Tree · Ginkgoaceae
Ginkgo
Ginkgo biloba
Slow-growing, forgiving, and wonderfully hard to kill, the ginkgo is a tree you can plant and grow into for a lifetime.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 3–8
50–80 ft · 15.2–24.4 m
Overview
If you're planting your first big tree, the ginkgo is a kind one to start with. It's a living fossil, the last of a plant line stretching back more than 200 million years, and it looks like nothing else in the yard, with fan-shaped leaves and a shape all its own. Better still for a nervous grower, it takes drought, heat, pollution, road salt, and pests in stride, the very things that wear down fussier shade trees, which is why you'll still find it lining city streets.
This tree grows slowly and lives a very long time, so it asks for patience far more than effort, and that's good news when you're learning. A young ginkgo climbs to 50 to 80 feet (15.2 to 24.4 m) tall over the years, opening into a wide, airy crown, so your main job is to give it room and then let it be. Your reward arrives each autumn, when the whole canopy turns a clear, bright gold and lets go, often within a day or two.
One thing shapes life with a ginkgo more than any other: it's dioecious, meaning each tree is either male or female. A female drops a fleshy, foul-smelling fruit in fall, while the fruitless male cultivars stay tidy and clean. Nearly every tree sold for a yard is a grafted male for just that reason, so you can plant one and rest easy.
Care
The short version: put it in full sun and soil that drains, keep it watered through its first few years while it settles in, and after that the ginkgo pretty much looks after itself.
Light
Give your ginkgo full sun and it will grow its fullest and color up best in fall. It will forgive partial shade, but the crown opens and thins the less light it gets, so bright is the kind choice.
Water
Keep a young tree steadily watered for its first few years while the roots take hold, letting the top half of the soil dry between drinks. Once it's settled, the ginkgo is truly drought-tolerant and needs a little extra only through a long dry spell, so the early care pays off.
Soil
It won't be picky about soil and grows happily in loam, sand, or clay as long as the ground drains. A pH anywhere from 5.0 to 8.0 suits it, which covers most yards with no fixing at all.
Temperature
This is a cold-hardy, heat-tough tree that takes anything from -40°F to 100°F (-40°C to 38°C), so you needn't worry about your climate. That wide range is why it does well from northern zones down to hot southern streets.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor air is all it needs, so there's genuinely nothing to manage here. Average humidity suits it fine in any climate where it's hardy.
Feeding
Give a young tree a balanced slow-release tree fertilizer in spring to encourage good early growth. An established ginkgo hardly needs feeding and gets by comfortably on what the soil offers, so you can ease off as it matures.
Pruning
Prune a young tree in late winter to set one strong central leader and a clean branch structure, and don't fret about getting it perfect. A mature ginkgo needs very little, so once the frame is built you can mostly leave the saw hanging.
Repotting
A ginkgo is a landscape tree and is rarely repotted, but a young one kept in a container will tell you when it's outgrown its pot. Watch for roots circling or slipping out the drainage holes, water running straight through, and new growth stalling.
Size & spacing
Plan for a large tree that grows 50 to 80 feet (15.2 to 24.4 m) tall and spreads 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) wide. Give it that much open room away from buildings, walks, and power lines so the broad crown can settle in comfortably.
When to plant
You can plant a ginkgo with confidence anywhere from zone 3 to zone 8, setting it out in spring or fall when the weather is mild and the roots have time to settle before the next hot or cold stretch. It's a slow grower, so those early years are really about steady watering rather than quick results, and the golden autumn display is the lovely thing you're growing toward.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: spring or fall
- Harvest: April (inconspicuous; dioecious)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 3–8
Temperature: down to -40°C
Troubleshooting
A ginkgo gives you remarkably little to fuss over, which is part of why it's such a forgiving tree to plant. The handful of issues that do come up trace back either to a young tree finding its feet or to the mess and irritation from a female tree's fruit, and every one is recoverable. Match what you're seeing below and act while it still helps.
Browning leaf edges and some dieback on the branches
Try not to worry too much when you first see this. On a young tree still finding its feet, it is most often just heat or drought stress, an even browning along the leaf edges after a hot, dry stretch, and a good soak usually turns it around. The one you want to rule out is bacterial leaf scorch, which works through the canopy a little more each season. A deep drink and a ring of mulch help a stressed sapling, and only a tree truly confirmed with the bacterial form is best taken out.
Fix:
- Water deeply during drought, especially for newly planted trees
- Mulch to conserve soil moisture
- Remove severely declining trees if bacterial scorch is confirmed
An itchy, blistering rash after handling crushed fruit
This one is easy to prevent once you know it's coming. The pulp of a female tree's fruit holds ginkgolic acids, close cousins of the urushiol in poison ivy, so bare skin can react to it. Wash the spot well with soap and water and then soothe it just as you would a poison-ivy rash. Gloves keep it from happening, and a male cultivar means no fruit to worry about.
