what is surface sow? does that mean you just put the seed on top of the soil versus in the soil I planted some empress tree seed and put them in holes and covered been planted a month and not 1 has come up so I contacted the lady and she said to surface plant so she is sending me some more thanks in advance for any help moderator's note: added a more descriptive title to topic
Surface sowing is simply letting the seeds fall on the soil where you want them to grow. This mimics nature as the tree seeds fall to the ground and Mother Nature does the rest for them. Good luck with your next batch of Empress seeds.
I have them in a flat tray can they be transplanted that way or should I just sprinkle them outside after the last frost I need some trees as we have none for shade and these are suppose to grow 18 ft the 1st year so you can imagine how sad I was they didn't come up so any advice on them would be appreciated
Any tree that grows that fast has soft, weak wood. This tree (Paulownia) is considered a giant noxious weed in most places, including NC. Filling your property with these will lower the value. http://ncforestservice.gov/publications ... s/IS14.pdf
It's always best to stick with trees native to your area. The empress tree is very easy to loose control of and hard to get rid of. Even though they don't start flowering until 8-10 years after planting, each tree can product as many as 20 million seeds in it's lifetime. They also spread by suckering and if you do dig one up you have to get every little piece of root or it will come up again. They also have a very weak root system (no tap root to hold them up) so most likely will come crashing down in the high winds of a hurricane quicker than other trees.
Plus, at least where I am, all my young trees froze during winter and started giving shoots somewhere on the lower part of the stem. Didn't look good at all. Got rid of it. I really have no idea how the huge trees make it through their childhood??? I once had a post with me finding tiny (well, tiny compared to the adult size of the tree) seedlings growing in weird places. sidewalk cracks, by houses, im most difficult places with little dirt, and far away from any "parent tree". One year I gathered at least 10-15 seedlings and traded them around. Was good business!
