Hey, Slim,
I grew up in the capital city of my state where one of the main parks had ginkgoes. You are 100% correct, the females STINK. As a teenager I rode my bike through the park, and one day decided to sidetrack and find the dead body. I found the trees. Three out of four were female.
We are talking the 1960's, here.
As a landscape designer I was fascinated with ginkgo trees because of their longevity and fossilized proof of existance millions of years ago. I planted a seedling in my yard in the late 70's and was lucky - must have been male - I drive by every two or three years and it still is there!
Over many years I have used many 'Autumn Gold' from Monrovia nursery and to this day have never seen one revert or grow from beneath the graft.
This is NOT a promotion of that nursery, just my experience.
My only problem with ginkgo has been damage from being overwatered in fescue lawns, especially in clay soils. I have never seen a pest or disease on a ginkgo.
hortster

Hortster - So are you saying that you have gone back to visit all the 'Autumn Gold' that you installed during fruiting season? It can take 10 years before they fruit. Just curious.

Grafted?
Not on their own roots?
What are they grafted to, and why?

I'm looking to get a couple of Ginkos soon.

Rain2Fall

Slim, of course I haven't kept track of ALL of them, but have used enough in neighborhoods that I frequent that I can feel confident none of the trees I know about are female. I have kept an eye on them because of my interest in this particular genus. I am referring to trees planted mostlly in the 80's, so there has been plenty of time for them to bloom female.
Rain2fall, cuttings are grafted onto the roots of seedling ginkgoes to assure that they are males with certain growth characteristics (richer fall color, fastigiate shape, etc.). Sometimes they sprout below the graft when the cutting doesn't "take" and develop the from the seedling root. If it happens to be female, well...15 or 20 years later it becomes obvious and the time to develop has been wasted.
hortster

Rain2Fall,

Male ginkgo (note, 2 g's) scions are grafted onto seedling rootstock to produce male trees. Male trees are generally preferred because of the bad smelling fruit produced by the females. Determining the sex of seedlings is not practical, so the seedlings are used as rootstock for the male cultivars (or female cultivars, in some cases).

Ginkgos can be propagated by cuttings (produces a cultivar tree on its own roots), but this is usually not as economical and probably has little, if any, advantage.

We had 79 Ginkgos planted in 1988 on a project. Trees were direct shipped from Halka Nursury, a very reputable tree grower. It took up to 5 years, but we now have 13 of them setting fruit every year. That means 16% of them are producing that foul odor for a month of the year. Every fall we have crews stopping by almost daily to clean up under them to keep complaints down. This is just one experience of many where we have gotten females when we were sold a male clone.

Brandon, I spelled it the Japanese way. No second "G" ;-)

It seems with a 16-20% "failure" rate, that starting male Ginkos from cuttings would be wise. It looks like nurseries are grafting female scions onto seedling stock, or else using female seedling stock? One fat lawsuit for misrepresentation and damages would fix that.

Do what they do in Japan: Harvest those nuts, roast them, and sell them. Create a new gourmet market for Ginko nuts. Tell everybody that Ginko means Gold-box, Bank, and Ginko biloba in Japan. Turn a disaster into a profit. Maybe ....

All that being said, I wouldn't mind starting a Ginko from seed. You could send a few my way for SASBE, if you don't mind.

Rain2Fall

I wouldn't mind any either, but I dont think anyone was offering.

Yabbut, every now and then I get lucky. ;-)

Rain2Fall

If you ask me next year, I might just send you some. I didn't collect any this year.

Failure also occurs with rooted cuttings. Usually the failure rate from cuttings is much higher than that of grafted trees.

I'm not sure what you meant about the "female seedling stock". When seedlings are used for rootstock, there is approximately an equal chance of them being male or female. The rootstock does not determine the sex of the tree (except in the case of graft failure, as mentioned above). The scions are (or are supposed to be) taken from mature trees with known characteristics (known sex especially).

I've got some cuttings still sitting down in my fridge. I dont have any clue as to how to root them as I havent heard too much about rooting these.

Did the 16% males happen because the tops died and the female rootstock took over? Or did that happen because the nurseries grafted female scions by mistake?

Somebody isn't being careful. A 16% failure rate is too high. If selling "guaranteed males" is so important, nurseries should use male rootstock and male scions.

Rain2Fall

"Did the 16% males happen because the tops died and the female rootstock took over? Or did that happen because the nurseries grafted female scions by mistake?"

