Sweet Sixteen.

[CrazyEd]

I ate my first Sweet 16 apple today. 3rd leaf on G30 in my backyard. The tree produced 3 apples this year, pretty good all of 2.5". I have seen some light CAR on the leaves of this tree, but nothing on the fruit. Tree has been pretty vigorous with upward growth. I remember I bought a few sweet 16 apples from a local orchard 2-3 years ago and i was not impressed, but after tasting today I think they sat around to long or something, i remember them being very mealy. The fruit I ate today though was pretty darn good. Quite hard, and as the name implies sweet. The flavor was interesting, you bite in and get some flavor, but then a little into the bite you get this twist of sweetness or something. I don't know but i liked it. Not the best ever but interesting flavor.

Fruit Nut and Berry Inventory says the following.

MN447 x Northern Spy. Red-Striped, conic fruit up to 3 inches. Aromiatic, oderately acid, firm, crisp, cream-colored flesh with high sugar content. Unique, pleasing, faintly nutty flavor. Rates high as a pie and sauce apple. Also an exclelent dessert apple. Handles and stores well. Late blooming tree with moderately spreading, vigorous habit. dependable, annual bearer. somewhat resistant to scab and fire blight. can withstand -50 degrees with occasional winter injury. Zones 3-8. Developed at U of MINN 1978.

here is what the tree looked like in feb.

 

[cavey]

I have a 15 year old'ish - sweet 16 on standard root stock, it has done well in our 4a growing zone in Western Wi and is a good tree, consistent producer - decent taste, maybe not the top choice for deer as they seem to go for a couple other trees first - but the dropped apples sure dont rot away on the ground. It has never had any disease issues and has been super hardy. I do have to thin the tree out pretty aggressively this year as the apples tended to be a bit on the small side (its one of the first trees i planted - when i didnt have a clue about how to prune apple trees and it shows it, now - years later; honestly its a mess but the tree is loaded with fruit. Funny how It doesn't take long to figure out which trees the deer like best... definitely the sweeter the better around here.

 

[H20fwler]

Your sweet 16 looks great, I'm going to have to look into maybe adding a couple.

I planted two Northern Spy last year from Cummins on MM 111 . They were attractive to me because I think they are supposed to hold a little later and are cold tolerant, I know they leafed out the latest of any I have.
I have heard that they take a long time to start producing 10-12 years?

 

[CrazyEd]

Northern Spy is definitely one of the latest to wake up trees in all of the varieties I have. Which makes it good if you have to deal with late frosts like I do. I hear N Spy takes a long time to produce as well but I think rootstock can also play a big role in that too, just like each variety has it's own tendencies. It seems like for me, most varieties on B.118 have started producing in years 4 or 5. MM111 I think takes a bit longer and standard can take even longer.

I think the tree at my farm is maybe 3 years old this year and it's been a very good grower, but not fruit yet.

 

[chummer]

I planted some Nova Spy this year. Suppose to be like a northern Spy but produces in 3-5 years and bears annually.

 

[buckvelvet]

Man that looks really nice!