Age of trees

[Kenneth in Texas]

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

 

[fordmantpw]

Well, counting rings is what the experts use to determine the age of trees, so I would say that it is accurate.

Closer rings means the tree didn't grow as much that year, whereas rings further apart means the tree grew quickly. This is typically due to rainfall. Years with plenty rainfall will space the rings out further. You can learn a tremendous amount about a tree and the weather in that tree's life by studying it's rings. Supposedly, you can pinpoint times when there were fires and other disasters as well. It's really pretty cool.

 

[Silvic]

When a tree or stand of trees are suppressed the rings will also be very close together since they are not growing very robustly. You can acquire a coring tool and do an analysis without even cutting down the tree. Dendrology I will not comment on the subject of the site just using it as an example.

 

[SandburRanch]

Here is an example that one of my kids made as a project at the ranch over 30 years ago when quarter sawed lumber was available. It looks as if it was cut and milled at an age of at least 60. We just don't know how many rings were cut off in the process of making this a 1x10. My eyes aren't too good but with a magnifier it may have had at least 10 consecutive years of severe drought but we just don't have enough information of its history to determine when those 10 years were.

 

[oosik]

When I cut trees for firewood - I would count the rings. I cut some ponderosa pine that were over 125 years old and 36" on the butt. I cut firewood here for ten years and then went to pellets. In all the trees I cut there was an obvious severe drought during the mid-1930's to mid-1940's. I wish I knew more about dendrology because many of the old, large stumps still exist here on the property.

 

[3930dave]

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

Some of the small scrub evergreens were studied on the side of the Niagara Escarpment, west of Toronto. I don't recall the exact #, but it was several hundreds of years (500+ ?) for a tree just a couple of feet high. Pretty much needed a microscope to count those rings.

Rgds, D.

 

[MossRoad]

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

I planted several thousand trees back in 1989. I'll let you know around 2045 if its accurate! :laughing:

 

[SPIKER]

I planted several thousand trees back in 1989. I'll let you know around 2045 if its accurate! :laughing:

Mine were planted in 2003 well over 5000 of them...

Yes very accurate IF you can read the lines. The OLDEST trees are in CA (look up Methuselah, bristlecone pines and OLD trees.)

Mark

 

[dave1949]

Besides growing conditions for the year of the ring, the spacing also can show physical stresses on the trunk. You can have rings that are wide on one side of the tree and narrow on the opposite side.

 

[Silvic]

Just thought I would throw this one out as an example of a tree that was very suppressed for the first part of it's life then started to thrive. Lots of stress in the wood but the growth can be seen with the change between 40 and 42 years of age.