Good to hear - I have a 1 yr old Swayzie on G.11 so I’ll keep waiting impatiently 
5 Likes
Scott was also why I wanted to add it. Also have a friend in Reno Nevada that said it’s one of his top apple varieties, russets in our dry heat really struggle. I want so badly to be able to grow Keener Seedling. Tree grows great but unfortunately the fruit has been bad 2 years in a row. Hoping something changes. When I went to North Carolina and toured Century Farm Orchards I went crazy for Keener. One of the best apples I’ve tasted. Crisp, crunchy and had that pineapple type sugar/acid balance that I love. It’s forever engrained in my memory. Magnificent.
3 Likes
It’s nice to hear Swayzie finally get some love! I’ve been praising it for years but nobody else ever wanted to try it. When you have a lot of apple varieties you want something that stands out from the pack as something unique, and Swayzie really fits the bill on that.
At some point I realized I had too many Golden Delicious type apples, all great but there was not a lot of variety. Now I really value those more unusual apple flavors: Swayzie, Abbondanza, Chestnut, Sweet 16, Brushy Mt Limbertwig, and Clochard are some standouts.
11 Likes
I tried a Keener at David’s as well for an open house and I thought it was so good Iswtiched out my Golden Russet and took one home instead (heresy, I know). I prefer disease resistance, and apparently it’s top notch for that. But, the eating quality was excellent, I too was surprised that more people don’t talk about it but maybe it needs a specific location (like most apples). I have one growing on a steep hillside so fingers crossed.
6 Likes
Welp, you all convinced me. Just put in an order for a Swayzie tree, and threw in a Sweet 16 for good measure (had grafted two this past year and rabbits ate them down to the rootstock after a particularly bad snow, so had wanted one anyway).
I hope Swayzie is as awesome in Iowa as elsewhere!
3 Likes
Interesting read concerning the Stayman’s mutation tendencies.
4 Likes
I’m highly irritated to see rust on the new leaves of my Triumph. I think this must be highly susceptible. I’ve already sprayed twice, 3rd week spray is today. My serviceberries are totally clean. Other apples clean. But Triumph has speckled leaves. It barely had any by mid summer last year and it’s been super dry/drought here. We’ll see how it grows. I added winecrisp and Yates to it and have a low threshold for grafting it all over.
Not what I like to hear.. I planted two of those this year. The Minnesota University website listed it as low to moderately susceptible to rust. Not sure how our disease pressure compares, but I was hoping for it to be a minimal spray tree for me. What do you usually spray for rust?
This year is the first for specifically spraying for CAR after thirty years of growing my own trees. I’ve simply tolerated it in the past, but in the last two years, infected leaves were finished off by Marssonina blotch by July which causes a high rate of fruit drop.
Conditions seem to be ideal for spore movement and very elevated spore exposure risk due to the high and dry winds.
2 Likes
Ah this makes sense now. Thanks for piecing it together.
@consteel98 im very new to this. Apples were all new last year. I sprayed regalia/monterey disease control every 7-14 days and had no rust on serviceberries that had been inedible in prior years and very minimal on the Triumph and Crimson Crisp and none on Galarina. What I’m seeing now is minimal, I hope it stays that way. Triumph also had the worst ALB of the 3 late last summer. But, again, it was only one year and they were potted last year.
cedar apple rust isnt a thing here as we dont have red cedar or juniper. yet my serviceberry do get a fungus on the fruit occasionally. i dont think its rust but i might be wrong. immunox applied after the fruit develops takes care of the problem.
Lets move this to the new 2026 thread:
6 Likes