I just closed on a house yesterday. Thinking of planting one or two catalpa trees in the back yard, mostly for bait purposes, but also for shade. Total lot size is around 1/3 acre.
Front yard has two poorly placed bradford pears. I like bradfords well enough, but they will likely be coming down in lieu of one, maybe two dogwoods. I’d actually prefer a weeping willow, but don’t care to have the city growling at me about it when it attacks the water lines.
Anyhow, regarding the catalpas. I’m looking for info from those who have planted them. What’s the best time of the year around here to plant them, and where do you recommend I get them from?
I realize it will take several years before it’s big enough to host the moths, willing to wait.
I can’t speak of how you would like them in your yard, but when you do finally get worms on them year end and year out, they will be neat in the fall because all the leaves will have been eaten. The worms will leave behind a billion little balls(poop), so that you don’t want to park anything under the trees.
As for where to get them, there are plenty growing on ditch banks if you just keep your eyes open while you drive around. Once you find some that are growing near the road, you can always find some small ones that you can just dig up. I would ask the landowner’s permission of course, but most wouldn’t mind.
You could probably find someone with a few saplings that came up volunteer that will be willing to give them away also. They transplant quite easily and will take off after a year or two.
I took some seed out of some of the beans years ago and just planted them in potting soil in pots. I ended up with 7-8 that got up 3’ in first year. Planted them behind garden and they doubled the next year. I added about 2.5 gal chicken poo the third year and they jumped to 20’ and had worms that year. I just have one at my place now. It was just cleaned of leaves for the second time this summer.
So, do the worms just come or do you have to do anything for them to start? I have contemplated this same idea several times but don’t even want to mess with them unless they are making bait.