On 14/11/2010 20:41, Pam Moore wrote:
Advice needed please about what to do with some ginkgo seeds I picked
up at the weekend. If anyone has picked up any of these you will know
that they smell awful, so luckily I had a plastic bag in my pocket.
I've got 5 berries which I've put outside on top of a pot of soil.
What to do now? Can I plant them as they are or do I have to remove
the smelly pulp? Perhpas soaking in water might help?
I grew a ginkgo from seed about 40 years ago, but that was bought dry
seed! No I don't have a 40 year old ginkgo. It must have died on me
sometime!
TIA

I don't know about Ginkgo seeds specifically, but my way of dealing with
hardy tree seeds is to put them in a pot with decent compost, label,
stick outside so they get the worst of the weather, and forget about
them! I give them a quick once-over every week or two once spring has
appeared just to make sure they haven't dried out.

There may be certain seeds which benefit from specific treatments
(washing to remove inhibitors? scarification?) and give better
germination rates, but in general just leaving them alone will give you
sufficient seedlings if the seeds were viable in the first place.

--

Jeff