Gabe tries to figure out the age of the red oak in the backyard and in the process finds out a lot about the fallibility of common (non-invasive) tree-dating methods.
Gabe tries to figure out the age of the red oak in the backyard and in the process finds out a lot about the fallibility of common (non-invasive) tree-dating methods.
Gabe Long:
Hello, leafers Thank you for tuning in. I really appreciate it. I know there are a few of you because I check the download statistics every day. This is going to be a little bit shorter than a normal episode, Rebecca took a trip to LA, I took a trip to the emergency room because of food poisoning. But the show must go on. I'm going to do a short segment in response to our first review on Apple podcasts, which I really appreciate that you reviewed us pG WISN. I don't know if that's an acronym, or if I was supposed to pronounce that somehow. But anyone else out there listening, if you want to review us, please do. So review asked in part, how old is the red oak in our backyard. And so this segment is about my attempt to figure that out and why it's a little more complicated than some online resources would have you believe. Okay, so right here in the backyard, feeling a little strange talking to myself. And I've got my tools here, a tape measure, and some rope. And what I'm going to try to do without crushing too many of our plantings is get this rope around the tree at four and a half feet off the ground. The first step in this process of trying to determine the red oak Ah, so, tape measure four and a half feet, right there. And then here's the real trick, trying to whip this thing around. Wow, that was very lucky. Okay, got the rope around. And now, four and a half feet off the ground. Just about here. Alright, so now I'm taking my rope back, and I'm going to lay it out on the lawn measuring Okay, so we have 133 inches heading back inside. So I got my measurement 133 inches. actually doing this math right now, it's not just for show. Going to tree hugger dot coms article about estimating your trees age from its diameter, diameter equals circumference divided by pi. So 133 divided by 3.14 is 42 inches, so 42 inch diameter. And then diameter times four, which is a growth factor for Reto equals artvin 68. So, according to treehugger.com, the red oak is 168 years old. You say 168. I'll go over there. Did you say 168? I did say 168. So it's very old. So Rebecca, Rebecca's training the podcast now from bed?
Rebecca:
bed, but I just heard him say 168. I just heard you say 168. Well, full age how like confirmed is that?
Gabe Long:
So? That's a great question. I'm glad you asked. You're the perfect foil for this moment in the podcast. Because if you're a normal person, you'd go out and you would measure the circumference of your trunk. You say 168 That sounds great. I love that number. Okay, by normal person, you're
Rebecca:
a weird person. So
Gabe Long:
what do you I'm a weird person. So I read about these growth factor calculations. And I read that they're not super accurate. And I said, well, it's not good enough to know that it's not super accurate. I need to know how inaccurate it is right? Because if it's off by like 10 years, like great, that's, that's wonderful. If it's off by like 40%, then like, that number doesn't really mean a lot to me. So I started digging deeper and it turns out that the growth factors are based on forest land trees is the term used by the International Society of arboriculture tourists. Arbor culture Who came up with this methodology. And obviously, in a forest, the growing conditions are completely different than in a backyard, there's less access to water, but the soil isn't as disturbed. So it's like extremely variable. And nobody seemingly can tell you by what percentage off you might be. So what I decided to do is, rather than just using that single number, I would do a little more digging, and I would look at some other factors that might help me narrow down How old is this tree. So the first thing that I came across is, red oaks Do not hit their peak, a corn production until they're about 50 years old. So it's at least 50 years old,
Rebecca:
or 50 years old or more.
Gabe Long:
We know that buck Tommy corn, here, we get approximately a fuck ton of acorns every year. Rain, rain, rain, hail,
Rebecca:
rain here, baby when you're standing under it and fall. So
Gabe Long:
you can do that Google, I'll leave that one to you. We also know that this house was built in 1870. So that was only with the math here. How many years ago was that? 1970.
Rebecca:
warranty that we're not experts. In fact, we
Gabe Long:
cannot dig our phones out of our pockets to use the calculator app. Our house is 151 years old. The neighborhood in general was built around that time. That oak tree is right on the property line. So I've always thought like, oh, that would be interesting. If they didn't have, you know, large fences. Maybe they had a hedge dividing the properties or maybe they had a row of trees. And maybe that tree was planted around the time that the house was built. So that's 151 years, and maybe it wasn't planted from an acorn. Maybe it was planted as a small sapling. It was already five years old or something like that.
Rebecca:
Wow. I had never thought of that, that like when this house was built. Maybe they planted trees in the backyards intentionally. I never thought that that would be how that tree got there. I just assumed it was their first.
Gabe Long:
It also could be that I mean, I'm making a total guess it just the fact that it's right on the property line has always indicated to me that by the time people were building fences, it was already big enough that they were like, Oh, we shouldn't cut down this tree
Rebecca:
when they would have built this whole neighborhood. Would they have clear cut the whole thing in order to build all the houses?
Gabe Long:
What was farmland? Who was Ebenezer Dexter's farmland so he would have clear cut it
Rebecca:
so it was pretty clear cut. So I wonder if all the oldest trees were planted right around when all the houses were built?
Gabe Long:
Right? Presumably unless he left a couple of trees for his cows to graze under which I feel like such a detective right? We are getting further and further from anything interesting for you, our dear listener,
Rebecca:
very micro interesting only to us because we live here kind of thing.
Gabe Long:
But But I think the lesson maybe to take away is that it can be interesting road to go down thinking about the history of trees and the way that people interact with trees. I will say one of the things that made me think that maybe that tree was planted on the property line is that I know that these backyards were used as gardens for the house. So people were cultivating them people were paying attention to what was growing there. Anything else you're curious about what the trees
Rebecca:
very cool. I love thinking about the history. It feels very spooky to me sort of Is there any way for you to next do it another mini app about how to find out are trees, astrological sign the sun sign the moon sign maybe that's maybe we need to call in some bigger experts
Gabe Long:
for that. That's not covered by the International Society of arboriculture lists. But in the age of the internet, If you can dream it, somebody is already doing it and charging$45 an hour for
Rebecca:
are saying they're doing it and ready to take your money for it.
Gabe Long:
That's right. One other thing I will add, to give a little bit of legitimacy to this seemingly extremely amateurish process is that our breasts and other people who actually do this for a living do often use this kind of very local specific knowledge and the comparison of sizes of a given tree to the size of a tree that has a known age in order to try and estimate tree age because it's a inexact science and without taking a core sample and counting the ring. It's extremely difficult to really accurately estimate the age of a tree. So, you know, even if you're not perfectly accurate, you're only as inaccurate as the professionals. We hope you've enjoyed leafing out and if you ever have a gardening question that you want us to weigh in on, you can send us an email or better yet, email us a voice memo at leafing out pod@gmail.com and please follow us on Instagram at leafing out pot