How long does wood take to decompose?

Answer 1

Wood takes varying amounts of time to decompse. small twigs that are a 5th of a inch in diameter can take 3-to-5 months to decompose. branches that are 1 inch in diameter can take up to 3 years to decompose. logs that are a foot in diameter can take 10 years to fully decompse. and logs that have a diameter of 4 feet across from a 300 year old tree ,can take up to 50 years to decompose. the best way to speed up the natural process of decomposition is to bury the wood about 1 foot deep and then fill it in with dirt this can speed up the decomposition by 50% meaning that a log thats 4 feet across will only take 25 years to fully decompose but the problem here is that wood eating insects will have a harder time decomposing it for best results bury your dead wood with termites. also burning wood in a bon fire is not a good idea because it re-releases the carbon back into the air. a hunk of wood is basically pure organic carbon. if wood is burned then it cancels out all of the positive impact that that tree gave to to before it died.

these are some variables to consider

Is it exposed to weather or protected?

Has it been finished or preserved in some way?

How big is it dimensionally? Wood chips or sawdust will decompose a lot faster then a log will.

Wood will decompose faster if its wet. so if theres a pile of wood thats about 4 feet high typically the wood will decompose at different rates the wood at the bottom goes faster and the wood at the top wont decompose at all till it gets lower over time as the bottom eventually decomposes.