LittleDingus
Omono
I intend to use this thread to track a bunch of ginkgo from seed until they become distinctive enough to warrant their own thread.
My youngest child went away to college. Hey college has one of the largest ginkgo trees I've ever seen. It takes 2 people to give the trunk a hug
There are many other ginkgo on campus, but this one sparked some conversations. I told her to watch in the fall because they tend to drop their leaves all at once. If the wind is calm, it leaves an ring of yellow around the tree that I thought would be very impressive with the large tree! We also talked about how rare it is to find female ginkgo because the rotting fruit smells bad and so nurseries only carry males.
Well...turns out that within 2 blocks of her dorm there are multiple female ginkgos! She had noticed a largish ginkgo with fruit on it so she grabbed some for me. This was early fall and I was worried maybe too early for them to be mature enough to germinate. So, when I visited her a little later in the fall, I grabbed more. They were turning a peach color by then but didn't smell much.
About a week or so later, my wife and I visited her again and took a walk around campus and found a second female ginkgo! By that time, it was late enough in the fall that they were starting to fall from the tree by the hundreds. And yes! The do smell! They have a heavy putrid decaying smell that made me think of vomited cheese
The second tree had branches closer to the ground so the fruit was easier to grab. Interestingly enough, the fruits were much smaller on the second ginkgo.
The larger fruits on the bottom are from the first tree on 10/13. The smaller ones on top are from the second tree we found and were picked a couple weeks later than the first fruits on 10/23.
I had read a couple of places to leave the fruits sit in a warm place to finish maturing before cleaning them. The smell was escaping the double lock freezer bags though so I had to keep them in the garage where it wasn't as warm.
It was warmer than normal for here on 11/6 so I broke down and cleaned the nuts out of the fruit since I could do it outside. I wore latex gloves because the smell is heavy and hangs onto anything it touches. In small doses like the number of fruits I had, it's not an overpowering smell, but it does ware on you. Plus the fruits are known to be an irritant so I didn't want to get too much flesh on my skin
I left them alone for another couple of weeks. I read that they should be cold stratified...I have some doubts now...but at the time, I thought it couldn't hurt. So on 11/17 I wrapped them in a wet paper towel and put them in a zip lock in the refrigerator. After drying a bit, the nuts still had a smell, but not bad enough that I wanted them out of the house.
I had some time to futz on 1/2/2023 so I picked out two of the smaller nuts to test if they'd germinate.
I intend to put most of the seed in the ground or in grow bags in the spring. These were just a test and I knew I would want to poke at them to see what was happening so I planted them in ridiculously small seedling trays
And, sure enough, on 1/11 I got curious to know what was going on...so I pulled one:
It lives!!!
I left the second one undisturbed. But, since I had this one out already, I put it into a small, but much bigger than the cell it was in! pot with NAPA 8822 mixed with a small amount of fir bark and a small amount of slow release fertilizer balls.
Today I was reorganizing my grow shelves a bit to make room to start seeds for the garden when I noticed the one that I left undisturbed had started to push itself out of the soil So I poked at the one I moved into a pot.
I did not expect them to grow like oaks! I didn't disturb this one to see what the root is doing...though I thought about it! But apparently the nuts sit off to the side and they grow a peduncle and trunk in the same manner as oaks and a number of other nuts do. I guess I should have expected that...but I didn't.
I moved the second one out of the tiny seed starter cell into a smallish pot also to give it more room to grow.
100% germination rate so far isn't bad The cold stratification period was short...I didn't expect them to germinate yet. But maybe they don't really need cold stratification?? Either way, the rest will stay in the refrigerator for a bit yet. I have about 2 dozen nuts left. Most of them will eventually go into the ground, I think. We'll see...
They are so cute at this age
My youngest child went away to college. Hey college has one of the largest ginkgo trees I've ever seen. It takes 2 people to give the trunk a hug
There are many other ginkgo on campus, but this one sparked some conversations. I told her to watch in the fall because they tend to drop their leaves all at once. If the wind is calm, it leaves an ring of yellow around the tree that I thought would be very impressive with the large tree! We also talked about how rare it is to find female ginkgo because the rotting fruit smells bad and so nurseries only carry males.Well...turns out that within 2 blocks of her dorm there are multiple female ginkgos! She had noticed a largish ginkgo with fruit on it so she grabbed some for me. This was early fall and I was worried maybe too early for them to be mature enough to germinate. So, when I visited her a little later in the fall, I grabbed more. They were turning a peach color by then but didn't smell much.
About a week or so later, my wife and I visited her again and took a walk around campus and found a second female ginkgo! By that time, it was late enough in the fall that they were starting to fall from the tree by the hundreds. And yes! The do smell! They have a heavy putrid decaying smell that made me think of vomited cheese
The second tree had branches closer to the ground so the fruit was easier to grab. Interestingly enough, the fruits were much smaller on the second ginkgo.
The larger fruits on the bottom are from the first tree on 10/13. The smaller ones on top are from the second tree we found and were picked a couple weeks later than the first fruits on 10/23.
I had read a couple of places to leave the fruits sit in a warm place to finish maturing before cleaning them. The smell was escaping the double lock freezer bags though so I had to keep them in the garage where it wasn't as warm.
It was warmer than normal for here on 11/6 so I broke down and cleaned the nuts out of the fruit since I could do it outside. I wore latex gloves because the smell is heavy and hangs onto anything it touches. In small doses like the number of fruits I had, it's not an overpowering smell, but it does ware on you. Plus the fruits are known to be an irritant so I didn't want to get too much flesh on my skin
I left them alone for another couple of weeks. I read that they should be cold stratified...I have some doubts now...but at the time, I thought it couldn't hurt. So on 11/17 I wrapped them in a wet paper towel and put them in a zip lock in the refrigerator. After drying a bit, the nuts still had a smell, but not bad enough that I wanted them out of the house.
I had some time to futz on 1/2/2023 so I picked out two of the smaller nuts to test if they'd germinate.
I intend to put most of the seed in the ground or in grow bags in the spring. These were just a test and I knew I would want to poke at them to see what was happening so I planted them in ridiculously small seedling trays
And, sure enough, on 1/11 I got curious to know what was going on...so I pulled one:
It lives!!!
I left the second one undisturbed. But, since I had this one out already, I put it into a small, but much bigger than the cell it was in! pot with NAPA 8822 mixed with a small amount of fir bark and a small amount of slow release fertilizer balls.
Today I was reorganizing my grow shelves a bit to make room to start seeds for the garden when I noticed the one that I left undisturbed had started to push itself out of the soil
So I poked at the one I moved into a pot.I did not expect them to grow like oaks! I didn't disturb this one to see what the root is doing...though I thought about it! But apparently the nuts sit off to the side and they grow a peduncle and trunk in the same manner as oaks and a number of other nuts do. I guess I should have expected that...but I didn't.
I moved the second one out of the tiny seed starter cell into a smallish pot also to give it more room to grow.
100% germination rate so far isn't bad
The cold stratification period was short...I didn't expect them to germinate yet. But maybe they don't really need cold stratification?? Either way, the rest will stay in the refrigerator for a bit yet. I have about 2 dozen nuts left. Most of them will eventually go into the ground, I think. We'll see...They are so cute at this age
