Is anyone growing the infamous Black Diamond apples?
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These apples grow at high altitudes in Tibet. “This apple tree only grows in the Nyingchi region of Tibet. It said that farmers are reluctant to grow this type of apple due to the difficulty of growing the tree.” The black diamond is a relative of red delicious. “These apples grow in a climate that barely gets above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and also rarely dips below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.” Arkansas black gets very dark in full sun. This apple is similar in that respect. “The native habitat of the Black Diamond apple tree is very mild. As with most apple trees, we can expect the Black Diamond apple tree to do very well in full sunlight. One of the reasons why these apples turn bright purple to dark purple is due to their exposure to the sun’s UV radiation.” “They also grow in a region of the world that is known for its heavy rainfall.”
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I don’t know anyone who is.
I don’t know how anyone would get wood.
I don’t know why anyone would want to grow them.
It’s just another optimistic name for a dark red or dark purple apple. There is literally nothing special about it other than the marketing campaign.
Here are other “black” apples, many (most?) of which are darker than Black Diamond and possibly all of which taste better-
Arkansas Black
Birkenfelder Rotäpfelchen
Black Amish
Black Anne
Black Annette
Black Ben
Black Bud
Black Dabinett
Black Gilliflower
Black Hoover aka Hoover aka Black Coal
Blackjon
Black Limbertwig
Blackmack
Black Mickey
Black Oxford
Black Strawberry
Black Sweet
Bravo
Ingram
Jersey Black
King David
Kingston Black aka Black Taunton
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Ate red delicious from this area that were amazing. Red delicious from the store are terrible tasting in my opinion. Red delicious have a tarnished reputation because of how and where they are grown. Have you ever had the black diamond apple? I have read reports there is none better. "The black diamond apple variant is one of the sweetest apples because of its very high natural glucose content. It also has thicker skin giving off a waxier shine to its appearance and also a crunchier bite.
This apple hybrid is not one of the many apple variants that most farmers would produce because of its very particular growing conditions. The very same climate and fluctuating temperatures as those in the Tibet mountains are very hard to recreate in most parts of the world. "
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There are no credible reports that Black Diamond is a particularly tasty apple or very sweet. None. Read the actual research reports from China. None say that it’s a very tasty apple.
But there are Chinese research reports that say its flavor is average at best. If it were extremely tasty, it would be grown everywhere. It is grown primarily as a gift apple because it’s pretty, not because of its taste.
Black Diamond was a seedling of Huaniu that didn’t get recommended for widespread production in China precisely because it did not have superior taste. Huaniu continues to be widely grown in China although it’s growing out of favor. The Chinese prefer Fuji type apples to Red Delicious type apples.
There is no credible research that says that Black Diamond has special growing requirements to produce tasty apples. It is most likely grown in Tibet because Tibet is very arid and there are fewer apple pests and that makes it easier to grow unblemished gift fruits. It’s the same reason many Chinese apples are grown in arid areas in the NW of the country.
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It is very hard for me to understand why someone would pay $7 - $20 US currency for an apple to give as a gift due to the color. i will say i dont understand since it is not reasonable. I’m aware people like to exchange gifts in other countries as much as we do in this country. Would never give a mother, best friend , or anyone a bad tasting apple. In our culture giving a second rate gift and paying a premium for it due to color would not be a mistake made twice.
There’s comments on this on another thread…don’t remember the title.
But, Red Delicious can get almost black.
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I want scion woods of black diamond apple in India - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
Black Diamond Apples - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
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Good someone is on the ball…guess the fluffy precip hasn’t gotten the better of you.
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This time when i searched it everything came up. Last time just watermelons.
Sometime in the past I did a search via Baidu.com (Chinese equivalent of Google)…to get a better perspective. Though I couldn’t read all the results.
Black Diamond apples get discussed periodically on various FB groups too. It seems the consensus is that most of the pictures on the interwebs are “doctored up”.
I’ve never seen or eaten one, so I have no idea.
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Read up pretty thoroughly on them it sounds like uv rays are much higher at that location. The evenings are very cold. That is ideal for growing very sweet fruit. In my experience Arkansas blacks and other black apples in full sun are much darker. Any in the shaded part of the tree are more of a red than black. People absolutely doctor photos frequently now. In some magazines and catalogs they dont even try to do a good job of it. Looks like they do it with a magic marker! One photo they spray painted the limb and apple black! Google searched and found these photos
This photo looks real
This photo looks fake
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I hope to someday have some Black Oxford apples. It has been a very slowwwwww growing variety here. I have two grafted to Antonovka and neither is 3’ tall after 2 growing seasons.
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Can hardly grow apples here, but @39thparallel has some grade 1 river bottom soil so he can grow any apple. He grows many black types. If you want photos let me know in ripening season i will go there and take some. My farm works good for pears in the way i grow them but my soil and climate is really marginal at best.
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Thanks for the offer. I’ve seen and tasted Black Oxford apples from other growers. Those folks are in warmer zones (5a-5b) and their trees grow faster. I think it may just be one of the varieties that survive, but can’t thrive here due to our winters.
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Here in 6b I’ve had troubles trying to raise Black Oxford, too. First grafted it. Died 2 years later. Bought from Fedco. Died…possibly from fireblight. Grafted again. Died.
So I got a tree on M111 from Century Farm Orchard in a big pot …and it’s just leafed out good. So, if I live long enough, maybe that M111 is the ticket. B9 and B118 didn’t succeed.
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