Transplanting a Seed-Grown Ginkgo Tree

Now I'm moving some of the smaller trees from home to the place in Battleground. With fall approaching, I think they'll do OK. I would not move these trees in the heat of summer. I watered them the night before moving them. I wanted them well hydrated. These trees should be accustomed to "dry". They were given only minimal water throughout the summer.

First slices.  I made vertical slices in the soil, straight down.  I did not try to pry the tree loose at this point.

Then dig around the slices, outside of the first circle.  I removed soil from the section between the first and second dig.  Then, as deeply as possible, sliced under the tree.  Despite watering last night, it was fairly dry.

No prying or pulling.  I sliced "surgically" around, then under.  Despite that, I saw that I cut a deep root.  Not a tap root per se, but a longer root.  I pruned injured roots with pruning shears, for a more surgical treatment.  I  wrapped the tree with a large sheet of plastic, along with a plum tree and a little peach tree.  Then transported in the truck bed to Battleground.

Now at Battleground.  Dig a hole.  First I slice off the sod.  It's quite dry.  No rain all summer.  This top soil isn't bad.  I can dig, even with it bone dry.  At home, when planting 10 years ago, the unimproved soil could not be dug without first soaking.

Keep the roots shaded and protected while preparing the hole.  At that, the tree was in the shade until the last minute.

A good friend is needed to keep guard.  Charlie does a good job.  The hole is filled with water, and allowed to soak in.  The tree is then placed in the hole, adjusted, soil added back, firmed, watered, more soil etc until filled in.

Planted.  Circle of sod around the tree, for protection and to hold water in the hole.  It looks a bit droopy to me.  Did I kill it?  Hope not. I grew this tree from a seed.  I think it was a bit droopy before moving it.  I expect the leaves will yellow and fall quickly.  I will know if it's alive, next Spring.  Long wait.  I will water frequently until the rains begin.

This tree just over my height, which is just under 6 foot.

Ginkgo pics

Some Ginkgo pics from wikimedia commons.  Anxious to move my 7 ft tall (maybe 8 foot tall) Ginkgo from the front yard to the place in Battleground.  That will leave 2 at home from the seeds my Dad collected 15 years ago.  The one that I plan to move was in a flower pot for several years, so is behind the others in growth and therefore should be movable.  I don't want to kill it.  Will await dormancy or rains or both.  Once it's here in Battleground, the place will feel a lot more like home to me.

According to about.com, the species Ginkgo adiantoides, which is indistinguishable from the modern Ginkgo biloba, "flourished in the early Cretaceous epoch, 140 to 100 million years ago", the ginkgo's "heyday".  They state that the earliest fossils are from the Permian age, 280 million years ago.
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Described as " Fossil of Ginkgo huttoni...   Naturalis museum, Leiden"

Described as "Ginkgo sp. from the Jurassic Cloughton Formation. Locality - Scarborough, Yorkshire, England"

Not much description.

Described as "Miocene ginkgo wood cross section, Ginkgo sp. from the Children's museum of Indianapolis."

Listed as "Ginkgo dissecta. A 5cm wide leaf with typical 4 lobed structuring. Illustrated in Mustoe 2002 as SR 96-09-01. Ypresian, 49 million years old, "Boot Hill", Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Washington, USA. Stonerose Interpretive Center Collection   "

Described as "Fossil of Gingko adiantoides, at Fossil Show, Munchen 2011; apparently from North Dakota, paleocene epoch.

Not much description for this one.

Described as "Ginkgo biloba.   Eocene fossil leaf from the Tranquille Shale of MacAbee, British Columbia, Canada"

Described as "A 70mm wide Ginkgo biloba leaf. Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Ferry County, Washington, USA, Eocene, Ypresian, 49 million years old. Stonerose "
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According to wikipedia, Ginkgo biloba had a slow rate of evolution of the genus. The authors speculate that "Ginkgo represents a preangiosperm strategy for survival in disturbed streamside environments... evolved in an era before flowering plants, when ferns, cycads, and cycadeoids dominated disturbed streamside environments, forming a low, open, shrubby canopy. Ginkgo's large seeds and habit of "bolting" - growing to a height of 10 m before elongating its side branches - may be adaptions to such an environment."

