I've heard about the brittle branches myself and that it has a short livespan. But, everything I heard bad about it was from various people back northeast (Ohio/Pennsylvania/NY). I think that the extreme cold and ice storms that fly through that area are what cause it to be "brittle". We rarely get ice storms here and I've seen some of these trees that are 20+ years old, so I'm not going to worry about it.
Didn't know about the iron.. wonder if that works with maples, too!
