How a tree's photosynthesis changes through the year, from leaf-out to leaf fall
When trees photosynthesize most, how a new leaf spends stored sugar before it earns any, what drought and short days do, and what evergreens do in winter.
Topic
Growth & age
Articles on how trees grow and age: how to tell a tree's age, how fast a planted tree really grows, what old growth looks like, and when oaks leaf out.
How fast a planted tree really grows is the question behind most of these. The growth estimator projects height and trunk size by species and site, and every plant page states the mature size and pace to expect.
Articles tagged Growth & age
How fast native trees grow: a year's growth by species, soil and sun
How many feet a year native trees grow, how soil, sun, weeds and deer speed or slow them, why fast-growing trees die younger, and how to read growth off a twig.
Reading a nursery listing: seedling, sapling, caliper, bare-root and potted, and what a tree's age tells you
What 2-0 and caliper mean on a tree listing, why age and height say less than stem and roots, and how bare-root, potted and burlapped trees differ when you buy.
Why a small sapling catches up with a big transplanted tree, and often passes it
How long a transplanted tree takes to establish per inch of trunk, why a small sapling catches up with a big one, and when a bigger tree is worth the price.
Chinese chestnut: size, growth rate, bark, and how it differs from the American chestnut
How big a Chinese chestnut gets and how fast, what its bark, leaves and nuts look like, and the differences from the American chestnut it stands in for.
What grows back when a field is left alone
An abandoned field in the East goes from goldenrod to redcedar, sweetgum, tuliptree and black locust in a decade, and to oaks in a century. How to steer it.
What old growth actually looks like
Well under one percent of eastern forest is old growth. The six outward signs of an old tree, where old stands hide, and how to steer a woodlot back toward it.
When oaks leaf out, and why two of them never agree
The order in which an eastern woodland leafs out, why two oaks ten feet apart can break bud two weeks apart, and how to tell a late oak from a sick one.
How old is that tree, really?
Forest trees live far longer than the lifespans quoted online, and open-grown trees are usually younger than they look. Both errors ignore how trees grow.
Why almost every tree height you read is too tall
Why the tangent method overstates big hardwoods by ten to thirty feet, how the sine method with a laser fixes it, and how tall eastern trees really get.