Not a fossil, just a beautiful pic.  The local gingko "fruits" are still hard and green, and the leaves are still green - but getting closer.  A little more pale.  Also anxious to collect another batch from my source, a pair of female trees in an otherwise male row, in Vancouver WA.  Not sure if the one down the street from me is still there and dropping seeds - I should check.
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It will be fun to start more, and share more.  Will send some to Raymond in Alabama.

Daniel's Ginkgo Trees

Here are the 3 seedling ginkgo trees. They are all about 13 years from seed. The tallest, generously fertilized by 13 years of doggie contributions, looks like it's about 25 feet tall. The other 2 are about 7 and 9 feet tall. They were also planted from containers one or 2 years later, and have not been watered as much.

Hulda Klager's Lilac Garden

Yesterday Ning and I went to Hulda Klager's Lilac garden in Woodland Washington. Nice historical mini-botanical garden featuring Lilacs and the lady who was fascinated by them. Her house is a museum of the time as well.


Some of the Lilacs are massive. This one is 3 times as tall as Ning.
Some are covered with flowers. That seems to be variety-specific. They vary in the number of flowers and how early they bloom, as well as the colors.
A nice lilac-colored lilac. There are also magenta, pink, and white varieties.
Of course, I'm especially interested in the huge gingko tree. This one is further ahead in leafing out, compared to mine. It's at the stage of leaves the size of a squirrel's ear.

Golden ginkgo leaves

Beautiful golden leaves. Backyard ginkgo is still green, but others around town are a beautiful yellow color as well. This tree grew nicely this year, after taking a break last year. Not nearly as big as its backyard sibling. I suspect the backyard tree benefits from generous application of doggie "products" that don't happen in front. That may also be why the backyard tree is still green.

Ginkgo tree

My favorite tree as always. This tree is now about 14 years from seeds, having been collected by my Dad in Illinois, planted in a flowerpot in Chicago window sill, then brought to Vancouver WA in 2001. It's been in this location for 8 years. Growth for this tree is much more rapid than its siblings, probably partly due to the fact that it's in the middle of the doggie yard. A lot of sentiment in this tree.

Pruning Ginkgo saplings

Shaping the young tree will avoid removing larger branches, later. This seed-grown Ginkgo is in prior photos on this blog, now about 7 feet tall. I removed the lower branches, and shortened a couple of the longer upper branches so that it would keep to a single lead. It's probably hard to see what was done, but that is the idea: shaping and prevention.

Ultimately, I want the lowest branches to start 5 or 6 feet above the ground. That way they are less likely to be climbed on by kids, and as they arch upward, they are unlikely to be in the way of vehicles on the street. I don't want to remove too much biomass, however, because the more leaves that it has, the faster it grows. SO this method is a compromise.

Before, the lower branches are small but this year are likely to become much thicker.

After. Later this winter the tree will be given a nice compost mulch, and be ready for another year of growth. I think of the 6-foot stage as the threshold to really looking like it will be a tree.

After 3 years of my lobbying, my workplace will be planting a tree on the grounds for Earth-day / Arbor Day (April 22 and 25). As the fervent tree-promoter that I am, I get to choose. How predictable am I? It will be a Ginkgo biloba. Since it is in a public place, of course, my seed grown trees wont do. They have a 50% chance of being female, and females are too likely to be cut down due to their stinky seed coats. A male has a better chance for a long life among pesky humans.

Fall Begins

Ginkgo fall photo. Leaves remain green so far.

Front ginkgo. Now it's taller than I am. Leaves starting to change color now.

Lots of grapes now. It's dark when I go to work and come home, so I forget to pick them.

Also-
still getting a few tomatoes, beans, cucumbers.

I ate ONE fresh fig yesterday - a small one from Hardy Chicago.

I moved the Magnolia seiboldei to a more sheltered location, north of a fence and east of the house. There is will be less likely to develop sunburn, and need less water in the summer. It's bushy, about 6 feet tall. The roots were actually quite limited, about 2 foot diameter root ball, about 1 foot deep. I did remove one tall stem that leaned the wrong direction, but left the remainder unpruned.

I moved a mature oriental lily as well, near the magnolia. Also a few minor perennials.

Ginkgo stats

This ginkgo grew 27.5 inches this year, with a final height of 75 inches. I don't think that it will grow much taller this year.

