Barerooting Ginko in summer

[matt_95]

Hi everyone, I am moving from Brisbane to Wollongong next week. I have a large Ginko in a pot that I have had for many years, I want to take it with me. We don’t have room to move it as is in the pot. The only option I have is to bareroot it, and put it into the van we have hired, it would be bare rooted in the van for 24 hours. Does anyone know if this is going to be possible without killing, it severely damaging it? I have previously only reporting g it during dormancy.

[Hal]

I would suggest wrapping the root ball with a moist towel/cloth and secure with ducted tape during transport. As long as the root ball is not dried out and still intact at destination the tree should be fine. Good luck.

[shibui]

I have not tried bare rooting gingko in summer but they are extremely resilient plants. Mine was among the most drought tolerant of my trees when they have had to go on water rationing some years ago.
I would try to minimize root cutting or damage but don't worry if a few get broken in the process because all trees can put up with some root loss any time of year. As Hal has suggested, wrap the roots in something wet and wrap that in a plastic bag to preserve the moisture during the trip. Wrapping the top in a plastic bag could also help reduce transpiration. The trees I post to customers seem to manage fine without added water for up to 5 days even in summer when they are packed in a cardboard box but they need watering twice a day here on the benches so I assume being in the dark or enclosed reduces water needs.
You might also take some comfort from knowing that many experienced bonsai growers have now started to repot and root prune from late summer through to early autumn, particularly with conifers (ginkgo is actually a member of the conifer family) and report no problems.
Also do't panic if the tree does decide to shed all the leaves after the trip. Many trees drop leaves after traumatic experiences but ginkgo is quite capable of growing new ones again after things settle down.

Good luck with the move and let us know how you chose to move this tree and the end results.

[matt_95]

Hi Hal and Neil,

Thank you for your advice, you both gave me the confidence to go ahead and move this tree down with me. I visited a nursery that specialises in Naples and other deciduous trees, they told me I would certainly kill it if I bare rooted it at this time of year.

It’s now been a month since I moved down here. I ended up bare rooting it, putting the roots into a wet pillowcase, and then wrapping that with a plastic bag. The removalists broke almost all of the branches off of one side off (as well as several pieces of furniture) unfortunately. However other than that, it made it down just fine. It hasn’t yet shown any signs of new growth, and I’ve lost about half of the existing foliage to the wild weather we have had over the previous few weeks. Do you know how long I should expect to wait before I see new growth.

I would like to put a couple of air layers into this tree, when is the best time to do this for this species?

I

[shibui]

Ginkgo are one of the trees that seem to grow most in spring and they are normally one of the last to sprout. I would not expect to see any new buds before October or November.