Thursday 23 October 2008

WHAT DO THE SIZES OF TREES LISTED IN CATALOGUES MEAN?

Trees in the UK are usually listed by trunk size and by size of container. For instance a tree listed as a 12-14 is a tree with a single stem. The girth (circumference of the stem measured 1metre above the ground level) is in the the range 12-14cms. This girth is about three times the diameter at this point. By happy coincidence, for quite a lot of these standard trees (a standard tree has a clear stem up to at least 1.8metres or 6ft with a formed head above) the height of the tree in feet is close to the girth in centimetres. So a 12-14cm girth tree is likely to have a height of around 12-14 feet. Of course this is not an absolute rule.

Sometimes trees are sold with several stems (called multi-stemmed) and these usually have an overall height listed in a catalogue instead of a girth.

Pot sizes are often given but it may be hard to imagine them. Start with the information that a standard bucket is around 10 litres. Trees in pots up to sizes of about 50 litres can often be moved by one strong person and up to around 75litres by two people. Large trees in pots bigger than this will usually need machinery to move, lift and plant them and may weigh a lot. For instance a specimen tree in a pot of 350litres may weigh in the range of 350kg.

To give some idea of pot sizes, a 70litre pot will usually be around 45cms high and 50cms diameter and a 250litre pot may be 65cms high and 70cms diameter.

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