Don't think that's a real problem. A freeze very quickly kills ginkgo leaves & they immediately fall. The good golden-yellow is usually only achieved if there is no hard freeze before they turn color.

My ginkgo never gets yellow here, being in a frost hollow.

Beng is correct. Frost may come too early in your climatical neck of the woods to enjoy the golden fall color of a Gingko tree. If you really want to enjoy fall color, you may want to consider replcing your Gingko with a sugar maple. There are some nice ones that grow very well in zone 6. Commemoration, Legacy, and Autumn Splendor are all good cultivars you may want to consider.

FWIW,
It seems some selection of Ginkgo turn later than others. I have not direct proof, just what I have seen locally. No doubt varies among seed grown trees as well.

To echo plantingman, Fall Fiesta Sugar Maple has done very well for me in my Zone 6b. But I have also made sure to keep it watered in the exceptional drought of 2011 and 2012 when we had many many 100+ days of heat.

Arktrees

Mine does this with no frost...yet some nearby can have decent yellow foliage. May be genetics.

Some cultivars of ours have consistant great fall color and a few like 'Jade Butterfly' never become golden. Freeze always gets it before the change. I'm assuming you have a cultivar since you mentioned it is male. Jay

jinxz,
Could you please share you experience of which have consistent great fall color. Ours which is supposed to be Princeton Sentry has been rather disappointing. Color one time in six years. This year it was in process of turning yellow, when 15 degrees put all the leaves on the ground in about 12 hours. Any suggestion as to a replacement?

Arktrees

Another great cultivar of Sugar Maple for zone 6 is 'Oregon Trail' also known as 'Hiawatha 1'.

Arktrees, They can vary some year to year but I find that Thelma, Todd, Chi-Chi, Jehosephat, Troll, and Munchkin are dome of the more common ones that have good yellow fall color. Most of them loose their leaves within 24 hours of great color. Jay

Thanks Jay,
Very much appreciate the feedback. I bought 1 gallon Beijing Gold, and Majestic Butterflies last fall. I know Majestic Butterflies is a sport of Jade Butterflies, and thanks to your post won't be expecting much in the way of yellow out of it. The Beijing Gold actually developed some nice golden yellow leaves in early fall, and then the rest turned during later fall. This fall I bought 1 gallon Autumn Gold and Troll, so those sound like I have a good chance of getting the nice fall color.

Thanks to your input, it appears that 3 of 4 will develop nice fall color.

Arktrees

arktrees,

I have about 30 different Ginkgo cultivars and a few hundred growing for rootstock. Despite fall color arriving very late this year, my best yellow was 'Princeton Sentry' and 'Chi Chi'. When we had that 2-3 day artic blast and heavy wind last week, most of my Ginkgo had just started turning or not yet turned. I've experienced nice yellows/golds with all my Ginkgo at some point. Unfortunately, Ginkgo fall color was mostly nonexistent this year. I wouldn't give up on your 'Princeton Sentry' just yet.

I spent the evening today removing the dead, brown leaves from my Ginkgos.

Patrick

This post was edited by abciximab on Tue, Nov 19, 13 at 0:37