Believe me they are not easy to manage because the seed spreads far and wide. It's not like they just land on your property. The Catalpa that's in my yard was a volunteer and both trees grow wild all over the place. I pull hundreds of seedlings every year and always miss a few then find them once they are hard to remove. The Paulonia flowers are especially pretty and it's supposed to be a very high quality lumber. It's used as a decorative wood and for boat construction I think but not for regular building purposes. The Catalpa is great to have if you enjoy fishing because of the Catalpa worm infestations. I get cyclical infestations and invite anyone that wants them for bait to collect as many as they want. This was the first time in about 4 years that I didn't have any Woohoo! The tree overhangs part of the deck and they drop so much frass that I can't keep up with hosing it off. They also can completely defoliate the tree twice a year. Karyn

Mine puts out about 2-3 fronds between spring and summer and usually 3-4 a year. Its in a pot which slows its growth down. They dont put out a lot of fronds a year though. If you have a growing season that lasts almost all year, then you'll probably get at least 5-6 fronds a year from Queens, but thats only if its nice and warm. Mine grows slower if daytime temperatures dont get to at least 70. -Alex

1) I am using one cool "kitchen/bath" bulb and one "daylight" bulb to hit both ends of the light spectrum. Both were cheap and seem to work fine. 2) I am for weed barriers, even if they're temporary like cardboard or layers of newspaper (I used landscape fabric for a bad weed problem). And I've never heard of any veggie with 10 foot root systems, maybe 10 inches. Roots will eventually grow through paper or cardboard. 3) Bottom watering is fine. They will wick up what they need without towels. I am doing that with my soil blocks which are similar to peat pucks. Good luck and definitely ger those seedlings under lights 12-14 hours a day (2 inches from the tops of the plants) ASAP. Enjoy the process! Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure

pebbles >I don't know the name of it or I would have called poison control. purple.. >Get off the internet & call 911! Pebbles.... You don't have to know what it is before you call, at the least, poison control, even if there are no symptoms. Call immediately! Poison control will have much faster ways to id what he ate, and assess the risks re the berries he ate, and they will have fast coordination with 911 if necessary. ***If there are *any* symptoms at all, or poison control seems to be slowish, go for 911!*** This is especially important for someone as young as 2! Very tiny quantities of plant toxins can take just a little while to digest, and everything seems normal, and then they can suddenly hit like a ton of bricks on that little body. When something like this happens, call poison control. If it is 'no problem', they will check it out and will still be glad you called them. Trust me, they actually prefer giving information rather than dealing with crises. *This time*, you were very, very, very lucky.... The internet is not the place to potentially trust your toddler's life to.... Agreeing with purpleinopp, in full, and in spades....