Re: Forcing Paulownia

I am not sure as to the minimum bud temperature, but I think it would be possible to force these. However, the question is how many chill hours would be needed for succesful bud break. Since this is a zone 9b hardy plant, I suspect the chill hours are low, say in in the 400 to 600 hour range. This would likely be rather quickly achieved in a Wisconsin fall and early winter. However, my experience with these is minimal and limited to seedlings, so I may be wrong. 

John
Zone 5
----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Martinson" <llmen@wi.rr.com> 
To: <woodyplants@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 7:23 PM
Subject: Forcing Paulownia



Nearly 20 years ago, I succumbed to the pretty pictures and purchased an
Empress Tree, Paulownia tomentosa.  It grows along the eastern edge of my
property and has grown into an interesting, if not exactly pretty tree. For 
the pass 10 years, it dutifully produces large clusters of flower buds in
the fall, which are sort of interesting over the winter in their own right. 

Not surprisingly, the -10F of our winters here in SE Wisconsin routinely
kills virtually all the flower buds, although I did spot a couple of errant 
flowers a few years ago.  I keep waiting for 3global warming2 to kick in
sufficiently that we might have a winter without sub-zero temperatures, but 
I realize that is would simply be serendipity.

I have two questions:  First, for those of you who might grow this tree,
what is the lowest temperature at which the flower buds won9t winter-kill?
Second, is there any way that these bud clusters could be picked in the fall or even early winter before really cold temperatures set in and 3forced2 to 
bloom?


Don Martinson
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mailto:llmen@wi.rr.com

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