Originally Posted by
YmoBeThere
Oh, yeah, but shadows are tricky things. Plus those methods work best on level ground and have large tolerances. I'm definitely not dealing with level ground. After the first few years where as budwom mentioned they leap, they definitely slow down growth wise. So, last year I got a measurement of 29 1/2 feet, this year I can tell the tree is taller but using shadows I only get 30 1/2 feet. Again with large tolerances, if I was high on the 29 and low on the 31, the growth rates appear more reasonable. Live oaks are generally viewed to grow 2-3 feet per year, but they clearly level off. My neighbor's tree is over 100 years old but hasn't gotten any taller than about 40'. But it is huge...