Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - green wood stain

I have a 12" dia x 10' limb (Poplar) that I would like to use as part of an outdoor project. I purchased a green stain from lowes to protect it (claims to kill any and all things, prevent checking, and allow the wood to be in contact with the ground) . I plan to soak the bottom in the stain, and paint the rest with it repeatedly over a week or so. There are some parts that I would like to leave the bark on. If I continue to treat it annually, do you think it could survive outside?

All help is welcome - Tim

Painted or stained wood will never hold up as well as PT with ground contact. It will however last longer than not coating the wood. At some point the bark will become a haven for moisture and bugs.

Not poplar, and particularly not that big of a piece of wood. The preservative will not penetrate more than a quarter inch or so, especially if the wood is freshly felled (ie, wet).

For outdoor use, find yourself some white oak (white, and only white, is outdoor durable), cypress (soft but decay resistant), black locust, honey locust (LOTS of thorns but very durable and hard).


The only thing I'd do to these items is paint the ends where they were sawn and any open cut marks with a thick wax or heavy couple of coats of laytex paint. Not the whole thing, but only the exposed wood.