Cummins has massive cider trees

Cider
#1

I just got an email from Cummins, they have massive cider trees due to a custom order being cancelled. They are not advertising a discount yet but I expect you could get one. The only downside is it is spotty, its what the person doing the custom order wanted. Need 1500 Wickson or 1500 Harrison? :grinning:

http://shop.cumminsnursery.com/shop/apple-trees/cider

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#2

Both of those are good trees to have in your orchard but yeah I don’t want 1500 of them. :slight_smile:

#3

To be clear they do have a few others as well in massive quantity… GoldRush, Dabinette, Roxbury, Kingston Black, Hewes plus 250 or so of several more varieties. It would be a good year to start a cider orchard… if I only had the room.

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#4

If only my wife would let me buy some land haha.

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#5

I see that they have a few Keepsake apples. It is a Honeycrisp parent, but was wondering if anyone has grown this variety, sounds like a good home apple, that keeps well.

#6

I hope this doesn’t cripple them.

#7

I am sure they had a non-refundable deposit policy in place. There isnt a nursery in business that does custom grafting without a policy like that in place.

I would guess there is a little more to the story, a lot of varieties have multiple root stock choices. Seems unlikely that anyone starting an orchard would have that much root stock variability in their order.

#8

The email states they have 15,000 cider trees available. With that many trees, you’d think they’d be offering them at a discount, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Maybe they’ll reduce the price later in the season. I want a Roxbury Russet, but will wait to see if they eventually offer them at a lower price. I doubt they’ll be running out of inventory anytime soon.

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#9

Yes, I’m considering scaling back my order and waiting till the sales start.

#10

My Keepsake produced it’s first apples this year. My wife and I were both impressed, very crispy, juicy, sweet, and flavorful. I can’t say how they keep as there were only a handful of them and they didn’t last long.

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#11

Thanks. Since they are a Honeycrisp parent, what of the HC attributes does it have? How old is your tree, and what rootstock is it on?

#12

I’d say the texture of Keepsake is similar to HC. “Explosive” crispness is how I’ve seen HC advertised. I’d say Keepsake is about the same. I preferred the Keepsakes we had this year to HC, but then again I’m not a huge HC fan.

My tree was a 5th leaf tree this year, grafted on b118.

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#13

Interesting, my wife and I sampled over 30 varieties at a local orchard last year, and HC was a top 5 for both of us. We planted a HC last year, but we’re thinking of adding another. Maybe the Keepsake would be a nice alternative. I read that its fruit can be somewhat misshapen, but we wouldn’t care about that. Did they have any tartness to them?

Isn’t a B118 tree close to a standard size? I guess getting your first fruit at 5 years is prob normal for a rootstock like that.

#14

Yes, b118 should result in a tree nearly standard sized. My main focus with fruit trees is feeding deer, with fruit for humans coming in second…so I want big trees.

Keepsake has a bit of tartness, yes. I’d say maybe a bit less tart than HC, but an overall flavor that is more complex. I’m not great at the descriptors of apple flavors. The fruit is not uniform in shape or size and certainly aren’t what a person would call “pretty”. That’s okay with me though :slight_smile:

#15

I checked Cummins website again today. Amazing how quickly they liquidated their inventory of cider apples. I was hoping for a big sale. Or at least, bigger than their normal year-end sale.

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