Metasequoia sub types and measuring them

8 months ago

I have two of these in my front yard, an Ogon in back as well as a 3 meterish rooted cutting of the big tree on the right.

My old Arbor Day tree on the right seems to want to grow a bit shorter and thicker than the one on the left which was planted a good decade or more later. The newer one is probably growing faster. Does anyone remember a bit of talk a few years back about there being 3 sub types of Metasequoia? My google and duck duck go skills fail me.

I've decided to go the how many mowers tall is it method. Of course I have failed to measure my mower's height. The smaller one on the left is actually just a little closer than the mower so it's height needs rounded down from 9 1/2 mowers to 9.

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Comments (6)

ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6
8 months ago
Get thee to a clinometer...
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
Original Author
8 months ago
last modified: 8 months ago
I rolled off 100ft on level ground to my big Quercus imbricaria the measured the angle to a high fairly centered leaf with my old galaxy note and came up with 90 something feet which seems reasonable.

Today I measured the mower seat height and got 44 inches. I feel decent being uphill the trees to eliminate some distortion.

44x13= 572

572/12= 47 2/3 feet for my big 2004ish vintage Arbor Day tree. I'll add this tree releaders constantly. Right now for example it has a "Y" shaped top if u can zoom in enough.

44x9 = 396

396 / 12 = 33 feet for that 2010ish skinnier version Musser Forest sourced Metasequoia I had hiding in the shade in a pot for a bit.

Now I need a drone and a length of kite string to try another method....

Oh, and thank you for teaching me what a clinometer is.
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ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6
8 months ago
You are absolutely welcome.
davidrt28 (zone 7)
8 months ago
" Get thee to a clinometer... "

Or just a 8 foot 2X4 - would be a bit more useful for this sort of thing
ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6
8 months ago
Carry many 2x4s in your pocket?
bengz6westmd
8 months ago
last modified: 8 months ago
I put a piece of bright ribbon on a trunk & measure it from the ground. Back off to get the whole tree in a pic. View the pic w/a image program like Microsoft paint w/gridding, and compare your measured ribbon height's grid length with the total grid length of tree top to bottom. There's some tiny perspective/correction for that method, but pretty much insignificant.