Age of trees

[dave1949]

Young trees under reasonable conditions concentrate most of their volume growth in the main stem. Older trees are adding tree volume over a much wider area: larger stem, limbs, branches. An older tree can be adding much more total volume annually while having thinner growth rings than a young sapling.

If you think about it, a tree would have to grow volume like crazy to maintain consistent ring width over its lifetime.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Is counting the rings actually accurate in determining a trees age and whats it mean if some are close and some are far apart?

Not always. If you have a growing season that has a dry or cold spell followed by favorable conditions, a tree can produce multiple growth rings in one season, according to my licensed master gardener sister.

 

[Buggs67]

This is not true. Some hardwoods yes others no. A Cottonwood, Populus Deltoideus (spelling??) will have way bigger rings under normal growing condidtions than out common loblolly pine (not the 5th gen seedlings or clones or anything). Water oaks can have 1/2' rings early on as well whcich is similar to our pines here as well, Poplar and sweetgum similar growing pattern.


And yes i do know what i am talking about. I am a professional forester. For reference so that it will give some credibility to what i said.

Thanks for the correction. I only know what I have observed in cutting firewood. I may have both misinterpreted what I see and spoken too broadly. I should NEVER say ALWAYS .

My firewood experience is mostly red oak, white oak, pin oak, poplar (aka tulip) and maple. I'm usually more concerned with splitting lines. I find it interesting (as someone stated earlier) how the ring are different, sometimes the center is way off center, and the spiral of the grain.

 

[Kenneth in Texas]

So the number of rings will changes as the tree gets higher correct? So depending on where its cut you can tell that particular spots age?

 

[dave1949]

Cool tree pics.

Ancient Trees: Beth Moon’s 14-Year Quest to Photograph the World’s Most Majestic Trees | Colossal

 

[wngsprd]

I didn't have a chance to count the rings on this red oak I cut yesterday, but will be back today. Or as cold as is will be today, maybe I'll just count using these photos.

My son gave me a book last year called Woodcut, by Bryan Nash Gill. He makes prints from cross sections of trees that he has sanded smooth after cutting. The book has some of the most incredible views of tree rings I have seen, some with burls, some double trunks, etc.

 

[Buggs67]

I didn't have a chance to count the rings on this red oak I cut yesterday, but will be back today. Or as cold as is will be today, maybe I'll just count using these photos.

My son gave me a book last year called Woodcut, by Bryan Nash Gill. He makes prints from cross sections of trees that he has sanded smooth after cutting. The book has some of the most incredible views of tree rings I have seen, some with burls, some double trunks, etc.

That's a nice tree. See how thin the inner rings are vs the outer rings? This is what I was saying earlier. I've also heard that the heart wood is the hardest part of the tree. If this is true, is it because it's compressed by the outer rings?

Also when counting rings, does the bark count as one year?

 

[clemsonfor]

So the number of rings will changes as the tree gets higher correct? So depending on where its cut you can tell that particular spots age?

If i think i understand what your saying yes. Take an older say 75 year old oak tree. 1foot up it will have something like maybe 73-75 rings depending upon how much it grew that first year. At 5 feet up (same time counting all sections, like if you cut the tree down) you might have 65-72 rings, the difference is the amount of years to reach that height. The tree can not have a growth ring at any given height or place on that tree if the tree had not grown that tall yet. same tree at 20 feet (even forks will still match at the same height assuming they would be the same age as a single stem) May have 50-55 rings which would mean that it took 15-20 years to reach the height of 20ft where you would be counting the rings.

So to make that make sense, if you cut down a tree, there will be more rings at the stump end and they will gradualy go down as you move up the tree trunk till you get to the very tips of the branch and the tiny twigs will just be one color without growth rings on them as there not even one years worth of growth out on the tips.

 

[JSanders10]

I didn't have a chance to count the rings on this red oak I cut yesterday, but will be back today. Or as cold as is will be today, maybe I'll just count using these photos.

So using wngsprd's attached photos, would you count the LIGHT and DARK rings as separate years? Across that cut, I see dark, light, dark, light, etc.,... or is each "dark, light" one year?

 

[speedbump]

Under the right conditions, small trees can be surprisingly old.

How true. We planted 620 Date Palms in 2001. Some of them are still about 2.5 feet tall including the fronds and others have 12' of trunk. That's the ones that aren't dead already. We have a disease that is killing Palm trees.