Can we talk about counting growth rings on a stump cut...

I was out on a job last week in a client's backyard in Oakville, cutting down a big old silver maple that had some rot near the base. After we felled it and I was cleaning up the stump, I actually stopped and counted the rings for fun. There were 86 rings, which put it planted right around the late 1930s... but here's the thing. The rings on the south side were way wider than the north side, like almost double the space between them. I always knew trees grow more on the sunny side, but seeing that big of a difference on one stump really hit me. Made me wonder how often we really pay attention to that when we're figuring out a tree's health or lean. Has anyone else ever measured the ring spacing on a fresh cut and got surprised by how uneven it was?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaretramirez1mo ago

Honestly, that's a really solid observation and I've seen the same thing in my own yard with a maple that was up against a fence. The north side rings were so tight you'd need a magnifying glass to count them, and the south side looked like someone had spaced them out with a ruler. For anyone reading this, a quick pro tip is to always check the reaction wood on the side with the tight rings, that's usually where the tension is building up and where you'll see cracks or a lean developing over time. If you ever do a ring count on a stump that's getting flagged for removal and see that big of a difference, it's worth noting for the next tree nearby because the soil conditions and shade patterns are probably similar.

hannah3201mo ago

I read somewhere that trees in Ontario can show ring differences of up to 40% between the sunny and shady sides, especially in open grown trees like that silver maple. The rot near the base might have also played a role, since decay can slow down growth on that side even more over time. It makes me wonder if arborists should do a quick ring count on suspect stumps more often to spot lean or weakness before it becomes a hazard. Did you notice if the uneven rings matched up with any cracks or reaction wood in the trunk?

blakestone1mo ago

Up to 40% difference" is way low honestly. I've cut stumps where the sunny side rings were literally 3 or 4 times as wide as the shady side, especially on open grown trees with no competition. That 40% figure might be from some study on forest grown trees where the canopy evens things out more. On a backyard silver maple with full south sun and a building or fence on the north side, the difference can be huge. I've seen 90 year old oaks where the south side rings are like a half inch wide per year and the north side is barely an eighth inch. So while hannah320 isn't wrong that there's a difference, it can be way bigger than 40% in real world conditions. And yeah, the rot almost certainly made that side even narrower over time. Definitely worth checking ring spacing on any stump that's getting flagged for a removal, but don't be surprised if the difference is way more extreme than those numbers.