RE: Fruit Trees..
These things are hardly worth the investment. I really regret transforming my land into a farm/orchard hybrid.
Apples
BE 2 Harvests: 27 per (6 below market max, 16 above market min)
BE 3 Harvests: 18 per (15 below market max, 7 above market min)
Max Profit: 38 in 32 Hours/137 in (?)* Hours
Raspberries
BE 2 Harvests: 37 per (2 below market max, 24 above market min)
BE 3 Harvests: 25 per (14 below market max, 12 above market min)
Max Profit: 14 in 36 Hours/131 in (?)* Hours
Cherries
BE 2 Harvests: 52 per (5 below market max, 33 above market min)
BE 3 Harvests: 35 per (22 below market max, 16 above market min)
Max Profit: 46 in 56 Hours/274 in (?)* Hours
Max Profit is selling @ Max Price...1st listing is in 2 harvests, 2nd listing is in 3 harvests. * denotes that I have not had my trees revived and thus cannot say for sure as to how long three harvests takes.
Basically, in 2 harvests, you are making a little over/under 1 gold per hour selling at max price. To me, this is not worth the time/investment. The only good that comes out of harvesting these fruit trees is the XP gained.
I'm not even sure how successful people are at selling these fruits @ max price in their stands. Earlier, it didn't look like a lot of liquidity was happening @ max price. Therefore, all you could really hope for is NPC visitors paying the max price or fufilling orders.
So, in short, if you have a lot of cash on hand then I guess it isn't too terrible to invest in trees. But, if you still want to build up your farm by buying more production sites/animals/etc, do not put money into these things. It will take a considerable length of time to get your money back + a small profit (harvest time, liquidating inventory time).
I'm pretty much done with these things. I will just buy in the market to satisfy my needs. Basically if its listed for anything below the breakeven price per item, then it's a bargain (to either resell or to fulfill orders). And trust me, there is plenty of fruit listed for under the BE price...there's tons of noobs who think the trees are forever, or who simply do not even look at the raw numbers.