hello my wife and i bought a waterfall this spring,it was a 20 gallon container and was very healthy. we bought it from a very dpendable local grower who specializes in japanese maples from 5-90 gallon. we placed it in the ground in our garden and its doing great . it is in the notheast side and gets sun from about 700am to about 100pm and then is in shade.the grower said it is about 8-10 years old. it is a grafted tree,its trunk is about 1-1/2"-2" around. can anyone tell us if the age is correct that we were told. if anyone is interested in seeing some of the plants this grower has the web site is www.capewaynursery.com here are several pictures of our tree now.
I don't think there's a way to determine age for sure. A lot depends on the growing conditions of the plant and its natural growth rate, which can all vary. For example, the plant in the picture below (A.p.d. 'Watnong') is over 5 years old! The grower puts the graft date on the tag, and this one is 4/7/03 (you can read it in the photo if you enlarge it). I asked them about it, because I could hardly believe the tree was that old, and they said that was correct. Evidently they got behind potting up their new grafts and it stayed in a 4 inch pot for 2 years, and so it got behind in growth. Its perfectly healthy and is now starting to grow at a regular rate, but it sort of became a natural bonsai for a while! I put it in a larger pot as soon as I got it, by the way. So, I don't think there's any way to look at a plant and know for sure how old it is, unless it was a tiny new graft - those are easy to spot. Regards, K4
Arborists and scientists drill sample using special tubular drill to the middle of the trunk and just count growth rings. This can be done without danger to larger trees and they plug the hole. Same principle might not suit for this small diameter trunk. Growth or strenght propably does not suffer but start of some kind of disease from the wound is possible.
Look closely at the bark. Each leaf pair has a small (narrow) blackish ring round the shoot, while each annual node (where a bud opened) leaves a broader blackish ring round the shoot, marking where the winter bud scales fell off. Counting the number of broader blackish rings (but NOT the narrow ones!) crossed from the apex of a shoot, down to the base of the tree, should give the age of the plant. The only problem is that after a few years, the bark becomes rough (as seen in the photo of the trunk) and the blackish rings no longer obvious. But you may well be able to get a rough idea by counting back as far as they are visible, and then estimating the rest judging on the length of trunk left. This will be easier to do in winter, when there's no leaves getting in the way of seeing the branches clearly.
