Is there anything quite as striking as a vivid yellow gingko tree in the fall? Or as relaxing as the fan-shaped leaves twirling in the wind?
These living fossils have remained relatively unchanged for over 200 million years and the trees offer elegance and interest in the landscape.
If you have a Ginkgo biloba that you’d love to replicate, whether it’s one growing in a friend’s garden or in your own backyard, propagation by stem cuttings is a simple method.
It’s a pretty straightforward process and the result is a genetic clone of the parent.
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If you aren’t familiar with how to grow and care for ginkgo trees, read our guide.
Here are the topics we’ll cover to help you start new ginkgo trees from cuttings:
Propagating Ginkgo from Cuttings
Ginkgo trees are dioecious, which means there are separate male and female specimens.
To reproduce in the wild, pollen from a male ginkgo tree needs to pollinate the flowers on the female to produce seeds.
The yellow pollen cones are visited by pollinators or the pollen is carried by the wind to the ovule on the female ginkgo trees.
From there, a fruit forms that is either carried by wildlife or falls to the ground and the seeds inside germinate.
The problem with leaving things up to nature like this is that we can’t control the outcome. Ginkgos started from seed may be either male or female and you won’t know which you are growing until the tree matures.
Most gardeners prefer to grow the male ginkgos because unlike the females, they don’t make quite such a mess. The best way to ensure that you propagate a male plant is via cuttings.
You can learn more about the difference between male and female ginkgos in our guide.
Or if you really love a particular tree for its shape, if you were to propagate from seed, you couldn’t be sure that the result would look anything like the parent.
But if you propagate via stem cuttings, the new ginkgo tree will be a genetic replica of the parent.
When to Propagate Ginkgo Cuttings
The most successful cuttings are those taken from semi-soft (semi-ripe) wood, which means you need to work in the spring or midsummer at the latest.
As the spring wood matures, it hardens, and while it’s technically possible to take hardwood cuttings, these are much, much less successful.
You won’t be able to plant your new ginkgos into the garden until the following spring after you take the material at the earliest, but it might even be another year after that.
So while the work starts in the spring or early summer, the propagation process takes a year or longer until planting time.
Plan accordingly. You’ll need a babysitter if you have any long trips planned.
In spring, before you start working, gather your supplies.
You’ll need pruners, a potting medium consisting of equal parts of sphagnum moss and vermiculite mixed together, a five-inch container for each cutting you wish to take, and powdered rooting hormone.
Clean your pruners well before you make any cuts. Wipe them down with a 10 percent bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water) or some isopropyl alcohol.
This helps prevent pathogens from infecting either your existing tree or the new one you’re trying to start.
Fill each container with your potting mix and moisten it well.
Finally, make sure you’ve got your rooting hormone ready to go. Need rooting hormone?
Bonide Bontone II Rooting Powder
Arbico Organics carries Bonide Bontone II Rooting Powder in 1.25-ounce jars, which is enough for plenty of propagation projects.
The Propagation Process
In the late spring or early summer, head outside and look for healthy, flexible new growth at the tips of the branches. Don’t take cuttings from sick or diseased specimens.
Cut a section that is about six inches long, making your cut at a 45-degree angle.
Set the cut ends in a glass of water as you work so the cuttings remain moist and alive.
When you’re ready to plant, stick your finger in the potting medium of your prepared pots to make a hole and dip the end of the cutting into the rooting hormone.
Poke it into the hole so it’s about two inches deep, and firm up the medium around it.
Set the cuttings in an area with bright, indirect light and keep the medium moist at all times. The medium should feel like a well-wrung-out sponge but not soaking wet.
Then, find a hobby or something to pass the next few months while you wait. Ginkgo cuttings aren’t exactly known for being fast.
By late fall, hopefully, you’ll see new buds swelling or maybe even some green growth on your cuttings. At any time, you can gently stick your finger down into the potting medium next to the cutting and lift it out carefully to check for roots.
By the following spring, any cutting that hasn’t developed roots should be tossed. Some might have lots of roots and others might only have the beginnings of a few. That’s fine, so long as new growth is happening, just be patient.
If your cuttings have plenty of root growth in the first spring after planting, feel free to move the new plants outside and transplant into the garden after hardening off.
Otherwise, keep them in an indoor spot that receives bright, direct sunlight for at least six hours per day until the following spring. Keep the medium moist at all times.
Regardless of when you decide to move the new trees outside, you’ll need to harden them off for a week before transplanting.
This involves taking the plants outside and setting them in the spot where you intend to plant them for one hour. Then bring them back in. The next day, add an hour before bringing them back in.
On the third day, leave them outside for three hours. Keep adding an hour each day until a week has passed. Now you can plant them in the ground.
Transplanting
At transplanting time, prepare the soil by working in some well-rotted compost and then dig a hole that is three times as wide and the same depth as the container the plant is currently growing in.
Remove the baby ginkgo from the container and gently loosen up the roots.
Set the plant in the hole and backfill with some of the removed soil. Water and add more soil if it settles to keep the young tree at the same depth it was in the growing container.
Bring More Glorious Ginkgos to the World
I don’t think I’ve ever walked past a ginkgo without admiring it. They’re such eye-catching trees, no matter what season. But they aren’t cheap.
If you can propagate your own for free, why not? Plus, it’s the best way to ensure that you grow a clone of a beloved tree.
What are your propagation goals? Are you hoping to make your own little copy of your mom’s cherished ginkgo? Or do you want to populate a spot in your yard without spending a lot of money? Let us know in the comments section below
And for more information about growing trees in your landscape, you’re sure to enjoy reading these guides next:
