The mark of a man is one who plants trees when he is old. Who knows how long I will love and hopefully my children will enjoy our orchard and keep planting trees.
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As long as I’m physically able, I cannot imagine not having fruit trees. It’s only been about five years since I planted my first one. Good exercise, mentally challenging, and never boring what more could you want late in life . Sometimes I just look at them and smile . So if all they ever produce is just making me smile that is good enough.
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I got my first home in 2020. I always knew I wanted some sort of edible landscape. 4 years later I have over 30 fruit trees in ground. I am hoping my 2 young daughters will be willing to help me harvest the bounty several years from now…
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Things grow slowly here. I’ve got a bunch of fruit trees coming into production, but many will take another decade or so to get anywhere near full production.
I may have another day or a few more decades to live. I’ll plant at least a few trees every year until I’m unable to do so.
I fully expect that many of the trees I’ve planted will be removed by the next owner. Not many folks have the time or desire to take care of fruit trees.
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That’s just the way it goes.
I’ve slowly gotten to the point where I have a few fairly reliable trees. I should have been more ruthless in culling the clinkers.
When I was a kid, practically every house had a citrus tree from the orchards planted around the turn of the last century. A real overall beneficial thing.
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There is a lovely quote something along the lines of “be a man who plants a tree he knows he will never enjoy the shade or fruits of.” It’s the only way the following generations will have any food or shade. While I’m young I can’t imagine not continuing to plant trees as I acquire more land, I’ve already started planting in my friends yards.
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I only really started planting and playing with trees after I saw my dog loving fruit and then my daughter seemingly knowing what a peach is on a peach tree before she was 6 months old and her first sentence ever was “I WANT BLUEBERRIES!” at around 4-5 months or so when we started introducing her to solids and gave her some blueberry jam. She loved it so much that she had a full blown moment of consciousness 
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I’m 34 but due to injuries, I have the spine and foot of a 70 year old lady according to some of my doctors. My daughter turns 2 in November but since she is a preemie, she would technically be 2 in January’ish. I’ve spent countless months reading on childcare and studying food in general since i got pregnant since i lived states away from my family at the time and knew i would have 0 help for the majority of my pregnancy along with the beginning of her childhood. Plus just very little relationship in general with my family and my husband was on back to back deployments and training exercises. My findings concluded that children being fed home grown without excess pesticides or whatever they spray and put on commercial food these days, typically have a higher IQ than those on commercial everything. Maybe it’s luck or genes, I’m not sure, but my daughter thankfully has only ever been sick ONCE in her almost 2 years, started speaking by the time she was 1, can form short sentences before 2, and is well beyond her peers in terms of mental development.
For this, i will continue to plant fruit trees and grow things for her to eat as much as i can. I can barely walk some days and my husband jokes at me about gardening on sheer willpower cause I’ll still try to garden and take care of my plants and babies even if I’m past my limit and shaking uncontrollably from pain. I love being able to share my bounties as well when i do get them and I love sharing these experiences of harvesting with my daughter and dogs even more. Every morning, i go outside to pick her some blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries to add to her breakfast. I plan on continuing this as long as i can. I had a very harsh and abusive childhood and most of my life until just about 8 years ago and foraging for food and berries with whoever i can find that’ll follow me into the woods were some of my best memories growing up and even into adulthood. I want to give her similar memories but without having to round up random kids who’s parents also did not care or adult strangers to follow her to try to find food and berries 
sorry for the long reply. Your question hit a little hard on me.
Not every fruit she picks is perfect 
but she’s been picking things with me before she could even walk 
i will continue to plant new trees of new varieties and everything gardening for her until I physically can’t.
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Everyone that knows me knows that if and when i croak, put my ashes in with my garden let me fertilze the grass and my ghost will probably hang around tending to things for the generations to come.
There’s stories of people still seeing the old man in Kubota Gardens (Seattle, WA) still tending to the gardens every now and then. He passed away MANY moons ago but from as long as i can remember, I’ve heard stories of people seeing an old Japanese man in the gardens in the early morning or evenings tending to the plants after everyone’s left in high school, it was a thing to try to catch a glimpse of him as well back in the day
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+1 on planting berries.
