I think you and I and a few other people here need to set up the inaugural chapter of Orchardaholics Anonymous. You are still just a mild case; I started with 10 apple trees and went to 150 the next year. I also bought many of those varieties from Cummins, about seven years ago. Since you already bought them you will be figuring out how they are on their own so I'm not going to give you a long low-down unless you have specific questions. Do watch out on the Dabinette, that one takes forever to fruit. Nothing on it for me yet. I found many of the English cider apples don't have much tannin in my climate and I took them out, but for sweet cider that is not so important.

Scott

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about the OA meetings. I am going to make a little "Vintage Cider" so I hope they do ok. I started with 5 trees from walmart 3 years ago. The next year I fell victim to Autumn Ridge nursery's low price and bought around 20. Stuff grew just dont know what it is so I moved them to a less prime location where they can grow and i can see what they are in a few years. Last year I planted 40 some from reputable nurseries and another 20 this year will bring me up to 70 good trees. I also have 25 grown from seed planted in a clearing in my woods for deer.
I will take any input into the trees, they wont ship until next spring so i can try changing some things if need to.

"Hello, my name is 'Gone' and I am a named-cloneaholic."

Fortunately my addictions are to southern pears, muscadines, and rabbiteye blueberries, each having some reasonable maximum number ever being identified. Thus I am nearing the end in main collecting.

Hello, My name is Chills and I think I'm in the right place (though I can say that apples are not one of my prime obsessions (I've only got 5)

I've got an eighth of an acre and I've got more than 100 fruiting plants growing (in ground or in containers). Space alone keeps my collection in bounds (and I've been at the point of pulling plants out to put in new ones for a couple years)

At least among us here this is somewhat normal...lol

~Chills

PS I've considered Muscadines for the past 2 years, but could I do them in 15 gal pots?

"I've considered Muscadines for the past 2 years, but could I do them in 15 gal pots?"

I've eaten them even when growing in 10 gallon pots. But mine will soon go into the ground.

I'm an addict but that's OK cause I'm also a pusher man.

AAAK! Save yourself! Go find a less-compulsive hobby like model train building, restoring WWII fighters, or even bat-wing skydiving. It's too late for the rest of us, but you still have your whole life ahead of you.

But if you're going to go in, might as well go in deep.

Applenut

Hello, my name is Deth, and I'm a recovered Apple-O-Holic. I used to be addicted to antique varieties until the 'ol espouso pointed out that we ain't eatin' the few we get now fast enough. And my Doc says keep the carbs to a minimum if I want to get better. "Just nine more!", I plead, but it falls on deaf, albeit pretty, ears. Maybe I'll sneak in a Pomme Gris, or perhaps a Hudson's Golden Gem when the fog rolls in. I'm going in, boys! Do ya wanta live forever?!

(fade to the sound of wifey's sweet Voice-of-Reason inquiring about a credit card charge to Trees of Antiquity)

Bucky, back to your apples I would nix the Tremletts. Its not bitter in a hot climate (no tannins at all in fact) and its incredibly boring tasting as well. A guy here in Maryland said he tried a single-variety hard cider from it and it was bad. All the other cider apples on your list I have tasted and liked. My favorite is Frequin Rouge, it is one of the very few European cider apples that keeps tannin in a hot climate. None of these European cider apples were bred for hot sunny weather; in those parts of Europe they are growing grapes, not apples.

Scott

Yes, it is bad. My immediate family can't understand why I need so many apples, pears, etc. I think on apples I'm around the 30-35 variety level now. I would have to sit down and write it out on paper to know for sure.

Now, that being said, doesn't a household of 3 adults NEED the produce from 30-35 apple trees, one standard, a few dwarf or super-dwarf and colonades, most semi-dwarf? Or, from about a dozen pear trees? Or from a couple hundred row feet of strawberries or raspberries, or from a couple dozen gooseberries or rhubarb plants. Or a dozen hardy kiwis? Or, for that matter, the produce of 400 tomato plants or about 1000 row feet of corn? Or the peaches from my about 13 bearing age trees (not to mention the 50 seedlings I've got going now as my 4th generation of my home-grown peach experiment)?

Of course, its nice to give a lot of it away to family and friends. And, the local geese like to clean up the windfalls, giving me a lot of free lawn fertilizer in the process. And, if Peak Oil or the EOTWAWKI or 2012 or whatever should, on some remote chance, prove to come true (yeah, Y2K was going to do as all in, too!), well, at least hopefully I've got something to eat for a while.

Now, when the family has complained, I've asked them -- would you prefer I spend my time in the bars and my money on hookers and booze? :) Of course, if I were married, I don't think I'd try that line on a wife (uless I want to end up in the ER like Tiger Woods!).

They were all very impressed on Thanksgiving when the big bowl of cranberry orange relish/sauce I brought out was the product the 13 cranberries I planted last spring in the "bog" bed I dug for them. Of course, I didn't tell them that I added a twelve ounce bag of Ocean Spray fresh cranberries to the ones I picked in late October, about the same amount as a store 12 ounce bag, just to have enough. First year, you know, our little secret. They'll bear more next year.

It's always fun. Now, if they just wouldn't send me those darned catalogs every year. I THOUGHT I was "done" -- but there is always something NEW!

Dennis
SE Michigan

"Do ya wanta live forever?"

