How long will these pines live?

[Ruthless]

My husband planted some scotch pines for use as Christmas trees in '88 or '89, and I've included pictures of them below. Some of them were never cut down and have grown to be quite large. My husband had heard that scotch pines live about 20 years before catching disease and dying. Is there any truth to this?

Thanks guys!

They're both about 15 to 20 feet. This second picture is of the one on the right next to a hackberry farther down the hill. This pine will probably be coming down this fall anyway, but were curious as to the longevity of the other...

 

[wysiwyg]

I've spent the past 4 years removing scotch pines from our yard that were planted in the late 1970's. From my experience, your scotch pines are at about their peak right now. During the next 10 years, they will begin shedding their lower branches and becoming rather "naked" in appearance. They may last a bit longer because they are planted pretty far apart...scotch pines have absolutely no tolerance for shade. Sawfly larva love to eat up the needles too. Good luck.

 

[pinus]

Depending from the growing site Scotch pines are living averagely 180-300 years, so, thats is only rumor about their short living cycle.
Some trees are living 400-500 years also.
Scotch pine is light demanding species, but less demanding than larch and birch.
On open growing site its canopy is wide and tree is reaching heigth only ca 15-20 meters. In the case of the competition it reaches on good soils heigth around 35-45 meters at age 150-250 yeras.
On pic-s you trees have a more dense canopy than scotchs have here. Not after 10 years but after 50-100 yeras the lower brances will partially die in yours case.

 

[Ruthless]

I was astounded at reading your figures for average lifespan of these pines, Pinus.... so much I had to do a search myself... amazing!!! :jawdrop: I had no idea. I did read more about infestations that tend to occur with these pines as well.

Thanks so much for your help!