How Old Is Your Tree: How to Tell How Old a Tree Is

The majority of Americans discover in childhood that a tree’s trunk is composed of rings, one for each year that the tree has lived. Although this is generally accepted by scientists, it does not offer a useful tree age calculator for living trees.

Knowing when a backyard tree was planted and how old it was when planted makes estimating its age simple. That information is frequently not available. A tree bore can be used to count its rings, but the tree may get damaged in the process. Continue reading to find out how to determine a tree’s age without harming it.

Age of Tree Rings

Did you know that the science of determining the age of trees is known as dendrochronology? It entails the dating and analysis of tree annual rings.

This lengthy word combines three distinct terms:

• ology, which is the field in which
• Chron refers to time, especially historical events and processes.
• Dendro is the word for tree.

Although dendrochronologists are able to count the rings on a stump, they frequently examine the rings on standing, living trees. They accomplish this by inserting a special kind of drill into the tree trunk, which removes a sample of wood the size of a straw with a diameter of about 4 millimeters. In order to stop damage and illness, they also possess the tools to seal off this tree hole.

How to Determine the Age of Tree Rings

Dendrochronology states that each tree ring has two layers, each of which represents a year. During the spring and summer growing season, one layer forms. This layer is typically thicker and has a light color. The second layer, which is thinner and darker in color and indicates slower growth, appears at the end of the summer and early fall.

But dendrochronologists do more than just tally tree rings. To get an accurate tree dating, they cross-date the wood samples after giving each ring a single calendar year.

How to Determine a Tree’s Age Without Drilling

A specialized tree drill needed to extract a core sample from a trunk is not readily available to most people. They also lack the knowledge necessary to properly seal the wound. This implies that a different, easier method for determining a tree’s age is required for the typical gardener.

Thankfully, there is a method for estimating a tree’s age and determining the approximate age of a live, standing tree. The circumference of the tree trunk must be measured at 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) above the ground and converted to inches. To find the diameter, divide the resultant number by 3.14, or pi. This is referred to as DBH, or diameter at breast height.

You multiply the DBH by the growth factor for the species of tree to obtain the estimate. For cottonwood, this can be as low as 2, and for shagbark hickory, as high as 7.5. White oak, white birch, and black cherry are five; linden and pin oak are three; river birch is five; red oak, American elm, and green ash are four; red maple and black walnut are four; and ironwood, dogwood, and redbud are seven.

Your white oak tree is 110 years old if it has a DBH of 22 inches (56 cm), which is equivalent to 22 x 5. Although this is only an estimate, it does provide you with an approximate age estimate for the tree.