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Ginkgo - Fantastic Tree with Interesting Issues Newsletter
GINKGO - Fantastic Tree With Interesting Issues
My ginkgo has become pretty special. It was planted as a male clone in 1984 when my daughter/announcer Logan was born. Besides being a usual beautiful ginkgo, ours has shown a couple of rare traits. The first unique thing we noticed was the fast growth. Most ginkgoes are very slow growing, maybe 2-3” a year. Ours grew much faster from the beginning but dramatically increased its growth to more than 20” a year at about 15 years old.
What was different about our tree? First, it was managed under my total organic program from day one. Secondly, the big growth increase happened soon after the root flare was exposed. The rate actually increased even more after I more dramatically exposed the flare a second time. Since ginkgo is a prehistoric tree, it must need healthy soil from the organic program even more than other trees - and the flare exposure just shows how incredibly powerful that is to the general health of trees.
Oh - one more thing. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers had done some damage to the tree prior to the flare exposure. The beautiful pest bird hasn’t drilled a single hole since the flare work was done. See more details on that subject on the subject at DallasMorningNews.com. Or in the column archives on dirtdoctor.com.
What was different about our tree? First, it was managed under my total organic program from day one. Secondly, the big growth increase happened soon after the root flare was exposed. The rate actually increased even more after I more dramatically exposed the flare a second time. Since ginkgo is a prehistoric tree, it must need healthy soil from the organic program even more than other trees - and the flare exposure just shows how incredibly powerful that is to the general health of trees.
Oh - one more thing. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers had done some damage to the tree prior to the flare exposure. The beautiful pest bird hasn’t drilled a single hole since the flare work was done. See more details on that subject on the subject at DallasMorningNews.com. Or in the column archives on dirtdoctor.com.
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Naturally yours,
Howard Garrett
The Dirt Doctor
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