The smaller ginkgo grew 12 inches, then a bug ate the apical bud. It's now 37 inches tall. I pruned it back to the next bud, which I hope takes over at the new apical bud next year.

The largest ginkgo is about 15 feet tall. I cant reach the top with the tape measure. It;s in the center of the 'dog yard'. The added nitrogen from dog pee probably explains some of the rapid growth. It's been in the ground 1 or 2 years longer that the other two, but all of the seeds were started at the same time.

Gingko trees. Progress report.

Medium Ginkgo tree:
2008 19 inches (so far) with current total height 65 inches
2007 14 inches, final height 46 inches
2006 11.5 inches, final height 35 inches
2005 final height 23.5 inches




Smaller Ginkgo tree:
2008 16 inches so far with current total height 40 inches
2007 11.5 inches, final height 24 inches
2006 final height 11.5 inches

Ginkgos

The is the largest of 3 ginkgo seedlings in the yard. Ning started it about 8 years ago in a flowerpot, from seeds that my Dad collected in Quincy Illinois. The parent tree was in the yard of Herman Deege, who taught me about the ancient heritage of the ginkgo trees, and told me that they were deciduois but more closely related to conifers, and taught me that they came in 2 sexes. I was 10 years old at the time. When it looked like this tree might not flourish in the flower pot, I planted it in the ground. It has the advantage of lots of nutrients, since it is in the area that the dogs use for their bodily functions. It is also watered during the summer, for the same reasons.

This tree is the same age, but was planted in the ground one or two years after the first, for the same reason. This year I fed it with fish emulsion and compost. The cat was using the compost mulch for her litter box, so I mulched it with thistles, which seems to have corrected that behavior quite nicely. It has grown about 9 inches so far this year.

I am somewhat of a ginkgoholic. There are 3 seed-grown young trees planted in the yard, with intent to grow into full sized trees, and multiple seedlings in flower pots. I don't know what I will do with those.

Ginkos are starting to grow.

The buds are starting to unfold. There must be some saying, like "Plant potatoes when the ginkgo leaves are the size of a mouse's ear"?

Pruning

With heavy work schedule, necessary travel, stress, exposures to multiple ill people, it's no surprise that i finally came down with a nasty bug. Five days & I still feel very crummy. I did take about an hour outside yesterday and today, pruning backyard roses and all of the miniature cherry trees.

There is disagreement on when to prune roses or how much. I would have waited, but needed at least a little sunshine. All varieties were pruned to about 4 to 8 large canes, each about 12 to 24 inches tall depending on the vigor of the individual shrubs. Tamara is the most vigorous in the back yard and has the most growth remaining after pruning as well. Some of the newer information suggests just shearing back to the desired height, stating that this results in more flowers. I dont think this is for organic roses, however, so effects of this method on infection control, without pesticide use, are not known. The older information often recommends severe pruning. My approach is somewhere in between, with more growth removed to reduce black spot (removal of sources of infection, removal of branches that clutter and shade the center of the shrub, to allow sunlight to enter), but longer than some of the older recommendations to allow for more flowers.

The cherries are pruned to open "bowl" pattern where possible, with new growth generally pruned back to 2 to 4 buds, the last one outward facing.

I also pruned the "north pole" apple to shorten it a little (could not reach the top apples last year), shorten branches back to spurs, and maintain the columnar appearance.

I cut some apple branches for use as scions later this winter. These went into a plastic bag in the fridge. They came from a tree that overhangs my yard severely, but isnt my tree. The apples are tart and crisp, but the tree bears poorly due to poor maintenance. I will use these scions to rework a miniature Golden Delicious that has not borne edible fruit in 4 years and I doubt ever will without the reworking.

Several prunings were stuck into a shady border to see if they can be grown as cuttings by this "benign neglect" method: some small forsythia sticks, ginkgo prunings, korean lilac prunings, and one apple pruning. If they don't take, that's OK - I dont know what I'll do with them if the DO take. The location is shady, has a tall fence o n the north side, and generally stays fairly moist. I think that last year's attempt at ginkgo cuttings ultimately failed when they were blessed with too much sun.

ginkgos in fall

This big ginkgo tree is about 6 blocks away fro our house. She is female, leaving a few fruits to be picked up by the ginkgo enthusiast. No time for that this year. I still have a number of seedlings in need of homes.

