Ginkgo

One of my favorite trees, I have planted hundreds of seeds in various local spots in the hope they may re establish themselves as a part of the local ecosystem.
I want to discuss though what uses they may have.

They seem fairly resilient to trimming and it makes me wonder if they have possible uses with pollarding/coppicing, not that I know much about the BTUs or quality of the wood other than it having marginal similarities to a low resin conifer wood.

I've made salads of fresh raw leaves and the flavor is fine, though I am not entirely sure the safety of such an action for the general population since there is antivitamin properties in at least the kernels. Also in reference to eating them I have eaten the cheesy smelling brown sarcotesta but it is quite astringent a bit too astringent for me to enjoy raw despite the sweet flavor, not to mention I have read there is an urushiol like aspect in the sarcotesta.

As for the tree itself, while younger than around 25-50 it provides a wonderful dappled shade for garden plants. It's roots are not particularly fibrous like maples or oaks and does not seem to compete aggressively with a lot of trees. All leaves drop at the same time while still containing a high moisture content, and they don't curl and catch the wind like other leaves making a gigantic golden blanket of mulch at the end of the season. No allelopathy has been noticed by me. The branches are sturdy and the tree can make a hell of a deep taproot soil permitting, possibly a strong benefit in windy zones with soft soil.

Robert, I would give you an apple, but somehow that function isn’t working for me right now.  I doubt it has been turned off although earlier this week I ended up giving apple cores by accident 😢!

Anyway, about gingko trees, their leaves are the source of the compounds in gingko biloba supplements, understood to increase circulation, and I don’t know what else.  I have gingko leaves in my morning health beverage (my coffee or tea substitute).  I find it has a very bitter flavor, but bitterness  itself is an important digestive aid, and I integrate bitter into my diet.

I have read that many people find the smell of the female gingko tree during the season the nuts are ripening to be repugnant.  Apparently some HOAs have the rule that if 60% of the neighborhood agrees, they can require the offending tree , NOT on their property, to be removed.  Dunno how long that season lasts, and it’s just one more reason I will try to never live in a HOA neighborhood.

The trees are beautiful and I planted one this fall on my new place.  It’s a male tree, which is all that’s available through most commercial nurseries, but I know that raintree nursery in the state of Washington has had the female trees.

In order for the nursery trade to be able to market male trees, I believe the trees available through commercial nurseries have come from asexual reproductive methods.

Thanks for starting the thread, I look forward to learning more about this wonderful tree.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkJoS3HDlx4/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Good clip about the tree and its fruit

A bunch of male ginkgo trees with out a female will change sex among some of them to reproduce and Female Ginkgo's stink when their fruits rot.

Steven Rodenberg wrote:A bunch of male ginkgo trees with out a female will change sex among some of them to reproduce and Female Ginkgo's stink when their fruits rot.

Interesting!  I’ve heard of other species of plants that do that.

I had to look up sarcotesta - which is apparently the flesh surrounding a seed. From gardening know how

The nuts resemble a pistachio with a soft, dense texture that tastes like a combination of edamame, potato and pine nut to some or chestnuts to others. The nut is actually a seed and is sold in Korea, Japan and China as “silver apricot nut.” They are usually toasted prior to eating and used in desserts, soups and with meat. They are, however, mildly toxic. Only a few seeds should be eaten at a time. The nut, you see, contains bitter cyanogenic glycosides. These break down when the nut is cooked, but it retains the compound 4-methoxypryridoxine, which depletes vitamin B6 and is especially toxic to children.

I've got Ginko on my list of interesting trees to try, since it should do well here I think. I love the leaf shape as well

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I wasn't aware it might make a good coppice tree, I suspect it may be a bit slow growing to plant for such though?

Really? Potentially coppice appropriate?  I missed that.  The trees are so rare, I have no idea even what the wood is like:  hard or soft, good firewood or not, etc.

Is it a coppicing or pollarding candidate?