And indeed, what is it we live FOR?

Yes. I can understand the addiction! I started my backyard orchard 3 years ago. Now I have 20 apples, 10 pears, 7 plums, 7 cherries, 4 peaches, 2 apricots, 1 nectarine, 1 mulberry, 5 grapes, and assorted gooseberry, juneberry, blueberry and lingonberry bushes. I still have a few unused spaces in my backyard, so I plan to add another 15 fruit trees next spring!

It will be a few more years before all my trees start fruiting. But we have already eaten and enjoyed apples, pears, grapes, cherries, gooseberries and blueberries. There is no way to describe the feeling of just walking into the orchard and eating fresh fruit off the tree!

Most of my apples are antique or heritage varieties not found in any stores. I am really looking forward to picking and eating them off the tree in a few years!

It's a pretty good addiction. A coke addict that sells coke generally doesn't live a charmed life for long. But I'm a fruit tree addict that sells fruit trees and their care and while my own trees cost me a lot of money I could be making elsewhere my customers addictions pay for my own and everything else I need to survive. Some of you addicts should consider following my example. Even in this economy people with deep pockets see fruit trees as a good investment. Guess you could say that they're rationalizing their addiction.

Hman, you should be ashamed of yourself, paying for your habit by dealing. As a heavy user, I feel victimized by dealers sending me catalogs. Just last week I had to get another fix. It took another small score ($50) to hold me over.

Aw yes, I remember how my addiction started.. I wanted to put 3 maybe 4 apple trees in the front yard as an "experiment". Then in snowballed, and kep going. Next thing I knew I was talking the lovely bride into how to finance an eight foot fence. 30 trees later, I am researching how to make hard cider and applejack. Will it ever stop?

Bucky, what about the Hewes crab? Thomas Jefferson had an orchard full of them because "cyder" was his favorite drink.

Hewes was one of the ones I was looking for. Cummins didnt have it so I am not worried about it im sure the others will keep me happy. Im going to have a lot of variety, this order will put me to around 55 apple trees, the only kind i have more than one of is 4 golden delicious and 2 honeycrisp.

I bought my place 3 years ago, it had 1 apple, 2 pear, and 2 peach trees on it. Its in the middle of the woods and im a big hunter so i figured id buy a few more apple trees to plant for deer food. I never really enjoyed apples up to this point, maybe ate one a month. The first year went by watching my trees grow and got my first taste of a tree ripened peach, apple, and pear (I wouldnt eat a pear before this)and I decided it seemed like a good hobby so I bought a few more trees, then a lot more and so it goes. Now I eat at least an apple for breakfast every day and what ever else i can find throughout the day, im a teacher and my kids tease me because i always have a few apples on my desk to snack on throughout the day.

All this addiction and I have only got 2 apples off of the trees i planted, 1 McIntosh this year, and 1 Cortland last year, cant wait for some of these things to start producing. I also had 2 Granny Smiths growing this year but they aborted after the tree got hit by the rosy aphids.
I can see me having to buy a different cider press in the future, i bought a Jaffrey this year, works pretty well but its a slow 2 gallons per batch. Takes about 45 minutes and I already have friends who want batches of like 12 gallons at a time from apples I had to buy.

I'm not an addict. I can quit any time I want to.

Hmmm, if it's time to fess up, well, here it goes. I have 60 apple trees with 400 varieties grafted, plus another 100 trees at least with everything from figs, plums, pears, mullberries, cherries, etc... That count doesn't include the 40 or so citrus trees.

Addicted? No, but passionate? Yes. The addictive pitfall is getting into collector mode. Personally, I am just looking to be able to harvest fruit over a long period of time, but only good tasting fruit. I have begun to eliminate varieties. Mediocre fruit is going. This year I am grafting over most of my pink princess and spiold trees, they don't produce good fruit in our climate.

Hi,my name is Michael and I'm a Hortiholic. My disease affects both my own and the lives of those around me. For instance, I asked the city council permission to plant a couple of fruit trees in the open 3/4 of an open city block across the street from my house, they agreed. There are now 9 fruit trees and I have to cut down 2 elms to make room for more. I'm thinking about buying some of my neighbor's adjoining property to plant more on if they are willing, if that goes through, 2 hackberry and one walnut tree will be dropped and chopped for firewood and the open space.

If that isn't bad enough, my wife is an enabler, encouraging me along so I guess I can blame it all on her.

ha! my wife is an enabler too! When she saw how fast they grow and how pretty they look trained along the trellis... then I took her to century farm orchards and showed her the mature orchards of trained apple trees on bud-9, so she could see what they will one day look like... Now she wants to set up a small booth at the local small and quaint farmer's market and sell heirloom apples, which I took as a one-way ticket to buy and graft more trees..

For the cider experts, what is the best bang for the buck for a cider press? I've seen some ranging from $200 on up to $800 or more.

Also, are there any nice books or on-line resources that you would recommend for the making of cider (e.g. blending of juices, etc.)

No expert, this is my first year, but you do know that you need more than just the press right? You need to have some sort of grinder to grind the apples. I bought a Jaffrey. I was pretty happy with it the first few times a I used it. Then more and more people wanted a jug so it got kinda slow. I can make about 2 or 3 gallons an hour with it. Thats fine if you are only making small qauntities but when you try to make 15 or so it gets kinda slow.