Seed Division: Palafr01's Ginkgo forest

[palafr01]

After the set backs with my dawn redwoods, I decided to enter some of the ginkgo biloba seedlings I grew this past year for the contest instead. As per the rules I give a summary of the 2022 growing season.

 

[palafr01]

Starting back in mid March my sister was having her medical school Match Day at PCOM (the day where med students find out which medical institution they will attend for their residency) when I noticed that the campus had a large female ginkgo (taller than a parking garage) that had littered the grounds with thousands of seeds. Luckily I was wearing a raincoat so I could stuff a bunch of seeds in my coat's pocket since I was otherwise in formal attire for the event. Fortunately the seed were fairly dry so the smell was minimal. In total I would go on to count 246 seeds to begin the season as seen in pic 2.

Note: For fun I decided to count the number of ridges on all the seeds which is why the seeds are separated in pic 2
~200 seeds had 2 ridges
~45 had 3 ridges
~2 had 4 ridges though only one looked viable (pic 1 for close up)

 

[palafr01]

A common myth is that you id the gender of a ginkgo tree using these ridges, but the presence of 4 ridge seeds along with some scientific studies have debunked this theory. Interestingly enough though it seems that the presence of four ridges is an ancestral trait to ginkgophytes (ginkgo-like plants). The article below mentions recent studies on an extinct relative whose reproductive structures divided into 4 sections to allow for wind dispersal.

Redirect Notice

 

[palafr01]

Oddities aside, of the total ~250 seeds I collected in March I have about 45 saplings at the end of the year. So about 18% of the total seeds survived their first year, and I believe I had about a 25% germination rate. Not great but not terrible, I should note that 44 seeds were eaten by rodents which skews those numbers, but blame my failure to protect them as the cause mortality so they were still included in the count.

Any I will begin to show the seedlings.

 

[palafr01]

These pics are from May 2022 and a portion of the seeds. At this point I was getting used to a new greenhouse which was getting excessively hot (still is a problem btw) so I was constantly shift seedling positions to avoid frying them. It was remarkable to me a how early you could spot variations to leaf shape, vigor/growth speed, and internode length. It honestly is one of the greatest joys about starting from seed. At this stage they were at still very vulnerable so diligence was necessary.

I should note now that this is not the first time I have grown ginkgo from seed or any ginkgo for that matter so I had a reasonable idea about their care requirements and I acquired an eye for spotting issues when they arose (like root root rot).

 

[palafr01]

Next month was June and not much was going on here just waiting for the stems to lignify (form wood). I did however take some seedlings and form a preliminary forest both to save some yard space and to make watering a bit easier.

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice an older seedling in the forest planting. Not sure if it would disqualify the grouping but for integrity's sake I'm mentioning it here. Despite its appearance, that particular sapling is actually 6 years old! Germinating the spring of 2017, that poor seedling is from my first ever attempt at growing ginkgo seeds, and unlike its 3 other surviving siblings it is pathetically small. So small that a rabbit or rodent bit the top clean off and I wasn't sure it was going to survive to see this past spring. Given its small size I decided to add it to the forest to help it look a smidge older.

 

[palafr01]

Here is the last group shot of the seedlings from around July. It was around this point that they began to lignify and I just provided basic care until about October. At that point, I decided to put the majority of seedlings in the ground to protect them for the winter where they reside today. I will try to grab a shot for those seedlings soon.

 

[palafr01]

Here are some pics of the forest during fall. I removed the Dragonstone and I plant to rearrange the forest more appropriately this spring. So that is it for the year recap.

