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

Sometimes you need 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 differ. Also the tree species has an effect. This is significant both for counting the years of life on sawn or felled trees, and, if necessary, not interfering in the natural cycle of their development. We consider all the simple options available.

Sawn or felled

Many people have probably heard how to determine the age of a tree by rings called annual. It is enough to calculate their number, usually quite clearly visible at the site of the saw cut of the trunk.

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

There are some subtleties for different breeds. In this case, how to determine the age of a tree by tree rings depends on the plant belonging to deciduous or coniferous species. If the tree is made of broadleaf species, it is better to produce a saw cut diagonally, this will increase the width of the usually thin and difficult to distinguish rings.

Presler's incremental gimlet (age)

Our ancestors took care of how to determine the age of a tree by its trunk without causing any significant damage to it 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 inside the cylinder with a thread at one end. The other edge has four faces. It is on this side that a handle is fixed that simultaneously functions as a case. The tool also contains a plate with grooves.

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

As the tool immerses in the wood, the latter fills the cavity of the tube. After the drill has been introduced to the required depth, a groove 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 easily calculate the number of annual layers. However, one should always consider the distance from the roots of the sample. You can determine the age of the tree more accurately only by adding to the number obtained by counting the rings the number of years needed to reach the height at which the core was taken. It depends on the breed of the plant and the conditions of its development.

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

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

This device is equipped with an eyepiece and a lens. A core is placed in it and, focusing, consider the structure of wood increased by optics.

There are also several methods for determining the age of trees without using any tools.

Conifers - counting the number of years lived by whorls and bark

The features of calculating the life time of some conifers allow this to be done quite accurately and easily, without using mechanisms. In pine, spruce, cedar, fir, it is enough to count whorls located on the trunk.

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

A whorl is a fan-like divergence of branches. They are on the trunk. Count them. Now 3 should be added to the existing value 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 resulting number should be considered the age of the tree.

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

After another similar time period has elapsed - at the age of 130-150 years, a smooth bark will remain only on the upper half of the tree trunk, and in the lower half it will become 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 the 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 growth.

This method allows you to find out the age of the tree without harming it, with an error of 1-2 years. It is most often used in gardening. 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 branches in the crown) branch. At the base of each year-old shoot, an influx is formed that resembles a ring. By counting such gains, it is fairly 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 inflows are quite difficult to determine in plants whose age exceeds 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.

Seedlings of fruit trees

Separately, maturity recognition of seedlings should be discussed.

A plant that has sprouted in the 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. The one-year-old seedling has not yet given side branches. Accordingly, there will be no traces of their removal. The roots are no longer than 35 cm, but usually no shorter than a quarter meter.

Particular attention should be paid to seedlings, originally from subtropical zones. They are able to start branching in the first year under favorable conditions. Unscrupulous sellers can pass them off as a more mature plant, but, as a result, the southern seedling will not tolerate the winter of the middle lane.

How to determine the age of the tree by the diameter of the trunk

Such a 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. Indicators will depend on its type, area, environmental conditions of the region and the growing area of ​​the tree in particular.

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

To do this, you will either need a special measured fork, or you will have to do with a soft tape measure, a centimeter of a tailor.

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

According to the circumference, the diameter is calculated using a mathematical formula known since high school: D (diameter) = L (circumference) / Pi (constant value, the value is 3.14).

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

To calculate age, the diameter should be divided by the growth rate (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 depends on many external factors.