Ginkgo seedlings

Back in mid-September, I collected a heavy handful of Ginkgo biloba seeds from a neighborhood tree. I potted them in some old Nepenthes media plus pumice and lava rock and stratified them in a refrigerator until December, when I set the pot on a windowsill. Seven months later, I have some nice looking seedlings:

The eight viable seedlings as of July 2016. The seedling in the foreground with the black ribbon around it is the only three-edged seed to germinate – supposedly this should be the single male tree in the batch

From my batch of 20 seeds, I got a pretty lousy germination rate – only 10 germinated, and 2 of those seedlings proved nonviable, although the end result is probably more Ginkgo seedlings than I need.

Ginkgo foliage – note the unique bisected veination from petiole to leaf edge

I noticed that many of the seeds in the pot would initially swell and crack the seedcoat, but lacked radicles (the initial root). After waiting several months on these seeds, hoping they would grow, I finally dissected several of them only to find they lacked embryos! It seems like the seeds I collected were only semi-fertile at best, although the grove I collected them from has plenty of male Ginkgo trees.

Ginkgo axillary bud that might be activating – this seedling shows some early promise and I’m hoping it will continue to branch

For a while, I thought that I had stratified my seeds too early, killing many of the embryos that still needed time and the warmth of autumn to develop. Anecdotally, I collected several seeds from female Ginkgo around Davis in January and dissected them, only to find that they, too, lacked embryos despite the warm fall conditions they experienced.

I’ll probably end up thinning out these seedlings, moving some of them to deeper pots or into the ground but I will keep some as misho (bonsai started from seeds) and potentially practice some grafting with female branches.