AusBonsai

I brought this ginkgo in 2010 at a Bonsai show. I cant remember which one, I need a usb port for my brain so that I can remember more stuff.
I thought it would be cool to have one. It grows slowly, especially since I had it inside and didnt feed it much.
I got a really cool suprise last spring, the other trunk grew. I havent repotted it yet but I think that it might be a seperate plant.
I think the photo is blurry cos I was excited. It was growing like a neglected bonsai. Time to intervene.
I googled how to care for ginkgo and decided that a 'light wiring' was in order. What is a light wiring? Dont bend the trunk too hard is my guess.

I wired the trunks
and then bend the trunks to the shape it showed me. I first did some sketches to see what it would look like.
The trunk didnt snap. yeah me. But there is a fair bit of compression with the wire. I didnt have any raffia, I could have used bike tyre rubber. I tried to use bigger guage wire as it doesnt cut is so easily. I suppose that I will have to watch the wire closely.

I put them outside and gave a feed of sulphate of ammonia, straight nitrogen fert, as directed. It might be hard to see how the trunks relate to each other but the small trunk is 45 degrees in front of the large trunk. I hope to maintain that arrangement in a bonsai pot.

What do you think?

The next job is to repot. Should I wait What type of pot could I use? Anybody know how long I might have before the trunks fuse? My guess is 25 years.

Cheers

Tim

I would get it outside into the fresh air, and let it grow for a few years. I seriously doubt that in a pot, the trunks would ever get big enough to fuse.
Style it as a Multi trunk, flame style tree ( google some pics of Ginko and you will see the style).

I would not be repotting till spring now, and then only to another larger pot to give more soil and room to grow for a few years

At the moment, commonly what is called a "stick in a pot" https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... k_in_a_pot .

Ken

Tim,
Photo of the pot is a bit blurry but this looks like one of my pots. If so you probably picked it up at the BSV show at Box Hill.

'light wiring' probably refers to just adjusting branches slightly on a more mature tree rather than wiring the trunks. Gingko are really conifers so the stems are pretty flexible - very little risk of breaking one even with quite severe bending. They look best as formal upright trees so severe bending is rarely needed. The curves you have put in look fine though they will probably disappear as the trunks thicken. Personally I grow mine with straight trunks.

I repot mine at the same time as other deciduous species in early spring but anytime from mid winter until the bud is fine. Gingkos are about the last to put out leaves in spring.
They usually grow few, long, thick roots and roots can be cut back quite hard without any problems and cutting roots back hard will promote a better, more compact root system.

Not sure what you mean by

before the trunks fuse?

The new trunk might be coming from the base of the older trunk so it would already be fused? Sometimes the suckers come from below the crown or from a root a little way from the base in which case you can elect to grow it on until the trunks unite at the base or take one off if it is a problem (you can probably separate it into 2 separate plants if you want) You really need to check and see where the new trunk is coming from. As Ken points out they are very slow growing. If it stays in a small pot it may never get large enough for the trunks to grow together. In a larger container it might happen in a few years.

Thanks Ken, yeah, my stick in the pot needs some time to grow. Ill put it in a bigger pot in the spring.

Thanks Shibui, memories are coming flooding back, thats right, the BSV show at Box Hill. Thanks for the ginkgo.

In regards to spliting, I'm not sure that I really want two ginkgo's. I might just leave them together, let them grow and see what happens. I have seen the flame style ginkgo's and I was hoping to depart from the standard. I am guessing that the standard is due to the fact that it is not an easy tree to work with.

Cheers

Tim

I have a Young one like this with 4 trunks and am growing it like a flame styled clump. I t has actually a new sucker coming from the base so may make a 5 tree clump soon
I have only had it a year, so a few more to go yet

Ken

Tim, I think the preference for formal upright, 'flame' style for gingko is more because that's the shape most older trees assume in nature. There is one famous tree that has massive, spreading branches but most are upright trees with strongly vertical trunks and branches.
I think the gentle bends you have put into your tree will still look great. You might also search the other gingko threads on Ausbonsai. Bodhi posted a picture (last year?) of a small gigko much more contorted than yours that you might like to check.

A twin trunk gingko should look very nice as will Ken's 4/5 trunk tree.
If yours keeps suckering when will you stop Ken? Might get a bit crowded if you let it keep adding trunks each year