Something Big 2

[RavioliKid]

I just got back from a week out of town, and I virtually ran to check on my paulownia forest.

Well, okay...I hit the bathroom, patted the cat and unloaded the van, then I checked the trees.

Some of them didn't make it, but I still have quite a few of them going strong. Some of them even have a third pair of real leaves starting to grow!

Whoo-hoo!  

[etat]

So hows the trees, any of em survive?  More than just a little curious. When I was a kid we had some of these growin out near the road in the old house we lived in.  You know the one where if you jumped out of bed in a hurry on a cold mornin trying to head into the next room by the fire that your parents had already got up and got started, you had to be careful of getting a big ole splinter in yer foot off them old rough wood floors.  (well, that wasn't a good memory).  Anyways, these bushes, bought all they amounted to because dad kept em mowed down mostly, had big ole fuzzy leaves.  I remember because I used to play out there in a big ole wash close to where they grew, and I liked to pull the leaves off of them.  

Skip to years later.  I was roofing a lawyers  house and across the road he had a bunch of odd lookin trees planted.  I walked over to where these were planted and discovered the same leaves that I remembered.  These trees were about 10 or 12  or 16 foot tall and heavily pruned.  He was out of town at the time so I never asked him what kind of tree they was, and nobody else I asked new.

About a year later there was this story in the paper about these trees.  Explained what kind they was, why they were so valuable, and the method he was using to grow them.  Said for the first three years (I think that"s right) he'd cut em back to a stalk.  Then after that he'd prune them every year so they'd grow straight up in a tree. This was about 8 or 9 years ago.  

A few months ago, right before they started bad mouthin non perfossionals over yonder Doc was wantin somebody to send him samples of some strange soundin trees.  Some kind a reason or article or somethin.  Guy's pretty smart, but he jest can't relate to ordinary folk.   If it ain't been proved and certified on paper, ah heck let's jest say the guy ain't got no imagination.  My version of smart is ya gotta have a lots of imagination and not be afraid to go out on a limb. Now I'm not knocking him too bad because if he wasn't at least book smart he couldn't a got where he is. Anyways, I hounded em and described these trees until I found out what I wanted.  Said they was Royal Paulownia and they got over here years ago from asia or some such place becaused they was used in packing.  Told how the trees would grow guick into a shade.  Now that part kinda got my attention cause I wouldn't mind havin a couple of quick shades here close to the house I'm buildin.  Only trees close is a couple a sasfrass papa planted on each side of the old barn (The site where my house is if I can ever get it finished).  That's where I just come in from a bit ago, was spreadin a little sheetrock mud.  Gonna still take me a while but don't worry, I'll keep hammerin at her, me and the wife and kids and one of these days we are a gonna move in.  

Again, anyways right after that I did a little searching and found that you could actually buy seeds, and seedlings.  Since I had so much other stuff going on I ain't actually ever got around to doing it.  Now I'm sittin around here too tired to go to sleep jest yet, any of yall ever had that problem?, and decided to look at some of the older posts.  And here I find some people who actually decided to plant some of these.  And it's been long enough ago that some of these trees either outa be growin good, or they're all dead by now.  So now I'm a askin.  Anybody make a go of it with those Royal Alabamy Palowana trees, would it be worth plantin a few of these for shade and sentimental reasons, or would I jest be a wasting my time?

Oh yeah, jest one more thing.  Can ye kindly sometime tell me jest how this forum got started.  Seems to be jest about the smartest, friendliest, most perfessional and most interesting bunch of down home folks I've ever come across all in one place.

[woodmills1]

Aw shucks!  I ainta got no paulina trees but ifin ya needs some acorns or beechnuts let me know.

[Tom]

Paulownia has just about gotten out of hand and is a weed in areas of N.C. and Virginia.

The best way to grow Paulownia is vegetatively.  If you can get a piece of bark or a twig or a slab from a sawmill, it will grow.  There are several sites on the web that sell Paulownia. It is being experimented with as a pulp tree and as a lumber tree because of its quick rotation.  The problem is that it requires such intense labor. Folks I've talked to say that it is about as bad as suckering tobacco. You have to pull suckers off every few days.

I sawed a three year old tree a few years ago and got 1x6's out of it.  That's a big tree for  3 years.

www.paulownia.com
www.paulownia.org
www.paulowniatrees.org

A google search will locate lots of sites on Paulownia.

[RavioliKid]

Well, my surviving paulownia has been cut down for the winter. Next year will be its fouth year, and we'll see how it does. I have a feeling that this particular paulownia is just a little bit too frail for Kalamazoo, but we'll give it another year and see what happens.

[etat]

Thanks RavioliKid.  Was looking forward to hearing from you. We've got a pretty warm climate around here and I think next spring I'm going to try a couple of em.  

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Tom,

We have a few 5-1/2 year old Paulownias which are 16"-18" in diameter.   What was the sawn surface like?  Did it cut smoothly or fuzz up?

I'll be cutting a couple of 12" runts in a week or two.
Phil L.

[Ron Wenrich]

I've seen pawlonia sold for export.  I've seen logs that had a bee's nest that was bought.  We aren't getting that kind of growth, so I don't know if that's a factor.  

Prices 15 years ago was $500/Mbf on the stump, and that was considered cheap.  I haven't kept up with it, since it doesn't appear that often.  I do know that when it comes in, it never reaches the mill or the pulp truck.

The market is largely Japanese.  They use pawlonia for hope chests as well as other furniture.  Maybe the Chinese have tapped into this market.

[Tom]

My experience with this one log was that the surface was a little fuzzy.  It cut like I imagine Balsa wood would cut. I've cut poplar with the same symptoms.

You will be amazed at the strength of the wood.  We place three green 1x6's across a couple of pallets and stood on them.  They held the weight of a 399 lb man without sagging the 4 inches to the floor.  I was impressed. It is also very light.  I'm told it doesn't cup or warp or bend.  It is very stable.

This I was told by the fellow who was test growing the trees. It was the Oblongata paulownia.

Paulownia has a void in the middle like bamboo.  As the tree ages, the void closes.  He said that it grows to the inside as well as to the outside until this void is closed.  Some of the boards from this 3 year old tree had the void in them.  I cut around it as best as I could.

Dinkins