Old or young: how to determine the age of a tree?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Sometimes it is necessary to understand and know exactly how many years a particular tree lives. Depending on the goals, the methods for determining the age of the plant will also differ. The type of wood also has an effect. This is significant both for counting the years of life on felled or felled trees, and, if necessary, not to interfere with the natural cycle of their development. Considering all the simple options available.

Sawn or felled

How to determine the age of a tree by the rings, called growth rings, probably many have heard. It is enough to count their number, usually quite clearly visible at the place where the trunk was cut.

For a more accurate definition, it is better to make a cut twice, as close as possible to the roots, then grind. View through a magnifying glass or microscope. Sometimes the rings are not pronounced enough, then you can use a chemical "developer". An alcohol solution of aniline is suitable,ferrous chloride liquid, blue, even ordinary ink diluted with water, potassium permanganate.

There are some subtleties for different breeds. In this case, how to determine the age of a tree by annual rings depends on whether the plant belongs to deciduous or coniferous species. If the tree is a broad-leaved species, it is better to cut diagonally, this will increase the width of the usually thin and difficult to see rings.

Pressler's Incremental Drill (age)

How to determine the age of a tree by the trunk without causing any significant damage to it, our ancestors took care of back in the 19th century. If it is not necessary or impossible to cut the plant, a special tool should be used, taking a sample of wood with it.

The drill consists of a conical, hollow cylinder with a thread at one end. The other edge has four edges. It is on this side that the handle is fixed, which simultaneously performs the function of a case. The tool also includes a grooved insert.

A piece of wood taken for sampling is called a core. To extract such a fragment from a tree, the drill is placed at a right angle to the trunk, then screwed into it.

As the tool plunges into the wood, the latter fills the cavity of the tube. After the drill has been inserted to the required depth, a grooved plate is inserted into the tool through the hole on the handle. By turning the drill in the opposite direction, it is removed from the trunk.

On the core, you can easilycount the number of annual layers. However, one should always consider how far from the roots the sample was taken. You can determine the age of a tree more accurately only by adding to the figure obtained by counting the rings, the number of years required to reach the height at which the core was taken. It depends on the breed of the plant and the conditions of its development.

The age borer allows you to extract a core up to 35 cm long, which means that in this way you can determine the age of a tree by a trunk diameter not exceeding 70 cm.

In representatives of breeds that grow very slowly, as well as in inhabitants of densely planted shaded areas, annual layers are thin and difficult to distinguish. In such cases, an optical taxation device (OOT) is used.

This device is equipped with an eyepiece and a lens. A core is placed in it and, focusing, they examine the wood structure enlarged by optics.

There are also several ways to determine the age of trees without using any tools.

Coniferous trees - counting the number of years lived by whorls and bark

Features of calculating the lifetime of some coniferous trees make it possible to do this quite accurately and easily, without using mechanisms. In pine, spruce, cedar, fir, it is enough to count the whorls located on the trunk.

How to determine the age of a tree in this way? Very simple! First of all, you need to know what a whorl is.

A whorl is a branch resembling a fan. They are on the trunk. Recount them. Now to the existing valueyou should add 3 if the object of your attention is pine, 4 - for spruce, in the case of fir and cedar - 5 and 10, respectively.

These indicators indicate the age at which the first whorl is formed in a particular type of tree. The number obtained as a result of summation should be considered the age of the tree.

An important sign of the maturity of plants is their bark. The value is the structure and color. In young trees, the bark is usually lighter and smoother. For pines and spruces, such a surface of the trunk is relevant for six to seven decades of life, it will be rough only in the lower part - approximately to the level of a meter from the roots.

After another similar time period - at the age of 130-150 years, the smooth bark will remain only on the upper half of the tree trunk, and in the lower half it will be covered with cracks. The bark of old plants is usually covered with lichens and moss.

Fruit trees

For orchard owners, the ability to determine the age of a tree is of great importance. How to do this without harming the plants? There are several methods.

One of them is the calculation of annual increments.

This method allows you to find out the age of a tree without harming it, with an error of 1-2 years. It is most often used in horticulture. This approach is relevant for fruit and some wild forest trees. How to determine their age quickly?

It is enough to find the oldest skeletal (large, one of the main ones in the crown) branch. Atthe base of each one-year-old shoot forms an influx resembling a ring. By counting such increments, it is quite easy to determine how old a given plant is.

Accounting is carried out in the direction from the top of the branch to the trunk. 2 is added to the resulting figure, the final value will be the desired age of the tree. Annual flow is quite difficult to determine in plants whose age is more than three years. In this case, it is better to count the branches. However, under various conditions, shoots can die or form in an amount of more than one per year. This method will have a slightly larger error than the previous one.

Fruit tree seedlings

Separately, the recognition of the maturity of seedlings should be discussed.

A plant sprouting in summer usually reaches a height of 70-100 cm per year, the diameter of the trunk at a distance of 10 cm from the roots does not exceed 1-1.3 cm. A one-year-old seedling has not yet given lateral branches. Accordingly, there will be no traces of their removal. Roots no longer than 35 cm, but usually no shorter than a quarter meter.

Special attention should be paid to seedlings, originally from subtropical zones. They are able to begin branching in the first year under favorable conditions. Unscrupulous sellers may pass them off as a more mature plant, but, in the end, the southern seedling will not survive the winter of the middle zone.

Seedling age	Height	Barrel diameter	Number of branches	Root length
2 years	1.5 m	2cm	1-3	30-40cm
3-4 years	1.5m and above	3cm	4-6	from 30-40 cm, developed skeletal

How to determine the age of a tree by trunk diameter

This method exists, but it is difficult to call it correct without a detailed understanding of the factors affecting the growth and formation of a particular plant. The indicators will depend on its type, terrain, environmental conditions of the region and the area where the tree grows in particular.

You can consider a similar option on the example of oak.

This will require either a special measuring fork, or you will have to do with a soft tape measure, a tailor's centimeter.

In this species, the measurement is carried out at a distance of 1.3 m from the ground.

From the circumference of a circle, the diameter is calculated using a mathematical formula known since high school: D (diameter) =L (circumference) / Pi (constant value, value is 3, 14).

The next step will require information on the average annual growth of the measured tree species. For oak, it is about 44 mm.

To calculate the age, the diameter should be divided by the growth factor (in this case - 44).

Such calculations are not very reliable, they have an error of up to 15%, since the value of the annual growth of each tree is a very individual indicator and dependent on many external factors.