Ginko… preferred anti viral, anti bacterial, anti any bug  spray using the Korean Natural Farming / JADAM system. Make a tea using Ginko berries and leaves. Spray the tea on farmed plants. Tea lasts in barrels for years.

Don't remove the pulp from the nuts by hand, it will remove the skin from your hands. I put them in a cuisinart with water (noisy!) & rinse a few times.

Robert Tiller wrote:One of my favorite trees, I have planted hundreds of seeds in various local spots in the hope they may re establish themselves as a part of the local ecosystem.
I want to discuss though what uses they may have.

They seem fairly resilient to trimming and it makes me wonder if they have possible uses with pollarding/coppicing, not that I know much about the BTUs or quality of the wood other than it having marginal similarities to a low resin conifer wood.

Coppicing is the way they are managed for leaf harvests in commercial plantations, like this:

http://lykxyj.xml-journal.net/en/article/id/20010318

The leaves are the part used in ginkgo supplements in capsules and teas.

I have been told they are a decent carving wood. They are fairly common street trees in Canada (in Ontario, the Maritimes and southern BC, at least) and I have bought a few ginkgo trees in grocery store spring plant sales areas over the years.

According to Nicole in the lost herbal remedies book you pick the leaves in the spring and dry them. Then you put them in a canning jar and cover with 100 proof vodka. Put a piece of parchment paper over it and screw on the lid and ring [parchment paper keeps it from rusting the lid] .  Put it in the dark, cool place [I use an empty coffee can].  Every day take it out and gently agitated it and put it back. In 3 months you strain it and it's ready to use. Take a teaspoon every day but keep the jar in a dark place.

I have also seen dried bright golden gingko leaves in use by herbalists, always assumed they had changed to that color as fall progressed, but I don’t really know if they turn gold in fall.

I asked and one herbalist confirmed that they contained essentially the same amounts of beneficial compounds as the green ones.

We have taken a few cuttings at a park (with permission of the Gingko tree) and two of them started growing after a few months. I am elated, as I thought the twigs dried out!

Hi Ina, Welcome to Permies. It is good news that it will grow from cuttings.


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This one is at Kew gardens - definitely quite a show of gold in autumn (fall).

So, medicinal, edible, good for wood turning, can coppice manage, ornamental, we're not sure how it would burn (but I think with a tree like this it would be very much a secondary use unless it was spreading like a weed) takes from cuttings, grows from seeds.

It seems that the wood quality is rather more like a softwood, so would probably not burn particularly hot. According to the wood database It is less dense than Alder (Alnus glutinosa), slightly harder, but less stiff. Not commonly used for construction, but sometimes used for Carvings, cutting boards, furniture, and turned objects. It has a non contrasting grain giving a homogeneity to the wood, which possibly resists decay.

From the Ferns it prefers well drained soil, is slow growing, long lived (the tree above was planted at Kew, UK in 1758) According to Pfaf it is hardy for US zones 3 - 8 and can withstand drought once established.

(edited to add welcome and spelling)

Nancy Reading wrote:I had to look up sarcotesta - which is apparently the flesh surrounding a seed. From gardening know how

The nuts resemble a pistachio with a soft, dense texture that tastes like a combination of edamame, potato and pine nut to some or chestnuts to others. The nut is actually a seed and is sold in Korea, Japan and China as “silver apricot nut.” They are usually toasted prior to eating and used in desserts, soups and with meat. They are, however, mildly toxic. Only a few seeds should be eaten at a time. The nut, you see, contains bitter cyanogenic glycosides. These break down when the nut is cooked, but it retains the compound 4-methoxypryridoxine, which depletes vitamin B6 and is especially toxic to children.

I've got Ginko on my list of interesting trees to try, since it should do well here I think. I love the leaf shape as well

source

I wasn't aware it might make a good coppice tree, I suspect it may be a bit slow growing to plant for such though?