For those wondering, my plan is to create a far view multiple plant grouping with a path of some kind path in the middle. I have acquired a more appropriate plastic pot from stone lantern that I think will do the job (see link). For those with more experience, what soil mixes do you use for your forest plantings? I have had rot issues using akadama so I am bit leery of using it again and could use some advice for alternatives. (FYI the current mix I have settled on on is 1:1:1: ~1 of lava rock, pumice, calcinated clay (bonsai jack brand), and reptibark. My mix works well for my pines but it is quite free draining and loose which I feel might make it a poor choice for use in a forest planting) Pic 3 shows the clay and lava rock used in the soil mix to give an idea what it looks like. As responses are appreciated.


https://stonelantern.com/collection...ctangular-tray-style-plastic-bonsai-pot-brown

 

[palafr01]

Ran out of time to add pic. Oops

 

[palafr01]

Here are some pics of the forest during fall. I removed the Dragonstone and I plant to rearrange the forest more appropriately this spring. So that is it for the year recap.

For those wondering, my plan is to create a far view multiple plant grouping with a path of some kind path in the middle. I have acquired a more appropriate plastic pot from stone lantern that I think will do the job (see link). For those with more experience, what soil mixes do you use for your forest plantings? I have had rot issues using akadama so I am bit leery of using it again and could use some advice for alternatives. (FYI the current mix I have settled on on is 1:1:1: ~1 of lava rock, pumice, calcinated clay (bonsai jack brand), and reptibark. My mix works well for my pines but it is quite free draining and loose which I feel might make it a poor choice for use in a forest planting) Pic 3 shows the clay and lava rock used in the soil mix to give an idea what it looks like. As responses are appreciated.


https://stonelantern.com/collection...ctangular-tray-style-plastic-bonsai-pot-brown

bump.

 

[Kanorin]

Looks like you are off to a good start. I think your soil mix should be ok for the forest - especially because you've got some depth to your pot.

 

[palafr01]

Update: Finally rearranged the forest! After careful consideration I decided to abandon the dragonstone as I felt it would not hold up to the freeze-thaw cycles of my area. Instead I purchased some aquascape stones from PetSmart labeled "mountain stone" for use in the planting. The arrangement I chose wasn't stable on its own so I used some Quickcrete hydraulic cement to "glue" some of stones together and to the pot. This would keep most of the stones in place so that I would have to worry about things moving around in the pot while arranging the trees.

As mentioned I didn't cement down all of the stones so I had some wiggle room to place the trees. The only mistake I made here was that the stones ended up slightly too low which obscured their detail. Fortunately enough the detail was just visible enough so I left it as is. The pics below show a dry run I did before I created the planting (not final design but close).

Note: Due to its chalky texture and similar appearance to the fully cured cement, I believe the stone I used might be limestone.

 

[palafr01]

So here is the final arrangement. Due to size of my pot, some of the original 11 trees had to be removed and replaced with more suitable ones. My philosophy being that I wanted to remove as few roots as necessary in order to fit the trees in the pot since the material I was using was so young. This did mean that my 6 year old seedling was removed from the planting meaning that all of the trees were grown within the timeframe of the contest (hooray!). That being said it was still a challenge to get some of the trees to fit so the spacing is a little less than ideal (particularly on the left side). As far as my plan for the year goes, I intend to allow all the trees run wild in order to build strength. Pic 2 shows the rough design concept I am going for. It does mean that I will need to regrow most of the trunks as they have internodes that are way too long to be of much use. Overall I am pleased with the final outcome of this rearrangement, and I can't wait for the trees to grow again this year.

 

[palafr01]

Update: I had to change out the soil in August due to poor drainage. I lost 3 trees during this time which I replaced with some others that I had on hand. The pics below show the new arrangement. I don't love the arrangement as much as the first but with some additional trees it will look better in the future.

 

[palafr01]

These pics are from late September showing the scale of the leaves and the arrangement from the front and above. I counted at least 3 spots that could use trees on the left side of the planting and at least 2 spots for the right.

Overall the year was so-so for the forest. I did manage to save the planting, and I think it will continue to get better with age as time goes on. Given the species and scale of this planting, the repotting misstep this year likely means this forest will not win the contest, but I think it will show that even slow growing species can make decent progress in a relatively short period of time. As far as next year, I will probably let the trees grow out to gain strength. If growth is strong, I may potentially cut a few back to get better internode distance to aid in future branching.