Old ones keep being resurrected because newbies or spammers post comments and questions to them. It's irritating, I know.

Threads on GW are never deleted.....unless they create some sort of unpleasant controversy or argument or are against GW policy and even then, just the offensive or objectionable responses are edited out. Eventually they age out and do get archived and are found only by doing searches, both here on GW and by topic with other search engines. Google still turns up comments I made on another gardening forum-type message board I participated in more than a decade ago!

But there is no limit on responding to GW threads regardless how old they are. Like rhizo says, the old threads only get resurrected if new posters tack on to them. For some odd reason, few seem to be able to a) read the date and realize the thread is multiple years old and very stale and b) read the forum instructions and post their own question in a new thread if not answered directly in a previous, old thread. And then there are the spammers who have nothing of any importance to say and just like to stir things up......not much we can do about it.

Hi alaMel. Welcome! I like continuing discussions from 10 and 12 years ago. Many questions are fully answered in old posts. Why reinvent the wheel? Some good threads, like good gardens, take years to develop. Have fun!