Paulownia Tomentosa update

The experimental Paulownia Tomentosa forest is growing at an incredible rate. The tallest trees are now around 4 meter I guess and the grow season has not been finished yet. This is what I had in mind 5 years ago when we bought LMSC (La Mina San Cayetano). First create a canopy over the land to prevent dry out in the summer, then plant typical tropical trees under it like avocado, mango, ficus, jacaranda etc. Most tropical trees need a lot of shade, especially when they are young. The canopy created over the young jungle would also act as a wind breaker and would create a higher humidity within the dome.

This idea was great, but due to lack of experience with tree planting projects in general and especially with the type of soil on Mallorca made it fail sofar. But now I better understand the conditions the Paulownias need in order to thrive. Of all conditions the most important one is water. Watering just 1 time a day using a dripping system does not work. The soil around the young tree will be moist, but just 10 cm outside the outer ring of the dripping tube it will be as hard as concrete in Summer. This limits the root development so much that it does not really grow. The trees do no die as long as you keep dripping, but if the irrigation system fails for some reason and you have noticed it for a few days they will still die.

Solution: no dripping but sprinkling and not just 1 time a day, but 4 times a day, every 6 hours. That's what we are doing since a few months and it proves to work. The downside of watering from above is that the water on Mallorca contains a lot of limestone. Luckily the Paulownias don't mind, but many others do like the young Pecan trees (Pecan = Hickory tree). The leaves of the Pecans feel like velvet and are very porous. The limestone rich water on the leaves makes them look very grey and dull and it reduces the sunlight reaching the cells for the photosynthesis.