 
I originally would have thought so, but from trees I've grown it seems reasonable to expect around 2-3 feet growth per year from certain trees. Growth in the first year from germination is always 4-8 inches. Second year they add around 5-15 inches. Third year is when the funny business starts to happen, a portion of trees gain the capacity to add 2+ feet of growth, while a certain segment of the population sticks around 1 foot or so. Not entirely sure what triggers the accelerated growth but it seems to last for a while, and it seems partially related to the diameter of the preceding seasons buds before dormancy. If the tiny lateral shoots are trimmed in the fall you can of course get a lot more vertical growth than otherwise during the next spring. These trees seem to bud out like conifers but occasionally some trees must get confused and will bud out twice in a season. Again not entirely sure what triggers that.

Steven Rodenberg wrote:A bunch of male ginkgo trees with out a female will change sex among some of them to reproduce and Female Ginkgo's stink when their fruits rot.

It gets even weirder than that, I've read before it isn't even a full sex change, apparently certain branches will decide to go female leaving the rest the tree male. I guess it would help the tree get out of  a bind if it was the only individual in an area.

I wonder if these trees can communicate via root or mycorrhiza to tell each other there's no females in an area?

Hello,
I have tried to domesticate gingko trees to make bonsai with them - they ended up planted in the garden after a few years.
They grew quite erratically, being able to shoot quite long branches one year, to make only one or two new leaves in that direction the next year while starting to grow elsewhere.
Establishing a structure has proven very difficult, be it above or under ground, they just made an unpredictable mess of long, seldom branching shoots covered of short leafed stumps.
One of their most typical bonsai styles (kabudachi) looks a lot like a coppice or pollard. They do tolerate being pruned, just do not expect them to grow where you wanted.
I have 3 male trees, as long as i can tell by the shape of their leaves.
Have a nice evening,
Oliver

I ate ginko nuts for supper tonight. Thrice boiled, they were still a bit bitter, but nothing that couldn't be hidden by coconut oil, curry, and salt.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I ate ginko nuts for supper tonight. Thrice boiled, they were still a bit bitter, but nothing that couldn't be hidden by coconut oil, curry, and salt.

I wonder if your colder more dry growing zone has made the seeds more bitter?

I have been growing ginkgo trees for 10 years, not long by some standards but I have learned much about them in that time.
I currently have a ginkgo in my backyard planted as a seedling 10 years ago. It’s grown to be about 16 feet tall and has grown a double trunk as well, its spread is roughly 10 feet across, perhaps more.

I also have a ginkgo in front of my house that was 5feet tall when planted 7 years ago, bare root, and is now only 14-15 feet tall and is not as vigorous as the seed planted one in my backyard (I got it for free).  It could be that the backyard tree is more sheltered than the one in the front, which is why the front tree has not done as well, but I believe it’s because it was planted from a seedling is why it has grown so well and relatively quickly.

I can’t really make a judgment one this one example but, I can’t argue the results.

Every year I grow at least 30 new trees from seed that I give away to friends and colleagues and plant on my property farther north.
I find it is an incredibly easy tree to grow from seed, with high germination rates.

I also gather seeds from female trees and I find that while the fruit does smell awful, it’s not nearly as bad as many people say and the smell can be neutralized by spreading some sodium bicarbonate on the fruit to get rid of the smell.

Like others have said, it’s an incredibly beautiful tree that suffers no insect damage or disease that I have seen.

What's going on! I wanna find out how I grow ginkgo in a container indoors for its medicinal value. Where can I find it in a smaller size so it fit my greenhouse or living room? Could we use ginkgoes for our living rooms to bring life and lush?

Blake Lenoir wrote: What's going on! I wanna find out how I grow ginkgo in a container indoors for its medicinal value. Where can I find it in a smaller size so it fit my greenhouse or living room? Could we use ginkgoes for our living rooms to bring life and lush?

I don’t know climate-wise about growing it indoors, but you can coppice it so it grows in a more shrublike form which should work for your living room or greenhouse. They keep it small that way in commercial plantations.