Banana- Lloyd’s Apple Banana

This excellent banana variety was identified by our friend Danny as a worthwhile local selection we should acquire.  This banana was grown by Lloyd Marsh, a Ft Myers fruit grower and prolific volunteer who had become quite elderly and recently passed away.  The new property owner kindly let us collect pups, which involved a winding jungle ride through a thickety forest to the plants that had naturalized on Lloyd’s land over the years.  The last few years of growth have shown this variety to be an excellent banana for our farm, making itself onto our list of our top 3 banana cultivar choices.

Lloyd’s Apple seems to be different then the true apple banana cultivar “Manzano” which has not performed well at Cody Cove Farm.  Apple banana has been a term loosely applied to many types of bananas over the years so the true identity of this variety is a mystery.  In fact, we don’t know if this banana is even related to the proper apple banana.  The fruit of Lloyd’s apple is medium sized and is of top tier quality.  We liken it to the flavor of dwarf namwah, maybe very slightly inferior to a highly trained palette but the difference is hardly perceptible to us.  The fruit is larger than that of Dwarf Namwah.  We have been getting bunches of fruit 50-60 pounds, making this a more productive variety for us than Dwarf Namwah.

Lloyd’s Apple is a tall variety, reaching maybe 15 feet.  Fortunately the stems stay very upright with a large fruit load and haven’t required any propping for us.  These tall plants can make an impressive statement in the landscape.  The plants are very vigorous and aggressive about making pups.  Some degree of stem thinning will be necessary to keep the plant from devolving into an unmanaged thicket.  The plants stay beautifully green throughout the year and are tolerant of cool weather.  This banana is extremely well adapted to Florida conditions, evidenced by the fact that it survived all on its own for decades in Mr. Lloyd Marsh’s forest.  We will be scaling up our plantings of this great variety and are excited to share it with others, carrying on the legacy of Lloyd.

An expert has confirmed this is a type of Tall Namwah banana. How much it differs from other Tall Namwah types we don’t know. The fruit fills out to a much nicer size than dwarf Namwah.

We have pruned off the top of these pups to make shipping viable. Though not aesthetically pleasing, this is not problem for the banana pup. It quickly grows out the top of the cut and resumes normal growth. This practice is common in the banana industry.

Read about how we ship bananas here.