Ages of trees

[JLauritsen]

So, in all of my reading, and viewing stuff online, I don't get how people estimate the ages of some of these trees. And some I find it hard to believe.

I do know that there are some old bonsai out there, don't get me wrong. But some I can't figure out. Especially some of these collected from nature ones. How can you tell the age of a specimen collected from nature? I was reading a blog and this one guy estimated the tree to be between 275 and 300 years. Dug up, brought it home and had it in a training pot a few years. I thought it looked more like 15-20 years. Is it possible to collect a tree that old in nature?

 

[Dan W.]

Here is some proof of how old they can be:

http://backcountrybonsai.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/how-old-is-that-little-tree/

Andy Smith from Golden Arrow Bonsai has a system for judging tree ages but I can't find it on line at the moment. He core samples trees as part of his profession and has cut many dead trees to get more precise with his estimates for live ones. Most of his trees for sale have age estimates listed with them. www.goldenarrowbonsai.com

 

[fourteener]

So, in all of my reading, and viewing stuff online, I don't get how people estimate the ages of some of these trees. And some I find it hard to believe.

I do know that there are some old bonsai out there, don't get me wrong. But some I can't figure out. Especially some of these collected from nature ones. How can you tell the age of a specimen collected from nature? I was reading a blog and this one guy estimated the tree to be between 275 and 300 years. Dug up, brought it home and had it in a training pot a few years. I thought it looked more like 15-20 years. Is it possible to collect a tree that old in nature?

The 275-300 year old tree was probably my cedar. Here's how I estimated the age. I cut off a couple of old dead branches. Both of them were a little over an inch in diameter. After getting a very clean cross cut, sanding, oiling the cut to see the rings with some clarity, I took it to the university to get a picture under a microscope. We blew up the picture, counted between 70-75 rings on the branches. Roughly the same size branch, both with a very equal growth rate.

The actual trunk is about 8.5-9 inches. I think I'm being very conservative in my estimation. It is certainly not a 20 year old tree.

Ponderosa leave terminal bud scars that you can count. Andy Smith is also able to do core samples to count rings. People measure their estimates against trees that have died to see how close they were. That's the formula used to determine age. There are enough samples to have some degree of certainty about the issue.

 

[fourteener]

Tamarack are interesting from super slow growth bogs. Often the new bud for the year will not be able to extend a branch for lack of resources. The next year it will set a bud in the same place. Each year it does that it leaves a scar. You can count up the scars. I've found stands of tamaracks with a black flaky bark and the bud scars can have 30-40 years that you can count.

It's taking ten years to grow half an inch. That's when you've found the good stuff!

 

[JLauritsen]

The 275-300 year old tree was probably my cedar.

It wasn't your cedar. That one I can believe, especially after you describing how you guesstimate the ages. Thanks for that info.

The one I saw (I wish I could find the link again, but I cleared out my history the other day) looked more in size to your Scot Pine, than that cedar you have on your site.

 

[edprocoat]

Jlaur, I read an interesting article a year or two back about ancient Thuja growth and how they proofed age. They used core samples and had a link explaining the core sample which basically cut a plug out about the size of a lead in an automatic pencil and counted the rings microscopically. They had some interesting stuff like Thuja that was 500 + years old, a smallish looking pine tree, probably no more than 4 ft tall with about a 3 inch twisty trunk that was over 200 years old. They showed an aged juniper that looked like your average really nice Bonsai juni that was 168 years old.

ed