I have seen a chestnut tree that is 27 ft in its circumference, its in a woodland,approx how old is it.?

Question

I have had some answers but most involve cutting the tree down! The tree is 27 ft in circumference, in a forest, it would be interesting to know how old it may be and i thought there may be an approximate way of working it out by using the circumference.

Answer 1

its about 325 years old, it's approx 3/4 of a foot for one year of tree life...

Answer 2

I know of a rough guide which I was told applied to oak trees but maybe it would apply to a chestnut tree as well and that is that a tree puts on approximately 1 inch of growth every year, some years it will be less and some more depending on conditions. therefore a tree that measures 100 inches in circumference at 4 ft from the ground is appoximately 100 years old.

Answer 3

Wow! Are you aware how lucky you are? Most people would not even know what a chestnut looks like, since most (99.9%) died in the early decades of the 20th century from chestnut blight. A core sample is what most professionals (dendrologists) would use to determine the tree's age without cutting it down.
This is the URL for the American Chestnut Foundation
http://www.acf.org/default.htm
who are focusing their efforts in research to develp a strain resistant to the blight.
While there I noticed there had been a number of trees discovered not far from my hometown. This is an excerpt from the Washington Post about the discovery -

"Then these magnificent hardwoods, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904."

Sounds like your tree could be very close to its maximim size. I'd have to say it's 350 years - give or take a week or two.

jeff

Answer 4

Or you can use something that will drill into the trunk so you are able to pull out a plug so you can count the rings, sorry but there is no way to tell the age just by the circumference, some trees grow faster and or slower in different areas, becauses of different circumstances surrounding the tree.

Answer 5

Other than a core sample it will be very hard to estimate. Trying to guess the ring size to work out is near on impossible as the thickness of tree rings varies throughout the trees life, sometimes they are very close together almost joined at times indicating a very poor/ slow growth period or they can the tottal opposite showing a high growth rate.So saddly the only is to cut the bugger down but i wouldnt, its obviously been there a lonf time and so it should remain for the next person to come along in 30 or 50 years and ponder its age.

Answer 6

You could get away with a small core sample.
Rough shot I would say about 340 years. there was one in the paper down here a while ago and its like a wishing tree, anyway they did a core sampl with a circumference of 24 feet and this was 290

Answer 7

Using the circumference calculate the diameter/radius and divide by the average tree ring size to come close.

Answer 8

I haven't the foggiest