Nova Spy- anyone growing it?

General Fruit Growing
#1

I am curious if anyone is growing Nova Spy. What’s been your experience as far disease resistance, growth habit and of course what’s the fruit like.

oops— thanks for the catch @disc4tw I meant Nova Spy in both cases

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#2

It’s my understanding that Nova Spy is a different cultivar than Northern Spy although I’m not growing either.

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#3

I’m growing Nova Spy, Northern Spy, and two sports of Northern Spy (Schoharie Spy and Farmers Spy). So what are you asking? By the way, you can edit your original post as well as the title.

All of my trees are young so no blooms or fruiting yet.

Oh, and Manitoba Spy and Prairie Spy .

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#4

Since your trees haven’t fruited how is the vigor for Nova Spy? How do the leaves look compared to your other trees? Does Nova Spy appear less disease prone than your other trees? Is Nova Spy as susceptible to fireblight as Northern Spy or does it do better?

#5

My Novaspy, planted 5 years ago on G16, has shown extremely low vigor this year, as in…

So, I would like to give you more info, but sorry. It bloomed once last year, but late freezes put the kibosh on that…

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#6

I think vigor is low on every Spy I grow. I have had no problems with fire blight on any of the Spy’s, but that could be significantly affected once bloom begins. My oldest tree would have been grafted in 2018. I’ve also found getting grafts to take more challenging than other varieties. Nova Spy, for me has been of low vigor. I can’t say I’ve taken note of the leaves compared to others.

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#7

For what it’s worth, I can add that Spigold is quite vigorous, but still has the Northern Spy tendency to be slow to fruit. Once it starts, it’s reliable and prolific. It’s a good candidate to graft (or frame-graft) onto an established tree, to reduce the waiting time. That may well be true of NS and its other progeny as well, though I don’t grow any of them myself.

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