Fix:
- Wash the affected skin thoroughly with soap and water
- Treat dermatitis symptomatically as for poison ivy
A sour, rancid smell and slick fruit on the ground in fall
Take heart, this is nothing wrong with your tree. You simply have a female ginkgo letting go of its fleshy seed coats, and the butyric acid in them smells like butter gone off. Gather the fallen fruit soon so it isn't tracked around, and slip on gloves so the pulp can't bother your skin. If you'd rather skip the whole business next time, a fruitless male cultivar spares you it entirely.
Fix:
- Rake and remove fallen fruit promptly
- Wear gloves when handling crushed fruit to avoid skin irritation
Toxicity
You can breathe easy with a ginkgo, a low-toxicity tree whose fan-shaped leaves pose little risk to pets, livestock, or people. The one caution sits with the female tree's fruit and raw seeds: the fleshy pulp can leave a poison-ivy-like rash on bare skin, and raw or large amounts of the inner seed hold ginkgotoxin. Most landscape trees are fruitless males, but where a female drops fruit, just keep pets and curious children away from the litter.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds · People
Cats Caution
You can relax about the leaves, which are so low in toxicity that a nibble won't matter. Just mind a female tree's fallen fruit and raw seeds, since those can turn a cat's stomach, and keeping your cat clear of the litter under the tree is all it takes.
Dogs Caution
A dog nosing at the foliage should be perfectly fine, so no need to fret there. Keep a closer eye if one starts chewing the dropped fleshy fruit or raw seeds, which can bring drooling and an upset stomach, and a big helping is the real thing to avoid.
Horses Caution
The leaves hold little to trouble a horse, so grazing near the tree is a small worry. The kind thing is to keep them off windfall seeds and crushed fruit, because the raw seed carries ginkgotoxin.
Rabbits Caution
A rabbit that samples a leaf or two will be fine, given how gentle the foliage is. Do steer it away from the raw seeds, though, since a little creature copes poorly with ginkgotoxin.
Livestock Caution
Cattle, goats, and sheep can browse the leaves with no real cause for concern. The one thing worth fencing off is the drop of fleshy fruit and raw seeds that comes down under a female tree in autumn.
Birds Caution
Birds happily scatter the fallen seeds and the leaves give them no trouble, so there's little to fear. All the same, the raw inner seed carries ginkgotoxin, so it isn't something to leave out for backyard poultry.
People Caution
The leaves and leaf extracts are gentle and low in toxicity, so only two things call for care. Handling the female fruit's pulp can bring on a poison-ivy-like rash, and eating raw or large amounts of the inner seed can cause ginkgotoxin poisoning, so cooked seeds are best kept to small servings.
Only FEMALE trees produce fleshy seed coats; the fruit pulp contains ginkgolic acids (urushiol-like) that can cause poison-ivy-like contact dermatitis in people handling the crushed fruit, and RAW seeds/nuts contain ginkgotoxin (4'-O-methylpyridoxine) which can cause toxicity such as seizures if many are eaten raw. Plant fruitless male cultivars.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Almost every ginkgo worth planting in a yard or along a street is a fruitless male cultivar, chosen so you can skip the messy fall fruit. These are the ones you're most likely to meet.
Autumn Gold
A fruitless male you can plant with confidence, carrying a broad, even crown that glows bright gold in fall and settling in around 50 feet (15 m) tall and 30 feet (9 m) wide.
Princeton Sentry
A fruitless male whose narrow, upright, conical shape slips neatly into a tight spot or a spot along the street where room is short.
Magyar
A fruitless male with a tidy columnar-to-pyramidal habit that makes it a friendly, easy pick for a street tree.
How to propagate
Ginkgos are propagated to lock in a known male, fruitless tree, so growers reach for grafting and cuttings rather than seed.
GraftingDemanding
Late winter to spring (dormant scion onto seedling understock) · 1-2 years
Grafting is the trusted way growers keep the fruitless male cultivars coming. A dormant scion is joined to seedling rootstock in late winter or spring, which holds the cultivar true and makes sure you get a male tree, and the union settles over a year or two. It does take a steady, practiced hand, so it sits at the demanding end of things.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Midsummer (semi-hardwood) · 1-2 years
In midsummer you can take semi-hardwood cuttings of 10 to 15 cm from a mature male tree, dip them in IBA rooting hormone, and set them under mist. They take a year or two to root and grow slowly afterward, but they carry the parent's known sex, which is really the whole reward.
SeedDemanding
Fall, after cleaning and stratifying seed · Several years
It's fine to clean and stratify seed in fall and sow it, though the seedlings come along slowly and take several years to settle. The tricky part is sex: a ginkgo keeps you guessing whether it's male or female for 15 to 20 years or more, so seed makes a hard road when you're set on a guaranteed fruitless male.
Myths
Ginkgo trees are poisonous and unsafe to plant near pets.
You can set this fear aside. The ginkgo doesn't appear on the ASPCA toxic-plant lists, and the fruitless male trees sold for landscaping are counted as non-toxic to cats and dogs. The worry is a small, specific one: it's the female tree's fallen fruit and raw seeds you keep pets away from, never the leaves or wood.
Every ginkgo makes a foul-smelling mess in fall.
Only a female tree grows the fleshy seed coats that give off that butyric-acid smell as they break down on the ground. The male cultivars sold for landscaping bear no fruit and stay odor-free, and that's the very reason they fill the nursery lots.