All about knowing your stove and how to load it, I think.
Of course, it helps to know that you are tossing in Osage orange in the first place.
I sent some whole dried Scotch bonnet peppers to a friend to use as seeds for the coming Spring planting. A few months later, I got a note telling me that dinners had turned into Russian roulette as he had tossed the Scotch bonnets in with the family store of red peppers for food. Mom would grab peppers randomly... I was never quite sure who got what he deserved: me for wasting great seed peppers, or my buddy for not using them as seeds.
Every stove I have lived with seemed to have a personality in terms of loading, banking, and fuels that kept it going well. Could just be me...
All the best, Peter