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Orange Pippin Trees USA logoSpecialist fruit trees for your orchard or back-yard

Sansa apple tree

Sansa
Sansa is listed in the RHS Plants for Pollinators
  • Picking season: Early
  • Self-fertility: Not self-fertile
  • Pollination group: 4
A high quality early-season apple variety with a notably sweet flavor.
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Sansa apple trees for sale

  • Medium 1-year bare-root tree $37.95
    Mature height: 8ft-12ft after 10 years
    G.890, G.935, G.969 rootstock
Next deliveries

Our inventory is up to date, you can pre-order now for the spring 2024 planting season.


Sansa is one of the best-flavored and sweetest early-season apple varieties. It is similar in flavor and size to Gala, one of its parents, although as might be expected from an early-season apple it has some acidity too.

Like most early-season apples Sansa does not keep, and is best eaten straight from the tree. It can be kept fresh in a fridge for a week or so.

Aside from its short storage life, it can really be considered as an improved Gala-style apple, and is a far better choice if you want to grow apples with little or no spraying.

How to grow

Although developed for flavor rather than disease resistance, Sansa turns out to have good natural resistance to cedar apple rust, mildew, and scab - probably inherited from its Akane parent which is also naturally resistant.

Sansa is of average vigor, but a good cropper - a quality it probably inherits from Gala.

Like Gala and Akane, Sansa has a wide climate range and can be grown in most areas of the USA.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Japan, 1980s. A cross between Gala and Akane.

Sansa characteristics

  • Gardening skillBeginner
  • Self-fertilityNot self-fertile
  • Pollination group4
  • Pollinating othersAverage
  • PloidyDiploid
  • Bearing regularityRegular
  • Fruit bearingSpur-bearer
  • WildlifeRHS Plants for Pollinators
  • Picking seasonEarly
  • UsesEating fresh
  • CroppingHeavy
  • Keeping (of fruit)1 week
  • Flavor style (apples)Sweeter
  • General resistanceGood
  • ScabSome resistance
  • Cedar apple rustVery resistant
  • MildewVery resistant
  • Cold hardiness (USDA)(5) -20F / -29C
  • Summer maximum temperaturesCool ( 20-24C / 68-75F)Warm (25-30C / 76-85F)
  • Country of originJapan
  • Period of origin1950 - 1999
  • Fruit colorRed