Empress Splendor

[Ironmower]

If this is outa line or old news please remove it, just passin' on info I found. They claim its the fastest growing hardwood : ??? www.worldtreetech.com

[woodtroll]

It is a paulownia, It is very fast growing. Can be a nice looking tree. It is considered an invasive plant, it can be prolific on good growing sites. Heavy frost will cause it to die back. The site hypes it up a little to much. We have plenty of native hardwoods to choose from. I would not count on this one to save the earth.

[Chico]

I was always told  Paulownia wasn't a true tree but really an invasive shrub I've never seen a lot of it. We only saw one every once in a while while I was in Tenn.
Chico

[Tom]

It's definitely a tree and is fast growing.  I've sawn one that was 3 years old and cut 1x6's out of it.

It was being tested in Folkston by someone I knew and it did have a short rotation.  It also is affected by high water, cold weather and requires an inordinate amount of pruning to provide a good sawlog.  He gave up.

Traveling through Tennessee and N.Carolina, I saw many of them along the roadways, most were shrubby but some had found the sky.  They have become a problem because they have gotten loose into the environment.

The Paulownia Association

[ellmoe]

  My Dad bought some from the Sunday Newspaper magazine offer  ("Saffire Dragon"). They do grow fast and have a pretty purple flower. For about a week. The rest of the time they are basically unattractive with very large leaves . The variety he had grew to about 30 feet in four years. They didn't have a sawable bole, growing more like a peach tree than a pine. They also have a bad habit of sprouting from the roots. When it came time to remove these trees (after they ruined the drainfield), it took three years of cutting the sprouts before they finally gave up. It is easy to see how they can become a "weed". They are tenacious. My Dad gave me a sprout. I've tried to kill it with neglect. This week it is flowering. It will be it's last bloom. smiley_devilish

Mark

[fishpharmer]

I looked into the species for planting myself.  Seemed to good to be true.  You know how that goes. 

Has anyone had any success with these?

[PineNut]

I have heard that they require a sandy, well-drained soil. My soil here does not qualify and the one I tried was able to hang on for about three years but did not survive.

[SwampDonkey]

I see someone tried a couple up here and they don't like the cold at all.  ;D It resprouts off the stump and grows about 6 feet in the summer. In this case it stays like a shrub. It would never survive our woods.

[Tom]

In the beginning of the Forum, years ago, Jeff, LW, Rav, and some others, tried to grow some from seed.  The thread runs for a couple of years.

There are different varieties of the plant.  Oblongata is the one that was being tested in Georgia, I think.  It did make a saw log but the farmer said that the labor for pruning(suckering) was as abad as trying to raise tobacco.   The leaves get smaller with age.

One of the big sales points was that the Orientals paid big money for the wood.  What they don't tell you is that the money is for a log with tight grain, which means it was slow grown.  Slow grown Tomentosa is almost an anomoly.  Slow grown Pine and Walnut and most other trees are more valuable than the fast grown ones too.   It reminds me of the Ostrich Farm craze a few years ago.

[SwampDonkey]

It reminds me of the Ostrich Farm craze a few years ago.

:D :D And emu farms. I got a great laugh from a guy who was going to make his fortune selling emu meat. Here was a guy used to working in the woods most his working career. Some other guy he met talked him into it because this other guy is known to have big ideas to that never worked. Two of'm together could fix a chainsaw, but not farm emus. :D One got away and the emu farm soon vanished into oblivion with a much lighter wallet remaining. :D :D

[OneWithWood]

Definately an invasive in my woods.  Whenver I happen upon one I make an appointment with my good buddy Garlon 4 to revisit the offending stem. 

[shinnlinger]

In Farm show there have been lots of complaints from the seedlings dyeing and warranty calls being unanswered.

[woodtroll]

My first Paulownia experience was the only success story I know of.
A family had a place on the edge of town, 5-6 acres of cove site hard woods. A man stopped by and offered them $500 cash for 20 trees. We ended up selling 20 for $5000. They were very straight with good height. They lucked out with timing the Asian buyer was in town looking at white oak veneer and was very happy to add these to his purchase.
The property had been a town dump back in the 30's. Paulownia seed cases were used for packing. Kind of like styrofoam peanuts. The place had many good trees growing on it.
They grow well in those protected cove sites. Any plantations of them I have seen can not compare.
That was 15 years back or so.