No problem at all, happy to help. Let me know if you have any questions, I might be able to help.
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I’m always preaching the good word of Novamac haha. Glad to hear I’ve made a convert of you.
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@WildApple23 … in the past year or two there was a post on no spray apples… or disease resistent apples… and someone included data from Perdue univ… that listed lots of apple varieties and they rated them on scab, car, fire blight, powdery mildew … best i remember.
NovaMac was the only apple that scored VR (very resistent) on all 4.
That got my attention… that plus I love my early mcintosh apple.
Novamac should ripen about a month later than my Early McIntosh… which is ideal to extend my apple season.
I have some other late apples… including gold rush.
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Well that’s good to hear as well. Like I said, all I could speak to was scab, as I’ve never seen fireblight or powdery mildew on apples here (thank God). Let me know when you have your first novamac, I always get good reviews from friends I gift them to, curious to hear your opinion.
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I had read that report too which is what got my attention as well.
@WildApple23 do you spray these trees or bag fruit at all?
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The only disease pressure here is scab (no fireblight or cedar apple rust or anything else) and the only pest pressure is aphids (no coddling moth or apple maggot either thankfully). I have only ever sprayed my apple trees with insecticidal soap for the aphids, and honestly that was more out of annoyance with the aphids than any real need, I don’t think it was ever bad enough to hurt the trees. While this is good for me, this means I unfortunately can’t speak to anything other than scab resistance, which it is totally immune to in my experience.
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My Early McIntosh has never had any scab… it makes absolutely beautiful apples and is very early to ripen. Perhaps scab affects later apples more ? not sure. My Gold Rush ripens very late and I have not seen scab on it either.
But I have had Fire Blight take out several young apple tree starts over the years… I tried a Red Delicious, and Fuji, … those are two I can remember that made it until about year 3 or 4 and died of FB. Several pear tree starts had the same fate.
So FB is my big concern… and I hope NovaMac gets past that.
If we have scab… I have never seen it on many years of very pretty apple production from my Early Mc. We do have Eastern Red Cedars and my apple trees get some CAR but on most of them it is just a few tiny red flakes on the leaves, and not really a problem. One exception is Gold Rush… it gets nasty looking with CAR… but the tree is still growing, making progress, putting on some fruit. It may be slowing it down some, but I have heard others here say that is not a bad thing.
Below is my Early Mcintosh…
Based on the pictures I have seen of NovaMac looks like they are going to have similar look
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@TNHunter Novamac turns totally red where sun-exposed, remains green where no sun reaches, and has no striping or speckles, that’s the major difference. Overall shape is the same though, they’re a round, somewhat flattened apple.
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My Novamac on b9 has finally come out a little.
I summer pruned it last year… hoping it would develop some fruit spurs. Found this on it today.
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@TNHunter I’m excited for you. Keep us posted on how it does/whether you get any apples to maturity at the end of the season!
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@WildApple23 … checked it again just now…
See a little pink in that first one to open now and on one of the bottom branches a couple there are looking like they may have blossoms… that classic whirl of leaves that surrounds blossoms is there.
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Great! The blossoms on my novamac are a very nice pink just before they open, makes for a very pretty tree in the first week or so of blossoming. Exciting stuff!
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I have been looking info if Novamac (a Canadian apple) can grow well in the hot humid southeast, (middle Tenn. zone 7a).
Thanks!
Frank
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@wfwalton … that is where i am… z7a TN. I am on southern middle TN. Lewis Co.
I have only had novamacs 1 year… but they grew nicely last year.
I bought one tree on b9 last spring… and trained it espelar like last year. I summer pruned it late last summer and it produced some fruit buds…which are blooming now.
I also grafted novamac scion onto m7 rootstock last spring and have it planted out in my field. It has just leafed out good this week and is looking good. It is about 4 ft tall now.
It is definarely CAR resistent…mine grew well and only got a few small red flakes when growing very near a large red cedar.
They did fine thru my summer heat
Looked very healthy all year last year and is leafing out now and looking well today.
Looks like my small b9 tree is going to produce some fruit in year 2.
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It is easy to see now that the summer pruning i did last year on my Novamac… yielded 6 fruit buds (on 4 branches). They all obviously have little blossoms forming now in the buds that have opened.
Year 2… perhaps i should thin to one per branch ?
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No summer pruning for my Novamac in year 2 also on Bud9. While mine isn’t branched out nicely like yours it’ has still managed to have one flower cluster
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Nice… @Jujube
We just got back from a short vacation and checked my novamac espellar…
Now i can positive ID 12 fruit buds (lil blooms coming on).
One set has bloomed and finished… the second set below are in full bloom… and many more are coming on.
Definately impressed with this little b9 tree espellar and its desire to fruit.
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