HomeFruit TreesApple TreesStarkspur® Winter Banana Antique Apple Tree

Starkspur® Winter Banana Antique Apple Tree

(17 customer reviews)

$89.99

Begins shipping mid-April.

Pollinator required to bear fruit

Begins shipping
mid-April

Pollinator required to bear fruit

A popular heirloom apple tree improved for a bountiful harvest! 

The Winter Banana Apple tree was introduced in 1890. It’s known for juicy apples that have an aromatic flavor similar to bananas. This heirloom has been improved as a spur-bearing apple tree. Unlike tip-bearing apple trees, this tree’s spur-type nature allows fruit to form along each limb — bearing from the trunk out. This means more of your favorite Winter Banana apples from one tree. 

This productive heritage apple tree produces large, pale-yellow apples with waxy skin that has a delicate blush color once the fruits are ripe. The apples are crisp, tangy, with juicy, flavorful flesh, perfect for fresh eating and making cider. Starkspur® Winter Banana apples store well, making them a farmer markets favorite.  

This is a vigorous apple tree is also cold hardy with the ability to handle late spring frosts. The bountiful blooms in spring make the Winter Banana Apple tree a great pollinator for other apple trees. Enjoy unique tasting apples from this annual bearer, when they ripen from October to November.  

Characteristics

Bloom ColorWhite
Bloom TimeMid
Fruit ColorYellow
Fruit SizeLarge
Ripens/HarvestLate October
Soil CompositionLoamy
TasteTangy
TextureFirm
Soil pH Level6-7
Soil MoistureWell Drained
Shade LevelFull Sun
Years to Bear2-5
Hardiness Zone Range4-9

Size & Spacing

Mature Size

Dwarf  2.5 – 3 m tall x 2.5 – 3 m wide (8 – 10′ tall x 8 – 10′ wide)

Recommended Spacing

Dwarf 2.5 – 3 m (8 – 10′)

Ship Height

Dwarf, Bare-root Ships 0.9 – 1.2 m tall (3-4′ tall) with a 9.5 mm (3/8″) trunk.

Pollination

This variety requires another one for adequate pollination.

Cross-pollination by a different variety is key to its growing and bearing success. Plant a different variety within 15 meters (50 feet) for best pollination.

Recommended Pollinators: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Zestar, Granny Smith, Ginger Gold, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp

How do I find my Hardiness Zone?

Canada’s Plant Hardiness Zones will tell you which plants will do well in your particular climate. Each zone is determined by the lowest average winter temperature recorded in a given area. Hardiness Zone information is included on all tree and plant product pages, so you know instantly whether a certain plant is likely to succeed where you live. Natural Resources Canada provides helpful options to find your zone:

Find your zone by province and municipality »

Find your zone using an interactive map »

17 reviews for Starkspur® Winter Banana Antique Apple Tree

  1. Charles Burns

    This tree is doing well in my inner city, south-Texas, garden where I get very little chill time and high humidity. The tree is coming into bearing in its second year since planting. It’s growth is vigorous with good spur formation, and the Texas heat doesn’t seam to bother it much. The tree appears to be a good pick for the south, though I have yet to taste the fruit, and initial crops on apples are can sometimes be atypical. Hopefully in a few years, I’ll know how the fruit itself performs in my climate.

  2. Jerri Markstone

    My daughter has an unusual apple tree in her back yard. It is loaded with apples. When it was just starting to form the apples they were an odd shape and no one knew what they were. I am here visiting now and ate one of the apples and they reminded me of an apple’s a friend had on her parent’s farm. We were only six years old and loved these apples. So I did the internet search for banana apples as that is what we called them as children. Well they are the apple’s my daughter has. They are called Winter Banana Antique Apples. That is funny as I am now 87 years old. We are surprised and pleased to know they are apples from my childhood. This is in WA state.

  3. Karl Mayer

    Most all of the apple trees I’ve purchased from Stark’s have been nice whips. When available, I even spring for the supreme size which gives a bit more growth right off the bat at planting. That wasn’t an option with the Winter Banana, but this tree came very small, with numerous small limbs so close to the rootstock that I could not even put a trunk protector on the tree. I’ll eventually have to trim those limbs off, and wonder why Stark sent a tree shaped like this in the first place. I planted it, it has buds, I’ll make the best of it and see what it turns in to.

  4. Cecilia Altizer

    Grows well and the apple tastes great. The apple when kept cool will stay crisp for weeks!

  5. Thomas Jenkins

    I have bought over 50 plants from Starks. All my trees have excelled beyond belief. I purchased 2 of these trees and they had apples the year I planted them. After winter the next spring when every other tree was blooming and full of vigor, my two winter bananas were dead.

  6. William Jones

    All Stark products do well when properly planted but the Winter Banana was exceptional! Planted it last spring and by September it was 7 and 1/2 feet tall and we’ll branched. This spring it was covered with blossoms which I removed. Will try for a small crop next year. Highly recommend this Apple tree.

  7. Max Hatfield

    It is only one year old and only starting to make branches so it will be a couple of years before we know. My advice is to buy the largest caliper available.

  8. Sherry Blodgett

    Can’t really tell anything yet. It was a slow starter but is looking good now.

  9. Newton Liu

    When I searched the web for suitable apple trees for out town’s climate zone, Winter Banana was on top. But it was late in the season, big outlets like HomeDepot or Lowe’s only gathered a few fruit trees familiar to the general public. I got a stick from Stark Bros in the mail last May, bareroot above all. I put it in the backyard and left the country. Remarkably, when I came back 10 days later, new leaves and all. The little tree loves it here. And this year, the stick branched, flowered and bearing about 10 little apples. I know some apples will be eliminated naturally. But I like the tree a lot. Thanks, Bro.

  10. Chris Cuneo

    I bought this as a pollinator for my Honeycrisp. No blooms this year but lots of new growth and looking healthy.

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