Ginkgo biloba in winter!

Ginkgo trees are native to China and only occur in a few small populations in the wild they are actually endangered. Ginkgo trees are the only living member of their genus, family, order, class, phylum. Often people grow cultivars of ginkgo trees however this is bad because a cultivar is a clone and if one genetic individual is susceptible to something like a disease then all of its clones are also equally susceptible this means that a disease could wipe out a huge amount of ginkgos! This however can be prevented by growing seeds which because of mixing genetics and genetic recombination and crossing of genetics leads to high genetic diversity so one plant may be susceptible to a disease while others may not and thus more will survive. An example of a plant having low genetic diversity because they were all clones is the gros michel banana farmers grew clones of all the same individual plant and when a disease could infect one it was able to infect nearly all of them leading to the gros michel banana nearly going extinct if ginkgos are grown only from cultivars this could happens as well. It’s best to grow ginkgos from seed to solve this problem! You can buy ginkgo seeds online on websites such as Etsy for a few bucks you can also buy ginkgo plants grown from seed as well on Etsy. Ginkgo trees are a gymnosperm so they actually don’t technically make flowers but male and female cones which serve a similar function. Male trees produce pollen while female trees make seeds which are known to be stinky. While these seeds are stinky they are incredibly important for growing ginkgo. These seeds are also not too bad smelling from a distance unless it’s hot out if your just standing under a female tree with seeds on the ground in fall you probably won’t smell much it’s more if you pick one up or bring one inside. Ginkgo trees can grow in growing zones 3-9! Ginkgo trees will grow fine in just about any soil even hard clay but prefer sandier soil. Ginkgo trees like moist or dry soil but not consistently wet soil they do however tolerate occasional flooding. Ginkgo trees are air pollution tolerant and drought tolerant and compacted soil tolerant and road salt tolerant. Also because these trees are so amazing and the last living species of their kind and are endangered in the wild it’s important we grow them from seeds and keep them alive for generations to enjoy!