It's likely to be as Hortster said, "Sometimes they sprout below the graft when the cutting doesn't take and develop the from the seedling root." Or, an untrained nursery worker removed the scion instead of a rootstock sprout. The nursery could also have had some female cultivars or even seedling trees that got mixed up some way before they were sold.

"If selling "guaranteed males" is so important, nurseries should use male rootstock and male scions."

No. As stated above, the rootstock does not determine the sex of a grafted tree. Testing for ginkgo rootstock sex is not even close to being practical. If such an extreme method were required to produce male ginkgos, grafting would not be used to propagate nursery stock of this species.

"As stated above, the rootstock does not determine the sex of a grafted tree"

True. But it does determine the sex of any rootstock sprouts that might take over from the scion! If the rootstock is also known male, then the tree will be male even if the rootstock does take over. A bit of extra assurance for those who are desperate to avoid female trees.

Having said that, I rather like the idea of seedling rootstocks taking over from grafts. It adds to genetic diversity in the species, and that's a good thing. It also adds to the food supply for wildlife, and that's a good thing too.

Resin

Of course, a really enterprising Ginkgo grower will sell seedlings, "guaranteed sex-free".

Then if anyone complains about fruit 20 years later, the grower can just say, "ah, but they were sex-free when you bought them . . . they were too young for it then".

;-)

"True. But it does determine the sex of any rootstock sprouts that might take over from the scion! If the rootstock is also known male, then the tree will be male even if the rootstock does take over."

If you read a little further up, we already talked about that too.

If your looking to use the ginkos to produce nuts, there're some superior cultivors available.

Brandon -- I stand by my opinion that if nurseries sell "guaranteed male" cultivars, then they should use both male rootstock and male scions. That way, if the scion fails or the nursery worker prunes the wrong one, the plant will still be male.

To do otherwise is either misrepresentation or laziness. Maybe both.

Rain2Fall
A GINKO lover

Rain2fall,

Since you suggest this practice, can you share with us what practical method you propose for nurseries to obtain the male rootstock for all their male ginkgo grafts?

P.S.
Rain2fall, can you also explain how you believe nurseries will be able to convince buyers to pay enough extra for their totally male trees (which may revert to just a plain species male tree instead of the cultivar they are paying for, if the graft fails) to cover the cost of your proposal?

brandon7 - You are cracking me up. Obviously, Rain2fall thinks they can tell the difference between a male or female Ginkgo seed or seedling by looking for genitalia or something. There is no feasible way to tell the difference between male and female ginkgos. Clearly, Rain2fall does not understand this.

Enough talk about people looking for seeds or male vs female seedlingsÂ.back to the topic. Please share your experiences with whether or not you have seen many "male clone" ginkgos produce seed (because they really were not a male clone!)

LOL

As for the formerly/supposedly male trees producing seeds...I have never seen this first hand, but I'm sure it happens.

Could there be some grafted Ginkgo with two leaders, one the male graft and one sent up from the rootstock that ends up female? WOuld this be considered two trees? Conjoined twins? Hermaphodite tree? There has to be some out there.

It's possible, but often, when a grafted tree has a rootstock sprout that is allowed to grow, the graft fails.

How to get male rootstock: Propagate it from known male roots.

A nursery that sells "certified male" trees that subsequently have a 16% change of being female is misleading the customers. In the case above, where a city bought hundreds of them, the cost to the city of that 16% failure rate can be staggering. There's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The nursery should advertise those trees as 84% chance of being male. And offer a selection of "guaranteed male" trees that consist of male scions granted to rootstock propagated from known male roots. At a higher price.

As for parthenogensis or hermaphroditism in Ginkos -- well, God works in wonderous ways. :-)

Rain2Fall

"How to get male rootstock: Propagate it from known male roots."

Pure genius!

So, you don't really have a clue, huh?

OK, I take that back. Sorry. I will try to restate...

Rain2Fall, you really seem not to understand the whole situation. I've tried to explain to you that there are solid reasons that this is not practical or even desirable (if you consider the whole picture). Before you make the assumption that all the professionals don't know what they are doing or are just being lazy, you may want to find out a little more about what you are talking about.

I like you, Brandon. Even when you are annoying. I do hope the "trees" forum is not reserved only for professional nurserymen who know it all.

It was just a question.

My thesis is this -- nurseries should not sell "male" ginkos unless they have a very high probability of being male. Less than that is misleading advertising, breach of warranty, breach of fitness for a particular purpose, breach of contract, and probably also a tort. Like I said, it's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Now go back to looking for your genitalia.

