When the 1.5 update went live for Stardew Valley back in December of 2020, every player went absolutely bananas! Plenty of new resources and gameplay additions were included in the farming simulator experience, improving upon an already lovable title. With so much to explore and experiment with, it can be a little overwhelming to take it all in. Which is why we’re going over the Banana Tree.
Yup, you can now get more potassium in your video game diet. Planting Banana Trees further diversifies your crops, but just how do you plant and grow one? More so, where do you even begin? Needless to say, the process is a bit more complicated than rotating furniture or removing bushes. Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way. This guide will explain everything there is to know about banana trees, from where to find their saplings and how best to use their fruit.
How to Get a Banana Tree
You can obtain a Banana Tree in one of three ways in Stardew Valley. The first method is with the Island Trader, who can trade you one Banana Sapling for five Dragon Teeth. Secondly, a sapling can also be found in a Golden Coconut when broken. Your final option is to invest in the Large Animal Collection at the Island Field Office as a reward. All of these are achievable once you go to Ginger Island.
The Traveling Cart, Pierre’s General Store, and JojaMart do not sell Banana Saplings. Only the aforementioned Island Trader can provide you with the resource in terms of bartering.
Growing New Banana Trees
From there, you can take your new saplings to your Farm or remain on Ginger Island to begin the growing process. The same general tree growing rules apply to the banana variant, meaning nothing can overlap its 3×3 presence.
The Banana Tree takes 28 days to reach maturity. After reaching maturity, it will produce one Banana each day during the Summer in Stardew Valley. The tree in question will produce one Banana each day year-round on Ginger Island. Of course, the choice is up to you, and largely depends on where you invest most of your farming time in the Valley.
For each full year after maturing, a Banana Tree will produce higher quality fruit, up to the iridium star quality after three years (silver after one; gold after two). Note that the 3×3 square around the tree doesn’t have to be kept clear once the tree has fully grown. This ought to help you mentally map out your other crops as you tend to your farm.
How to Use Bananas
While it’s known that we can either eat or sell our newly-acquired Bananas, there are a couple of recipes to keep in mind. Whether you need more gold or are starting to get overstocked with fruit, you have other options.
The first one that pops out is the delicious Banana Pudding. Just add Milk and Sugar to the Banana fruit for a decent buff in the Defense, Luck, and Mining stats. It’s selling price is set at 260g.
Your alternative here is building together an Island Obelisk from the Wizard’s Tower. This allows you to instantly warp to Ginger Island once it’s been assembled. The recipe is a bit more hefty, though:
- Banana (x10)
- Dragon Tooth (x10)
- Iridium Bar (x10)
- 1,000,000g
In addition to the recipes, interested tailors can head to their Sewing Machines with some Cloth and Bananas to generate the dye-ready Relaxed Fit Pants.
The Introduction of the Banana Fruit in Stardew Valley
Bananas were added to the game after a poll was held by the game’s developer, ConcernedApe. He gave a list of different fruits on Twitter and asked the fanbase to vote on which one they wanted to be added to the game: Bananas, Mangos, Avocados, and Passionfruits.
Naturally, the Banana option won out with over 30 percent over the overall vote. Mango came in a close and respectable second place with 29.3 percent of the vote. Avocados got third with 26.5 percent of the vote. Passionfruit had a pretty bad showing, only being able to get 13.6 percent of the vote.
Both first and second place got to be added to Stardew Valley, which means players can now grow both Bananas and Mangos.