This tree was waist high when planted here last year. It has had a slow start, groing in pots. Probably about 8 years old, planted from Quincy seed and grown in a flower pot. About 1/2 of the growth has occurred since planting in the ground last fall.

More of Ning's Garden

Columbine
Ning's favorite rose, an early bloomer.
Ginkgo, looking healthy!

Seed Germination. Garden Log.

Most of the tomato seeds have sprouted.
Once cucumber has germinated.
Still a few squash and a small number of tomato seedlings to go.

Tulips are in bloom. Daffodils are declining. Grapes are beginning to bloom. Lilacs are beginning to bloom.

Ginkgo trees have tiny clusters of leaves.

Peach Blossoms. Bees. Chilly Nights. Ginkgo buds.

Lots going on in the yard.

The little peach "trees" are in full bloom

The cherries are in almost-full bloom.

The daffodils continue to bloom.

A frost was predicted last night, but the low was 39. I brought in everything tender and left them all inside today.

Article in the Oregonian about honey bee problems, disappearing bees. It describes how dependent our fruit orchards are, on honey bees. I hope that the orchard mason bees can make an impact. Even more, I hope that the honey bees resurge, but it doesnt look like it will happen this year. The orchard mason bees in the "growing greener yard" were active all afternoon on sunday, using their older bee-house as well as the new one that I "built".

The ginkgo tree has green buds. also tru for the cuttings that I stuck into the ground in the tomato patch. I don't know if they have taken root, or are expending their "last effort" on some buds.

Thoughts on Gardening and Global Warming II.

Here is the second "installment" of somewhat random thoughts on gardening and global warming. Again, the issue of 'connectedness'.

I was thinking about the difference between BUYING a plant for the garden, and STARTING my own. And why it matters.

Somehow, in the 'consumerized' version, a tree, or shrub, just seems like an item that has been placed there in the yard, like furniture. Maybe, if it is purchased at a small size, a sense of nurturing takes over, and the plant seems to belong. This is especially true if it is planted and continues to develop over the years.

I have a different sense for a plant that I start myself. If started from a cutting or seed, it feels more like it is part of me. If started from a plant that was passed down from my family, or a gift from a friend, or a 'rescue' from the street, then even more, I feel like I am connected to this part of nature, and it is connected to me. It's not just something that I bought at a store.

The ginkgo tree in the back yard was grown from seeds that my Dad collected from Herman Degee's yard in Quincy Illinois. That was the ginkgo tree that I was taught was special, when I was 10 years old (special due to the primordial character of Ginkgo biloba). My dad has a seedling tree from that original source in his yard, and now I have one in my yard as well. I feel completely different about this tree, than any other item in the garden. I really WANT it to grow and flourish.

Less intense, but similar, is how I feel about the fig trees that I started from cuttings (mailed in exchange from garden web members, or rescued from a neglected tree on a vacant lot), and the forsythia that I grew from a small pruning (picked up on the street while walking the dogs), and the mint that I grew from a sprig seen in rescued yard waste that had been discarded in the dog park (and which turns out to be more flavorful - really - than the plants that I bought at a local nursery). Then there are the Chinese chives, grown from seeds from plants that were grown from seeds, 3 plant-generations from seeds that Ning brought here from China. This variety is more robust and stronger in flavor compared to the nursery-grown ones (probably because it was a local agricultural, not horticultural, variety). A separate set of Chinese chives came from my parent's yard, having grown there for 35 or 40 years as a weed. I don't know how they will taste yet. Others - roses, one started from a bouquet brought to work, another 'rustled' from an abandoned telephone-pole rose that is no longer there.

An additional step removed, are the vegetables and flowers grown annually from purchased seeds. I think that if I saved my own seeds (obviously, not from the hybrids), the connection would be stronger. But as it is, they are still a little more 'mine' than ones bought as plants at the store.

What does this have to do with global warming? Again, if we don't feel connected to nature, then it's difficult to be motivated to conserve out natural world. And that connectness is a lot stronger, for me, if it comes from the heart, instead of the wallet. If we could "un-consumerize" and "re-connect" to the life growing around us, we might feel more strongly about wanting to do something about it.

(photo above, a ginkgo on Mill Plain, source of more seeds that I planted for the past 2 years, and now I need to find homes for the seedling trees).