Quote Originally Posted by whitewood View Post
Sigidi,

At this hour of the night I can't get my head around the required maths to work out what size log you need to make a cubic metre. There were some very large trees grown under ideal conditions i.e. with excellent soil, irrigation, solubile fertiliser and large spacings. Trees 60 cm diameter and 6 metres high have been recorded but these are the exceplions.
The industry 10 years ago was driven by the people selling the plants. Buyers were encouraged to plant on 4 x 4 metre grids when subsequent experience proved that 6 x 7 for unirrigated plantations produced better trees and results.
The market for Paulownia is small at present for the reasons given in my earlier post. I have 1 repeat customer and a strip kayak builder who has built 2 from my timber. There is a shutter manfacturer who has purchased several large orders from my wholesaler. I have sold timber to a number of people to build hallow surfboards.

I planted a few paulownia on dark river flat soil in the upper Manning valley west or Taree around 13 years ago. They were not fertilized apart from the occassional flood and the growth would easily meet the above figures. A plantation at Richmond west of Sydney has not lived up to such expectations.

I am planning to fell 2 or 3 in the next month and bring the timber back to Sydney. I also have a rather large eucalypt that I might get slabbed as well which recently came down across our track.

Cheers