This winter banana apple is now…a 16 in one! 
Thank you to all that traded scions with me this year. Ive been a little quiet on here the last few weeks…mainly because its high season for grafting. Been field grafting rootstock out in the side orchard, likely spliced in excess of 150 so far and I still havent tackled pears.
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Yeah, I’m not crazy about Winter Banana either.
As an interstem or as a producing apple? I got a winter banana to try for a spectacular chimney espaliar that has apples for the first six feet or so then shoots up pears. At least, that’s the multi decade plan so far.
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I was assuming you put up so many grafts because you didn’t like the original apple, which I found to be disappointing when I sampled it years ago. I think it wins its popularity from its name.
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I’ve tried Winter Banana 10 or so times and share your opinion on the virtues (or lack thereof) of the fruit.
In its favor, it is precocious, bears reliably, and is graft compatible with some pears. The fruit is also pretty. Only the graft compatibility is interesting to me.
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Winter Banana has been a very poor apple for us here. Im not necessarily planning on holding this many varieties on this tree long term. More as a nurse tree for scion wood and to trial them. Im not super happy with the rootstock this is on (M111) and will likely replace the whole tree sooner or later. Out here in Phoenix we are discovering that fall apples need a full size, full vigor rootstock to keep growth pushing longer into the summer. Fall apples on M111 grow extremely little and produce small apples. For us. Here.
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