Replies

1. 
   jharveyb | Sep 04, 2022 12:52pm | #1

   Cut an inch off one end of a typical board. If it is bright red or reddish purple, it is eastern red cedar. Western cedar is aromatic, so you should be able to smell its odor. PT pine will smell more like pine, and have a yellow/greenish cast.

1. 
   Linda5678 | Sep 05, 2022 05:36pm | #4

   Yesterday I cut off pieces of the deck, regular pine boards and old pressure treated pine and smelled them all. The deck pieces smelled pretty strong (and nice) so I think it must be cedar. The color is a red/yellow/brown, and more red when it's wet.
   I'm just a bit hesitant to use it in our compost area, I just want to be really sure!
   Thank you for your answer!

2. 
   eddo234 | Sep 05, 2022 11:43pm | #6

   Eastern red cedar is the most aromatic cedar, it's actually referred to as Aromatic Cedar. Don't know where you are, but here in Vermont and New England, and Southeastern Canada Northern White Cedar is a local variety commonly used for decking and other outdoor uses. From the photos I'd say cedar vs PT, but hard to tell. As someone else said weight is the easy way to tell, all the cedars are much lighter than PT SYP.

2. 
   esch5995 | Sep 05, 2022 05:03pm | #2

   Pressure treated wood is almost always SYP, I had someone in the lumber industry tell me once that yellow pine is the best at taking the preservatives. Yellow pine weighs about 33% more than what cedar does so weight is a good indicator as is compressiblity cedar dents quite easily whereas SYP will take a fairly heavy blow, especially if it is seasoned.

   My guess from the pictures alone is you have cedar, but in most areas the odds would say they should be SYP.

1. 
   Linda5678 | Sep 05, 2022 05:31pm | #3

   Thank you, that is very interesting!
   I will check how soft it is and compare the weight with other wood pieces I have.

3. 
   mlindy | Sep 05, 2022 11:19pm | #5

   I would suggest that any wood you use for a compost bin will sooner or latter become compost itself. If you are using the compost for vegetables, you probably don't want preservative chemicals leeching from your pressure treated wood bin into the compost you put on your garden, so cedar is a better choice. Current wood preservatives are safer than twenty or thirty years ago (arsenic now omitted), but still probably not great additives for your vegetables. Your bins may not last quite as long with cedar, but you just need to plan on reconstructing your bins periodically in any event. Taking that into consideration, compost bins may not be where you want to do your "fine woodworking".

4. 
   ysu65 | Sep 06, 2022 07:11am | #7

   Get locust, it will out live us all.

5. 
   eddo234 | Sep 06, 2022 08:47am | #8

   So the answer to “are the boards I already have cedar or PT?” is “get locust”? Wow.