How Old?

Hello everyone,
I recently purchased my first Japanese Maple, a Dwarf Red. It is 22 inches tall in a 1 gal. container. Could someone give me estimate as to its age. I would guess 2 years old since the average seems to be a foot a year in growth but would like to hear from someone with experience.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

 

Results vary. You need to "read" the individual specimen to get an idea of age. Look for internodes.

 

Thanks for the reply Ron. Could you elaborate on your post? How can you estimate age by the number of internodes?

 

You're trying to count flushes of growth, internodes being the spaces between the nodes. If the plant flushed more than once per year, even this will produce a skewed result (until you learn to recognize such subtleties).

 

Look for rings of bud scars at the internodes, they're usually visible for quite a few years in maples. As Ron points out, you can get two flushes in a year but it isn't common: a count of the internodes is likely to be pretty close to the age in years.