Paulownia Trees

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Does anyone have long term experience with Paulownia Trees? I've heard conflicting reports about the quality of the wood produced by these trees. One says that the wood is not of much use for most concstruction, very soft. Another proclaims the virtue of the hardwood produced by this tree, comparing it to Mahogony. So my question is, "Has anyone had any of these trees long enough to harvest them for their wood, and if so what was your experience with the quality of the wood?"

-- John Fritz (aeon30@hotmail.com), May 28, 2001

Answers

If we are talking about the same thing here, they are more of an ornamental than a lumber tree. I ordered a couple from Rush Industries for the Mrs.' birthday. What a disappointment! Two little starts and one of them died immediately. I contacted Rush Ind. and got the old stonewall treatment.

-- Okie-Dokie (tjcamp6338@aol.com), May 28, 2001.

We have the Royal Paulownia tree that grows wild around here. They have groups of violet flowers in the spring and groups of seed pods that look kinda like little boats when they split open in the fall. Some people say that they are valuable but only when they are so big in diameter and the log so many feet long, with out any knots on the log. Seems the orentials use the wood for something. It is a real soft wood and would not be good for consturction in my opinion. I use some of it to carve and have made some christmas ornimants that the wife is going to chip carve. I really would not want any of them close to the house like in the yard because they are really messy with the seed pods and the large leaves. Fast growing will grow 8 to 10 feet in a year.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), May 28, 2001.

We had purchase about 50 of the trees. About 5 made it to the 6 inch round size at about 20 plus feet. The rest died off. Then we had this great ideal to let a few of the cattle in to this part of the pasture. First thing the bull done was scratch his back on three of them. Pop like a match. Very, very soft wood. Some have come back from the stump. Most of info.came from the county agent. As mention some of the folks across the big pond use this wood for some of their rituals. I only know of one other land owner that has tried to grow these fast "grower's. His to, failed. Seems you have to treat these with greater care than an xmas tree farm. So, sorry, never made it to harvest. Barely made it 2 years.

-- G.Jackson (pangusg2001@yahoo.com), May 28, 2001.

The only "long term experience with Paulownia Trees" I have is that I became aware of them fairly early in the advertising cycle in Australia, and now almost a decade later I'm still seeing a fair number of ads, but they're all for "selected clones" or "root cuttings" or "proven strains" or whatever. Tells me that you're only going to make it with very selected plants, and that's expensive. I've seen some of them grow, and the flowers are very spectacular while they're there, but the natural habit seemed to be multi-leader - i.e. it would take a lot of effort to get those ones to grow a good central trunk. I'll probably plant a few eventually, but I'll be expecting short-term decorative, and the rest will be experimental.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 29, 2001.

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