Cattle love eating the leaves. In China, where paulownia is grown extensively, the leaves are used as livestock food. The trees prefer loose, free draining soil with a good summer water supply so they can grow to full potential (6 metres in first year).
@HobyoGirl The cattle love the leaves and bark, and eat any branches up to about 25mm dia. The trees are known for their uptake of minerals and a local farmer says milk production improves from his herd after he has fed his cows on the summer prunings. Paulownia like free draining soils, summer moisture, warm humid summer weather and no wind.
@jhoviillee There is no demand for paulownia timber pulp for paper production in NZ and very little paulownia used for furniture.
My research shows that when planted at 6.5 metre spacings, the increment in bole volume is maximised at about 12 years of age, making this age the best to harvest at. When planted at 4 m spacings the trunks never gain enough girth to obtain decent board size, and at 8 metres optimum milling age may go out to 15 to 20 years.
@john2knj These is not an established market for paulownia logs in NZ. I guess the sawmiller down the road would pay about $200 for a 12yr log if he felled and removed it. There is good demand for the dried timber, so once I mill and dry that log into boards for surfboard manufacture, it would probably return about 1000 - $1500.
@hewboltinvention Yes, they sure do. I must put up a short vid clip showing the regrowth that has occured over the last 6 months. The new trees are over 4 metres tall at present.
The stump will send up multiple suckers. I select one to retain, fence it off from the cattle and trim the rest off.
Several others suckers emerge from surrounding root system but the cattle devour these.
who did you get to buy the logs and did they grade them for you?
funovitzsgt 7 months ago
@funovitzsgt I get a local sawmiller to mill the logs and return all the planks to me. I then on sell them to various customers within New Zealand
kwbloke 5 months ago
Cattle love eating the leaves. In China, where paulownia is grown extensively, the leaves are used as livestock food. The trees prefer loose, free draining soil with a good summer water supply so they can grow to full potential (6 metres in first year).
kwbloke 1 year ago
is the leaves poisonous? can the cows eat it? also what kind of soil does it need to grow well?
Regards
Hobyogirl.
HobyoGirl 1 year ago
@HobyoGirl The cattle love the leaves and bark, and eat any branches up to about 25mm dia. The trees are known for their uptake of minerals and a local farmer says milk production improves from his herd after he has fed his cows on the summer prunings. Paulownia like free draining soils, summer moisture, warm humid summer weather and no wind.
kwbloke 9 months ago
why ten years when you can harvest them for paper in 3 years and 5 for furniture? so i heard.
jhoviillee 1 year ago
@jhoviillee There is no demand for paulownia timber pulp for paper production in NZ and very little paulownia used for furniture.
My research shows that when planted at 6.5 metre spacings, the increment in bole volume is maximised at about 12 years of age, making this age the best to harvest at. When planted at 4 m spacings the trunks never gain enough girth to obtain decent board size, and at 8 metres optimum milling age may go out to 15 to 20 years.
kwbloke 1 year ago
@kwbloke Any idea what the value of the trees are at age 12 and 15-20?
john2knj 10 months ago
@john2knj These is not an established market for paulownia logs in NZ. I guess the sawmiller down the road would pay about $200 for a 12yr log if he felled and removed it. There is good demand for the dried timber, so once I mill and dry that log into boards for surfboard manufacture, it would probably return about 1000 - $1500.
kwbloke 9 months ago
@kwbloke Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.
john2knj 9 months ago
What variety of Paulownia are you growing, Elongata, Fortunei, etc. ?
dangunit69 1 year ago
dont they grow back from the same stump
hewboltinvention 1 year ago
@hewboltinvention Yes, they sure do. I must put up a short vid clip showing the regrowth that has occured over the last 6 months. The new trees are over 4 metres tall at present.
The stump will send up multiple suckers. I select one to retain, fence it off from the cattle and trim the rest off.
Several others suckers emerge from surrounding root system but the cattle devour these.
kwbloke 1 year ago
@hewboltinvention
Yes they do, up to seven times.
acorntechnique 1 year ago
Amazing! They grow so fast!
nyonan 2 years ago
Great to watch having seen them mature over the years. Also 3 less to pick up after!
c2100 2 years ago