Have you ever eaten the nut inside the fruit? I ate some for the first time earlier this year that a friend brought me out of his freezer. I plan to collect some in town this fall.

In the long run you will be better off replacing this tree with one of the more modern smaller or columnar ginkgos, non-fruiting.

They have become fairly common here in the past 10 years.

For now it would be easier placing some covering on the ground than it would be to suspend a net. Falling over-ripe ginkgo fruit could cut/drip through netting upon impact.

Larry, do you have any varieties you can suggest?

I find most of the locals carry "Gingko" no variety info. I do not want a fruiting one!

This post was edited by Kippy-the-Hippy on Sat, Sep 7, 13 at 11:01

http://wimastergardener.org/?q=gingko , found in a search for ginkgo +"non-fruiting", mentions several varieties.

It looks like most named cultivars for landscaping purposes are non-fruiting.

And it helps to spell the tree correctly when doing research: Ginkgo, although the above search result is misspelled also.

I noticed a black plastic material with about the size holes you are looking for, at Harbor Freight, not what I was looking for. It looked like it was intended for covering loads moved on an open truck. Al

There are female gingkoes and male gingkoes. "Non fruiting" gingkoes are merely male trees. Since it takes decades for a gingko to express its gender, it would be heartbreaking to replace your fruiting gingkoes with other trees. Yes, the fruit smells but it is for such a short period of the year. It's just my opinion but the bare tree, the leafed out tree and the tree's show in Fall are all worth putting up with the relatively short fruiting period. Solutions I utilize include contacting the local Asian population (and any other interested group) to inform them when the fruit are ready for harvest. In this way, you will not have a problem getting rid of the majority of the fruit/nuts. I harvested trees, extracted the nuts and sold them at a hefty profit. Once people turn on to the taste of these nuts and their uses in cooking, the market for them is a done deal. The nuts are delicious, unique and versatile in food prep.

I would love to ($$$$) take out a very messy silk oak, and replace it with a male ginko.

I think it's really important that you don't get a female!

Suzi

Hey Guys...

I bumped into a Ginko tree last year and was amazed by the looks of it, one of a kind leaf and tree shape and loaded with this pretty looking fruit.

It was dropping the fruit so I collected a bunch to see if I could germinate them to plant them in the yard this spring.

Back than I did not realize the problems with the bad smell (did not notice any picking up the fruit), got a few seed sprouting right now, but since there is no way of knowing if it will be a female or male I would like to know how bad, the bad smell is.

I have a lot of space, so I can put it out of the way so i can enjoy the looks but won't get bothered by the bad smell.

Can anybody from experience say how bad that smell is ? Is it like having a rotting trash bag that smells bad when you get close or is it like having a complete garbage dump next door.....

Know this is pretty subjective but would like to know what I'm possibly getting into by planting those trees.

Also, does anybody know if there is any wildlife (USA, East TN) that will make use of the fruit ?

Thanks....

The outer flesh smells like vomit. nuts taste delicious, kind of potato like.

I think that they small more like cat poop.

The popular non-fruiting ginkgos (Male clones) in my area are Magyar (my favorite), Autumn Gold, and Princeton Sentry. Autumn Gold has a wide form, Princeton is very narrow and Magyar is upright but wider than Princeton.

Every year at work it seems I get a call from a landscaper begging to find a heavy fruiting ginkgo because they have a client who is Chinese, Korean ect that really wants the fruit! Nurseries in my area would not even sell seed grown ginkgos or grow a heavy fruiting female ginkgo as the fruit is not the best smelling when ripe. I too have heard they are very good to eat (got this tip from a Korean L.A.) but have never tried one.

The next street on my block is lined with old ginkgos and when my kids were little and walked to grade school, they always avoided that street in the fall when the gingko fruits were falling. The kept telling me it smelled like dog cr**.