Zestar!® Apple
Malus ‘Minnewashta’ PP11367
Blooms late May, ripening late September
16 feet high x 13 feet wide
Zone 3
Full Sun
Price range: $93.75 through $168.75
Zestar!® is a standout early-season apple bred by the University of Minnesota to combine cold hardiness with exceptional flavor and texture. Crisp, juicy, and lively, Zestar!® offers a unique sweet-tart flavor with subtle notes of brown sugar, making it an outstanding fresh-eating apple that also performs well in early baking. Ripening in late August to early September, it is notable for having better storage life than most early apples, often keeping several weeks in refrigeration. Zestar!® is well adapted to Wyoming conditions. Blooms early so pair with other early bloomers for best pollination; State Fair and Wealthy are great, Honeycrisp, Goodland, and Cortland work well.
Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:
These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural annual precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought, but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these. These plants are adapted to intermittent deep
watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care. These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that
they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season, and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant
death. About sizes of our plants:
Sizes indicated with a # are roughly the equivalent in gallonage; so a #2 is about a 2 gallon pot size; b&b stands for balled and burlapped.