In my zone, I’m pivoting away from fruit trees and focusing more on nut and avocado trees. High sugar fruits are not the best thing to eat very often (IMO), at any age. Whether or not I live to enjoy these new plantings (at their peak) never crosses my mind. It’s enjoyable to plant and nourish things & watch them grow.
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I have a neighbor who planted a pomegranate tree at 82 and was giving away the excess fruit a few years later. I had never tasted a pomegranate like that! I ended up planting my own, a Parfianka, and thanking her for it. That friend passed away this year days before her 98th birthday, so she not only harvested her own fruit for about 15 years, she got to see the effect she’d had. My neighbors have been getting pomegranates from me for a goodly while now.
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The longer I do this the more I realize that what I really enjoy is watching the plants grow and (hopefully) thrive, I get a strong sense of satisfaction and enjoyment just walking around the garden looking at things growing. Of course I enjoy eating the fruit when it’s fresh, but I’m not actually super keen on all the processing when late summer/fall rolls around. It’s practically a full time job when your trees start to mature. I do it anyway though as I can’t stand waste. Give lots of it to friends and family too.
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Even if you never see it fruit, a tree planted is a net positive for the environment. Plus someone will enjoy it, even if it’s not you. My parents kept the apple trees from the previous property owner when they bought their place. Same with my next door neighbour, when he died he left behind a greenhouse full of figs that the new neighbours still enjoy. And my entire family is so excited to see fruit on my grandma’s pawpaw trees for the first time, despite her never getting to see them. That is to say, not everyone wants to bulldoze everything to perfect treeless lawns the moment they buy a property. Some young person will come along and love and enjoy it just like you intend to do yourself.
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Ashes! Too much basic (alkaline). I want to be shredded and mulch my trees and rosebushes with me.
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I just turned 70. I am still planting. Not just fruit trees, but lots of shade and ornamentals. Most will not even begin to provide any real shade until after I am long gone. Reforesting 40 acres with hundreds of conifers, maples and oaks.
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Interesting question. I’m 72. I have ~100 fig trees in pots. That resulted in 2000-3000 figs per season when the trees were young. Now it’s 4000-5000. Just picking and drying 100-200 figs per day is too much work. I also have 15 apple trees on MM.111. Mostly I intended them for cider. That will require a lot of picking and pressing, not to mention fermenting. Then there’s the berries and peaches and chestnuts and persimmons. . . .
So yes, output is a factor. I’m scaling back the fig collection. Once I see how the persimmons perform, I’ll probably scale back to 1-2 Americans, 1-2 Asians, 1-2 hybrids. With apples, I won’t plant anything new unless it’s replacing something else (e.g., I’m removing some trees that proved too susceptible ti CAR.
That said, this year I did plant or graft 2-3 new mulberries, 1 new American persimmon, 1 new Asian persimmon, and 3 new Chinese chestnuts. Much of it is experimental – throw it up against a wall to see what sticks! You never know when some new fruit just will blow you away.
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All I can say is Wow ! You guys make me feel so much better I am 70 also. Just started planting fruit trees four years ago . I have 22 now, constantly replacing some every year. Family and friends have been questioning my sanity. “Why so many ?
My answer is because I want them.
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You get these little signs. The other day I was bummed many of my trees drowned, Today I walk by my dead head m111 pile and notice a sickly yellow shoot. Go over there and one of my gave up for dead Hudson Golden Gem grafts was alive. Took it. Trimmed it up a bit. Put it back in a new pot of fresh soil. Perked right up this afternoon.
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I may not have apples, stonefruit or a garden, but I think I’ll always grow figs and raspberries. Where I go a fig tree will follow, whether for us or for the next family.
I have very little pest issues with figs and it is a low maintenance bush in ground. No watering, next to no spraying. Plus propagation is easy, and fruit is abundant. 
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Exactly the right answer to give them. Enjoy the things you like.
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My DH has ordered our sons to put his ashes under his grandmothers apple tree in our back yard so he can drop apples on my head… and yes i will continue to plant until i cant just to annoy him
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