Malus 'Sugar Tyme' (Sutyzam)
From Newman's in fall 2020. A #10 container plant. They planted it.
Expectations:
'Sugar Tyme' has pink buds, fragrant white flowers, bright red crabapples, and golden fall color. Should stay small, about 15 feet high, and spreading, although I can keep it pruned for the narrow area *. It is supposed to have very good disease resistance.
Experiences:
I can't get over how transformative this simple addition to the back yard is. A week or so after transplant it greened up beautifully. And then, after freezing temps in the teens and a heavy snowfall in late October, it positively glowed after the snow melted.
In 2021, the first spring after transplant, it leafed out in early April, with glowing green leaf buds all over by April 8. Then the pink buds came out lit up by the sun beautifully.
By mid April the pink buds were turning to white and I could smell the fragrance, quite a strong perfume smell.
 |
| 2023 |
In summer 2021 it developed chlorosis and I applied iron around it. It did seem to green up, but wasn't as full as its first year. Still healthy and growing, though.
In 2022 it did not bloom at all. Not a single flower!
But it leafed out and was healthy. An off year as it adjusts and matures?
In 2023 it bloomed well, and put on a lot of growth. I watered it a lot. It really started to look great.
All that tender new growth in 2023 attracted aphids at the tips. I had to prune off branch tips to control them.
Note:
Sugar Tyme has a low spreading habit that will be hard to prune up to walk under.
It's consistently described, though, as "upright spreading with an oval habit".
I saw some photos of vertical young trees that are clearly over sidewalks and look to be upright. But I also see lots that are unpruned, very low and wide. These are all 'Sugar Time' examples:
This is a nicely shaped Sugar Tyme that is both wide spreading and pruned up a bit . . . would it look as nice with even more clearance under the branches to walk under and a more open trunk?
