mine does the same thing.. in MI.. in october ...

a fully established tree.. should not need water .. though a good deep drink in SEVERE drought wont hurt ...

which leads me to ask.. how much are you watering it.. what is your base soil.. whats its draining capacity .... and where are you ...

and if you are in z11 .... who told you ginkgo is for your zone ... as google seems to indicate 5 to 8 .???? .. sunset means nothing to us in the midwest .. lol

BTW .. can you see the root flare?????

more info.. and why not a pic or two ????

ken

pennyhal, I just checked my Sunset and Ginko is indeed rated for Sunset 23.

I'm guessing you are coastal SoCal? How much are you able to water during the Summer? If it's on drip can you increase H2O? It sounds as if your soil moisture is way down now. Have you added more drippers around the tree. If it only has 1 or 2 one or five gallon drip emitters you want to increase to at least 6 five gallon emitters. These need to be spaced evenly around the tree from 6" to 12" away from the trunk.

Do you have mulch on your property? 3" of medium fir bark will work wonders. You need to rebark every 2-3 years as it's organic and breaks down.

I moved to Missouri 3 years ago and the Midwest gets summer rain here so we don't use mulch much here, pity. Here when we get low rainfall in the summer the deciduous trees often do not color up. The leaves just brown up and drop. Sounds as if that may be the case with your Ginko.

Thanks for your replies!

Yes, I do live in Costal California. Yes, there is a drought, but where I live we have our own aquifer so we are not on water restrictions. We maintain our regular watering schedule. The winters have been dry and perhaps that is the problem since this started when we started having dry winters. We do deep water the tree, but not on a regular schedule. It is in the middle of a St. Augustine grass lawn and the sprinklers are set to water three days a week with 7 minutes running time which gave a lot of water. However the absence of winter rain has affected trees, but has not been reported in my area.

We had three 50 year old liquid ambers in this yard, but had to cut them down when we added on to the house. It was a very sad day for me. I loved those trees.

I then planted an Eastern Red Bud, Forest Pansy. It is doing very well. We also planted the Ginko tree at the same time. I'd post a photo, but my camera got stolen out of my luggage the last time I flew. I'll have a new one this week and as soon as I figure it out which button to push, I'll post a photo.

Do you think that deep watering them more often might help?

Have you ever put out a container to see how much water it gets in 7 min.? Watering deep and less often is preferable to several shallow waterings.

tj

As my transplants have grown the amount of water they need is increased.

During our historic drought and heat of 2012 my 30 ft metasequoia required 8 hours of full on sprinkler every three days. No clue how many gallons that was.

This California drought sounts pretty severe to me. I bet that coupled with your trees getting larger is making it where you must water more.

How historic is your drought? Mine was not seen since the 1930s so I feel decently safe. We have the nation's two largest rivers here in StLouis so water is cheap and easy to come by. Many years it flows right into people's homes lol. I am not used to thinking about aquifers and all that. Is Pecan native to your area?

Pennyhal, as this problem started the year the drought started I'd strongly suspect that was the main problem. Please don't take this personal but people that plant trees in turf set themselves up for problems with them. Grass only has a root zone of 8"-12". Trees generally start at about 8" and go to several feet depending on the trees. If you water to supply the grass, the trees will keep their roots high to use the available water. When you got your drought started there wasn't sufficient water to keep the tree supplied. Next year you may want to deep water weekly during spring and summer to help the trees. Say 30 to 45 min. You will have lots of run off and PO lots of neighbors but your trees will thank you. Set your sprinklers on that day for 3-4am to keep neighbors in the dark.

toronado,California has a Mediterranean climate and the rains STOP there usually in April or May and don't start again til Oct, People have to supply all non natives with water to keep them alive during the summer. I lived there about 20 years before moving back to the St Louis area. Most areas they may not have to put up with the winter but they have a whole other set of problems to deal with.

Because the Eastern Red Bud has been doing so well which was planted near the Ginko, needing more water wasn't the first thing to come to mind. I do see Ginkos in this area so I know that can do well here. So, we're increasing deep water and hoping that will help. If another year doesn' help, we'll probably consider replacing it.

Yes, Ginko's do well there. But they are SLOW growers. I've seen 20' high trees that were maybe 20 years old. The Redbud on the other hand is a fast out of the gate grower. I have a seedling that I transplanted at my house that about 6' after 3 years.

I think you are wise to wait until next year before deciding on the Ginko.

If you don't get rain by December you may want to water through the winter.

Good Luck.