yard in Keighley
In this guide
Apple and cherry at a glance
Malus and Prunus species
- Heat per log
- High per log. Apple is denser than cherry
- Density
- About 600 to 830 kg/m³ (cherry to apple)
- Drying time
- Needs to be well seasoned
- How it burns
- Burns well, with a pleasant smell
- Smoke
- Sweetly scented when dry
- Sparks
- Not known for spitting
Lovely firewood if you have it, usually from pruning or a felled garden tree. It's rarely sold in bulk.
Heat rating: our 1 to 5 scale based on density, where 5 is densest. Density: the Wood Database, at 12% moisture.
How do fruitwoods compare?
| Wood | Density (kg/m³) | How it burns |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 830 | Stovax says it burns slowly and smells nice, with a smaller flame. |
| Pear | 690 | Hyndburn Council says it burns nicely with a pleasant smell if well seasoned. |
| Cherry | 600 | The Woodland Trust says it burns well with a sweetly scented smoke. Stovax says it needs to be well seasoned. |
| Plum | Not found | We found no reliable figures for how plum burns. |
Densities from the Wood Database at 12% moisture.
Do fruitwoods spit?
Not by most accounts. Hyndburn Council's firewood guide says apple burns with no sparking or spitting and cherry burns without spitting.
Are fruitwoods good for smoking food?
Apple and cherry are. America's Test Kitchen says they produce a lightly sweet, mild smoke that's great for seafood and poultry. The Woodland Trust also says crab apple makes a sweetly scented firewood.
Where does fruitwood come from?
- Apple and pear: winter pruning. The Woodland Trust says standard apple trees are best pruned while dormant, ideally between November and early March.
- Plum: summer pruning. The Woodland Trust says plum trees can be pruned in summer, from June onwards, and the RHS says to avoid pruning plums in winter, as it increases the risk of silver leaf disease.
- Felled garden or orchard trees, which usually give short, small logs.
How do I dry fruitwood?
Split anything thicker than your wrist, stack it under cover with open sides, and give it time. HETAS says hardwood generally takes 18 months to two years to dry, and to burn only at 20% moisture or less. See firewood moisture content.
Questions
Is cherry wood good firewood?
Yes, once well seasoned. It burns well with a sweet scent.
Can I burn apple wood in a log burner?
Yes, once it's dry. It's dense, burns slowly and smells good.
Is pear wood good firewood?
Yes, if well seasoned. Hyndburn Council says it burns nicely with a pleasant smell.
Do you sell fruitwood logs?
No. Our mixed hardwood is oak, ash, beech, sycamore and birch, kiln dried below 20% moisture.
More in our guide to the best wood to burn.
Logs for this guide
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