Frenchymanny
Sapling
What are the guidelines, tips, to estimate the age of a larch?
Manny
Manny
Yamadori larch age estimation
- Thread starter Frenchymanny
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rockm
Spuds Moyogi
Get a crosscut saw. saw the trunk all the way through about six inches up from the soil. Count the rings in the trunk.
Sorry but that is the only real way to get an actual age for a temperate zone tree.
It kills the tree or at least if severely limits design potential.
Estimating age is a very hard thing to do. Some trees look older than they are. Others are younger than they look. This leeway can be literally hundreds of year from The actual age
inexperienced bonsaiists get hung up on age. Unless you have a tree that’s over 300 or so age doesn’t make much difference
What does make a difference is if it LOOKS old. If it does, real age isn’t consequential
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Javaman4373
Shohin
I collected a larch (tamarack) from a bog and it had a dead trunk section below the water level that I cut off, allowing an estimation of its age by counti
ng the rings. It is now about 45 yr old. 
ng the rings. It is now about 45 yr old.
rockm
Spuds Moyogi
You can get lucky with some collected trees. My live oak had a big primary supporting root that was one of its first. The big root was cut during collection. i reduced it some more as well. Those cuts exposed the trees growth rings pretty well. I was able to count up to 350 before the rings got too dense to define well enough.
Attachments
jeremy_norbury
Omono
Once they get to about 40-50 years old they develop what I can only describe as cracking bark - turning to flakes.
This one is now 43 years old in this photo. When it was 20 years old there was nothing like this on the trunk.
IMG_6153 by Jerry Norbury, on FlickrFrenchymanny
Sapling
Thank you all. I asked that question because getting older my wife asked me about the trees and their age. I never thought about the number itself, but like you mentioned it is about how old the tree looks!
rockm
Spuds Moyogi
Fwiw, bonsai in notable collections or of some reputation have two bonsai “ages.” One is the actual age of the tree. The other is years in bonsai cultivation or conversion to bonsai culture. A recently collected 300 year old pine can look younger than a 50 year old pine that has been under bonsai cultivation for only 40 years. The latter tree has been developed to enhance the illusion of age while the older tree has not had those visual effects appplied to it
