Diameter and length effects of logs on firewood drying clone of Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus camaldulensis

This work aimed to contribute to the experience in drying of wood for charcoal production. For 386 days, the drying of logs with different diameters and lengths laid initially in piles on the field and transferred to a drying yard after 110 was monitored. The average moisture contents determined in a dry basis at days 47, 110, 182 and 386 were 50.2%, 33.2%, 25.0% and 16.3%, respectively. After 47 days of drying the smaller diameter logs, independently of the length, were already with moisture content near the fiber saturation point, while the larger diameter logs still presented moistures content around 70%. The influence of the length of the logs over the drying rates was different between the two diameter classes.