Age of fig

[Stevie_B]

G’day all,
Recently picked up a fig which I’ve just chopped. I was wondering if any one can tell how old it might be from the rings? I’m not really sure what I’m looking at.
Thanks

[shibui]

Looks like you'd need a much closer view of the cut to be able to make out where any growth rings are.
Counting rings is only an approximation for age. Growth rings show where fast growth starts and stops. In most cases that reflects winter and summer but some trees grow and rest several times a year, especially if it experiences bad conditions like summer drought or fire. Something like that can put on extra growth rings.
I have not even checked to see if tropicals like figs actually have growth rings.

[Per PF]

According to Jerry Meislik and his book "The World of Ficus Bonsai", growth rings are a very rough estimate since figs can have many growth spurts per year. Trunk thickness is also very dependant on growth conditions.

[melbrackstone]

I'm guessing it's around 3 - 6 years old, depending on how good the seasons have been. Going on my limited knowledge of figs growth patterns here in Qld.

[Stevie_B]

yeah no worries, just for interest sake and to understand trees better.
It was in a pot mostly but had rooted into the ground apparently. Been there for at least 10 years according to the owner.
There seemed a lot of rings for the apparent age, from what i could tell.
thanks for the replies,

[TimS]

Yeah I never got the hang of counting age rings and never stressed too much since I wasn’t planning of hard chopping trunks just to work out the age.

Too many factors to really guess age anyway, from species to growth habit, to how it was grown (in pot all
It’s life vs in ground all its life)

I have a ground grown ginkgo with a trunk the thickness of my wrist that’s 26 years old for certain and a shohin Ezo spruce that not much more than thickness of my thumb that I’m reliably informed is about 40 years old so it’s all academic.

At the end of the day age is not superior to quality as IMO a young tree that’s been assiduously worked on from day dot (ie rycemans pines) is far superior to a 20 year old stump (ie my ginkgo)