Rain2Fall

Rain,

Be careful if you decide to sue all the nurseries. The judge might get really annoyed by such a frivolous (not to mention utterly absurd) lawsuit.

Oh, and BTW, I wasn't the one that didn't know where to look. (-;

You're a republican, aren't you?

Hey Slimwhitman,

Take a look at this document that talks about monoecious ginkgos and some ginkgos seemingly changing sex over time. Looks like there may be a lot more such info available by googling 'ginkgo monoecious'. I am going to look through some of these results when I get more time. Let me know if you see something interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growth, Survival and Sex Expression in Ginkgo

ROFLMBO!!!!!!! Wow, Rain, you just completely struck out major big time! Write me if you want to talk about those awful conservatives, but let's stick to Ginkgo sex here.

I find your discussion fascinating. I have two mature Ginkgos, one male, one female growing next to my patio. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to rake up and remove the seeds each year. This year, my teenage girls and I have harvested a few hundred of the seedlings that have popped up from the seed piles. We have them in little peat-moss pots, and the girls have an interest in cultivating these with hopeful plans to raise a little college money! Unsure how practical this would be... nor have any clue how to ship seedlings, or small trees, but we're willing to try different ideas. I may try this grafting routine you've mentioned... So, anyone interested in some seedlings, give me a shout!

I have a mature ginkgo (it was a large B&B purchased from a reliable nursery and planted 15 years ago)and last year, to my surprise, it produced one fruit. Nothing this year. It could be it is female and just isn't getting pollinated. I have one other ginkgo about 30 feet away. That one is much younger and may not be producing much pollen yet. There are no other ginkgoes in the neighborhood that I know of. I found the link posted by brandon7 interesting. It would be kind of neat if I had one of the rare monoecious "male" ginkgoes.
Could it be that the tree really isn't mature? It is at least 35 feet tall and 9-10 inches in diameter. I have never noticed any flowers. Are they conspicuous? The linked article mentioned 45 year old trees that had still not produced flowers. Well, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

dnarex - Do you know what cultivar the Ginkgo is supposed to be? Even a good garden center can carry a male ginkgo. If you bought a ginkgo that was not a nmaed cultivar you have a 50/50 chance of getting a male. If it was a named cultivar, they still might have gotten a mis-tagged or poorly grown tree that was not true-to-name.

I bet your seeing the beginning of a long life "enjoying" the fruit this tree produces over the years. I don't know where you are, but I bet there are a few fruit up there that you have not seen yet. I notice them most just after the leaves fall off.

Personally I'm a big fan of female ginkgos. After roasting the nuts myself I can say that these are my absolute favorite culinary nut of all time. Many Chinese and Japanese immigrants will come around with plastic bags and scoop up these delicious nuts (though this is a dying practice due to cultural shame and availability of ginkgos at Asian grocery stores). In 19th century Europe grafting a female branch onto male trees was common practice. I honestly think it's a shame that today we show such vitriol towards this incredible nut.

They're also just tremendously fascinating. The oldest living fossil of any plant or animal species? Survivors of nuclear bombs? Seed dispersal through carnivorans? Incredible resistance to pollution, salinity, temperatures, rainfall patterns, and even radiation? The ability to live possibly over 3,000 years? Bizarre aerial root growth in very old specimens? The ginkgo truly has it all

I live in the city of Toronto, and the city guarantees they only plant male ginkgos, so I chose one for my front lawn after my original maple died. Well, 20 years later, it’s producing fruit, but only on some branches (enough… believe me). When I talked to someone at the Parks department, he said, ”Oh, you are just unlucky.” However, I’ve now noticed that there are many trees in our neighbourhood dropping vile fruit each fall. Obviously, their supplier is a huge problem. My question is this: why are only some branches producing fruit and not others?

Jennifer, the link provided by brandon 15 years ago appears currently to be broken or non-functional but if you do the research, you will find that this is not a unique phenomenon. Individual Ginkgo biloba trees can change sex on certain branches, a rare phenomenon known as localized sex conversion, though the overall tree remains genetically male or female. This conversion typically occurs on a male tree, where a branch begins to produce female cones and seeds. The exact cause is unknown but may involve epigenetic changes, although the process is poorly understood and difficult to study.

https://www.nibb.ac.jp/evodevo/pdf_EN/Nagata_et_al.2016.pdf