Germinating Paulownia Tomentosa Seeds

Germinating Paulownia Tomentosa Seeds is a fairly easy process, and I'm sure there are many ways to germinate the seeds. The way I do it is as follows: Put a uniform amount of soil in a see through, sealable tray. I use an old see through takeaway container that has a sealable lid and it works well. I'm a big fan of using whatever I have around the house! If you have a tray but no lid you can always just cover the top with cling film. Put the seeds on the surface of the soil and mist the whole container with water. Also make sure the soil is fairly damp. This will aid with keeping humidity up over the long term. These seeds need to be on the surface, as they need light to germinate.

Make the container air tight by closing the lid or sealing it with cling film and leave in a place that will get some decent sunlight like a window sill etc. Personally I use CFL lights (Compact Fluorescent Bulbs) to germinate these seeds. As I do with most seeds. You don't need much light in terms of CFL wattage to germinate seeds. In fact with as little as an 11 Watt Energy Saver CFL bulb, whether that be 6400K (Daylight) or 2700K (Warm white) focused directly over the tray containing the seeds you can easily germinate Paulownia Tomentosa seeds. I leave the light on for 14 hours of the day but you could successfully grow these plants with less hours, or more if you like. More powerful CFL's will be needed if you plan on growing these plants indoors to a decent size. Of course, nothing beats natural sunlight.

So, once you have misted the tray and left under a CFL or on a window sill, leave it for around a week. Just open the container now and then to check if there are any signs of germination. Don't open it too frequently because you will lose humidity. If the container is going dry inside re-mist and water the soil a little then close and leave for a few days. After around 1 week + you should see signs of germination taking place.

Once some the seeds are up and running you can leave the top off and let them get used to normal temperatures. At this point I leave them to root a bit before removing them by hand and giving them their own pots. With mine, once potted I will continue to leave them under CFL bulbs until they are big enough to be planted outdoors. Still waiting for that day to come. I know these trees are classed as an invasive species to most but I still want a few in my garden! I'll just cut any others that happen to come up. However, not all Tomentosa trees will seed.

One thing that I have noticed with young Paulownia Tomentosa trees is that they are not fussy when it comes to plant food. They seem to thrive off almost anything you give them. Can't wait to plant one or two outside. I'm just waiting for the cold nights to leave us. I'm in the UK, so the summer here is quite temperamental. If you have any questions regarding germination just shoot me a comment.