Dry-storage and water sprinkling of spruce pulpwood.: Part 1.: Effects on wood properties

The sprinkling of pulpwood logs can be done using a recently developed method, i.e. the climate-adapted sprinkling system. Four storage alternatives were evaluated experimentally, namely sprinkled (sprinkling intensity 150% of the calculated evaporation from the logs) and dry-stored storage of debarked and non-debarked spruce pulpwood logs. Samples were collected at various stages during the course of the experiment. The sprinkling intensity used in the experiment prevented efficiently drying-out of the logs. It also prevented blue-stain caused by fungal infections. Dry-stored logs had significantly lower and more inhomogeneous moisture content. The initial fresh-log moisture content could be preserved at an acceptable level (above 50%) by sprinkling the logs during the entire storage (eight weeks), whereas dry-stored logs lost remarkable quantities of moisture already after four weeks of storage. Accordingly the drying-out of dry-stored, debarked logs was even more pregnant. Sprinkled logs had somewhat lower bark-to-wood bonding strength than the dry-stored logs.