MossRoad
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Exactly! gotta count the rings.
Which, getting back to the OP's tree will be impossible as much of it is rotted.
quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
When this white oak came down I slabbed it and made a coffee table. 102 rings. Note that some are maybe 1/8" apart, some are 3/4" apart.
quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
Thanks.
etpm
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I grew up in California and the oak trees are so different from the oak trees that grow straight east of CA. Live oaks and valley oaks and other oaks that grew and still grow where I lived never grew straight and tall. They were all twisted. As a kid I wondered how anything could be made from oak trees because none were straight. Then I grew up and learned about other types of oak trees. I once worked with a guy who grew up in Ohio and we were talking about oak trees. He drew me a picture of an oak tree leaf and I told him it didn't resemble the oak tree leaves I grew up with. This discussion happe4ned in Washington state. I went on a trip to California to Laguna Seca for the races and collected a bunch of oak tree leaves. They of course looked way different than the eastern oak tree leaves. I showed them to the guy I worked with and he had a hard time believing that they were leaves from an oak tree. It is really interesting how different varieties of trees can be so different.Around here, trees age like this.... An oak tree sitting out in the middle of a field with no competition for sunlight will grow short and stout, like the FAT oaks you see along country roads next to fields. You put that same oak tree in a forest with other trees where it has to compete for sunlight, and it will grow tall and straight, but not nearly as FAT.
We have a section in our forest that we planted in 1989 with alternating rows of pines and mixed hardwoods. The pines grow fast to stress the hardwoods to reach for sunlight between them. Eventually, the hardwoods peak out over the pines and start putting on girth.
After 35 years, the largest hardwoods are only about 12-16" in diameter at chest height in that section.
Eric
RayIN
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In the beginning that appears to be 3 sprouts that grew together from the same root, unusual.
MossRoad
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There's about 90 species of oak just in the U.S.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I can't say how old your oak tree is, I just made my comment because I had the exact same thought when I bought my land. I was positive that some of my trees were hundreds of years old because of how big they were. Then I had to remove one of the really big ones to bring the power line into my land, and a tree that I thought was really old, was actually just 70 years old!!!
Since I can document when the US Army owned my land, and I've seen the maps of how the base was laid out, I know that my land was stripped clear of trees in 1943. When they closed the base in 1945 it was offered back to the people, they took it from and then sold at auction. That's the earliest that a tree could start growing here.
Just talking about oak trees in my part of the country in East Texas. They tend to get pretty big, then they fall over in a big thunderstorm, or rot away from the inside, and break apart. I'm sure there are hundred-year-old oak trees here, but I also think they are very rare. Of all the tree species that I have, oaks are the most temperamental, and easiest to kill while trying to save them.
quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
"White oak" can refer to seven different species, and "red oak" five.
