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Representative photo of red-striped yellow apples on the tree, not Sweet Sixteen itself
  • Representative photo of red-striped yellow apples on the tree, not Sweet Sixteen itself
  • Sweet Sixteen apples shown whole and cut on a USDA measuring grid
  • Representative photo of red-striped yellow apples on the tree, not Sweet Sixteen itself
  • Sweet Sixteen apples shown whole and cut on a USDA measuring grid
Sweet Sixteen Apple (Spring 2027)

Sweet Sixteen Apple (Spring 2027)

$44.99
Rootstock/Size

Reliable shipping

Flexible returns
Pollination Needs a partner
Bloom group 5 of 7 (Mid-Late)
See trees that will pollenize it Apple Pollination Map
Ripening

Will it finish before your first hard freeze?

Check it on the Ripening Map (opens in a new tab)
Disease resistanceNo strong resistance
  • Apple scab : Moderate, 3 of 5
  • Cedar-apple rust : Moderate, 3 of 5
  • Fire blight : Moderate, 3 of 5
  • Powdery mildew : Unknown, no published data yet

Scored 1 to 5. Higher resists better, and ? means no published data yet.

See it on our apple disease chart (opens in a new tab)

At a glance: Sweet Sixteen Apple is an apple tree rated hardy to zone 3 in our ratings (winters to -40°F), not self-fertile, so it needs a different variety nearby as a pollenizer (bloom group 5 of 7, mid-late for an apple or crabapple), and it ripens about Sep 15 to Sep 29 in Missoula (our Missoula estimate).

Hardy to Zone 3 to 7. A bare number means the whole of zone 3, colder half included (winters to -40°F). Find your zone with our cold hardiness calculator.
Chill hours About 1,050 hours (700 to 1,400). From published figures. Montana winters give it plenty. In milder climates, make sure your winters average at least this much. Check your chill hours or see our sources.
Pollination Needs Cross-Pollination. Bloom group 5 of 7 (mid-late), late spring here. Plant a different apple or crabapple variety that blooms in groups 4 to 6. It has good pollen, so it can also pollenize other apples blooming at the same time. Good partners we carry: Black Oxford Apple, Honeycrisp Apple, Northern Spy Apple, Oriole Apple and 70 more. Apple Pollination Map.
Ripens About Sep 15 to Sep 29 in Missoula (a Missoula estimate from published sources). Real years swing about a week either way. See the date for your town.
Rootstock and size Bud 118: semi-dwarf in our dry Montana soils, semi-standard on paper, about 12 to 18 ft tall unpruned. Stands on its own, few suckers. Plant about 15 ft apart. Our rootstock guide.
Good for Fresh eating (8/10), pies and baking (6/10), sauce and butter (6/10), juice and sweet cider (6/10), hard cider (6/10). Scores are our own 1 to 10 ratings; 8 and up makes our Best Of lists.
Deer A deer favorite. Fence it or cage it.
What you get Bare root, 3-4 ft or 4-6 ft. Shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring, roots wrapped in moist sawdust. Guaranteed to bud out.

New to our lineup, so this is drawn from the University of Minnesota records and from growers who have had it longer. We will update once we have fruit here.

Overview

Sweet Sixteen is the apple we hand people when they say all apples taste the same. It does not taste like an apple is supposed to taste, and that is the appeal.

Origin and History

Released by the University of Minnesota in 1978, from Frostbite crossed with Northern Spy. Frostbite is where the strange flavor and the hardiness both come from. Northern Spy brings the size and the texture. It is one of the better things that program ever did.

Fruit and Uses

Medium to large, red striped over yellow. Crisp, juicy, and the flavor is the whole story. People describe it as cherry candy, vanilla, anise, sometimes bourbon or spice. It is sweet without being flat, and it has enough acid to stay interesting. Excellent fresh, good in pies where that flavor carries through, and a genuinely interesting cider apple. Ripens late September and will keep a couple of months.

Growth Habit and Spacing

On Bud 118 semi-dwarf rootstock. Plan on about 15 feet between trees, up to 18 feet for airflow. It is vigorous and it bears young.

Pollination

Sweet Sixteen needs a pollenizer and blooms mid to late. Northern Spy, Honeycrisp, Macoun and Arkansas Black all overlap well, as do our crabapples.

Cold Hardiness

Listed at zone 3, which is where Minnesota puts it and where the Frostbite parentage points. We have not run it through a hard winter here yet.

Photo credit: USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System, Plant Genetic Resources Unit, Geneva, New York, accession PI 589906. Public domain (U.S. government work).

About the photo: this isn’t Sweet Sixteen itself. Photos of Sweet Sixteen are either under copyright or simply unavailable, so we picked the open-source image that looks closest to the fruit. Photo: “Braeburn am Baum” by Markus Hagenlocher, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Questions we get about Sweet Sixteen Apple

Does Sweet Sixteen Apple need a pollenizer?

Yes. Sweet Sixteen Apple needs pollen from a different variety that blooms at about the same time. Plant a different apple or crabapple variety that blooms in groups 4 to 6. It has good pollen, so it can also pollenize other apples blooming at the same time. Partners we carry include Black Oxford Apple, Honeycrisp Apple, Northern Spy Apple.

How cold hardy is Sweet Sixteen Apple?

We rate Sweet Sixteen Apple hardy to zone 3, which means winters down to about -40°F. Our ratings come from real winters at our two Montana sites and from trusted growers across the North, not from a catalog average.

How many chill hours does Sweet Sixteen Apple need?

About 1,050 hours of winter chill (we count hours at or below 45°F), likely somewhere between 700 and 1,400. That comes from published figures for this variety. Our chill hours guide has a calculator for your winters, and our research page lists the sources.

When does Sweet Sixteen Apple ripen?

About Sep 15 to Sep 29 in Missoula, Montana (an estimate built from published sources and our climate). Warmer places run earlier and cooler places later; our ripening map converts the date to your town.

How big does Sweet Sixteen Apple get?

We graft Sweet Sixteen Apple onto Bud 118 (semi-dwarf in our dry Montana soils, semi-standard on paper), which makes a tree roughly 12 to 18 ft tall if you never prune it. Plant about 15 ft apart.

What is Sweet Sixteen Apple good for?

Our top use scores for Sweet Sixteen Apple are fresh eating (8/10), pies and baking (6/10), sauce and butter (6/10), juice and sweet cider (6/10). Anything scored 8 or higher makes our Best Of lists.

Is Sweet Sixteen Apple disease resistant?

Somewhat. It holds up moderately well against apple scab, cedar-apple rust and fire blight. Nobody has published solid data on it for powdery mildew yet, so we list that as unknown. Our apple disease resistance chart has every rating, the notes and the sources.

Will deer eat Sweet Sixteen Apple?

Yes, deer love it. Protect Sweet Sixteen Apple with a fence or a cage, especially while it is young.

Pollination partners

Trees that will pollenize Sweet Sixteen Apple

Sweet Sixteen Apple needs a different apple or crabapple nearby to set fruit. Every tree below blooms at the same time and has pollen that works for it. Plant partners within about 100 feet.

Bloom group 5 of 7 (Mid-Late)
Pollination Needs a partner
Pollen Good pollenizer

74 trees we carry will pollenize it. Showing the best matches, in-stock first.

See every pairing on the Apple Pollination Map

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