Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
Generally speaking, small fruit trees do not live as long as big hardwood trees. It takes 15-20 years for a high quality hardwood to reach youthful maturity.

There is no “one size fits all” life span for the generic class of fruit trees.

I don’t care about being politically correct when it comes to treeism! Haha. And well, you all brought it up! So whatcha think about this tree sexism problem detailed in Scientific American? I blame not so much trees themselves as the tree loving professionals who think they know everything:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...own-allergies/

tldr: urban and exurban foresters have planted way too many male trees because they do not drop messy fruit. But they add air pollution in their excessive pollen, making humans sick. Hmmmmm...
And what about the stinky female gingko trees? More discrimination there!

Honestly, for me it comes down to some growing feeling that I don't want to be civilized. The word "culture" or "cultivar" says to me "Just leave nature as it is!" Why do we need to mess with it? Why is a silver maple so QUALITATIVELY DIFFERENT than a sugar maple? Since I have been highly "cultured" as a white privileged elite for over 60 years this has been a huge identify shake-up for me.

So, in answer to your question about the Scientific American article, it's ridiculous.