How long does a apple tree live.?

Question

I always thought that most apple trees were fairly short living ( around 50 years) but bear fruit quickly which is why people plant them so much. Howvever I just read in a book about "ancient apple trees" am I wrong or does the Author not know very much about trees?

Answer 1

Apple trees have the longest life span of fruit trees:

their productive phase takes from 4th-5th to 30th-40th year of life and normally can age up to 80 years.

This site reports  that one particular apple tree was nearly 100 years old:

http://www.bernwodeplants.co.uk/oldesttr...

This one in Vancouver was planted in 1826:

http://www.cityofvancouver.us/parks-recr...

and this one was sown in 1809 and is still growing today ( 2007 ):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/ar...