Northern Spy Disease Resistance - 1st hand experience

KylePa

5 year old buck +
Does anyone have any experience with Northern Spy in an area with a number of Cedars? I read online it is susceptible but not really sure what that means. I am looking at one for my house which has cedars within 200 yards. I currently have a small orchard of various pears, Franklin, Liberty and Enterprise trees. I was thinking of adding one as I am in love with their flavor profile. Anyone have any first hand insight?
 
Cedar Apple Rust (CAR) is a bad disease (similar in damage to apple scab) passed back and forth in its life cycle between apple and red cedar trees. See here: https://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/FSA-7538.pdf
White cedar is not a problem.
"Susceptible" means it is at risk of becoming infected by a disease. If the disease is in your area your tree will most likely contract it. Once contracted it can do a lot of damage and spread it to other susceptible trees.
I have no known red cedar trees within miles of me. My highly susceptible Shizuka apple tree gets a few CAR dots on its leaves but nothing serious. (It might be scab rather than CAR.)
Look for the tell tale signs of CAR on neighboring red cedar trees during Spring and wet weather.
 
Here is what the professor wants you to look for on the cedars. This is why I stick with CAR resistant trees and have no problems. My Goldrush (an experiment in futility) was topworked a few days ago along with my other last two problem trees.

PS: I never planted Norther Spy because Purdue shows it susceptible to all of the major 4 diseases. Apple cultivars like that are a total recipe for disaster in my area, so I don't even try them.

Good luck and best wishes.

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I have one. I haven’t noticed any signs of CAR on it, compared to Goldrush and Frostbite which almost always show signs on the leaves on my farm. I do know n spy is supposed to be late to wake up which can be good if you have late frosts, but it’s also extremely slow to bear. My oldest spy tree is probably 6, great grower but no fruit yet. Most of my other varieties show fruit in years 3-5.


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I’d go with prairie spy over northern spy.
 
I have one. I haven’t noticed any signs of CAR on it, compared to Goldrush and Frostbite which almost always show signs on the leaves on my farm. I do know n spy is supposed to be late to wake up which can be good if you have late frosts, but it’s also extremely slow to bear. My oldest spy tree is probably 6, great grower but no fruit yet. Most of my other varieties show fruit in years 3-5.


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Hey CrazyEd, how do you like the Frostbite? I found a few, and thought about planting some this year. I like the taste of the apples, just wondering how the tree has been for you? I don’t have any cedars around me that I know of.
 
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