Enjoying my last Arkansas black from 2021. @39thparallel gifted me these apples. This last apple was getting soft but after all it is almost June. That is a good reason to grow Arkansas black apples.
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I have my first blooms on Ark Black, trees on M.111 from 39th Parallel !
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I got no Arkansas Black last year, but the graft really took off and has a lot of blooms. Potential for a good apple year, certainty of little to no pears.
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I wish I could grow them. Here in Alaska October is winter time 
early September is as far as I dare to push it. Sadly most cider apples are late apples.
I have two Franklin apple trees on their second year here. I’m looking forward to see if they attempt to crop on time.
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I had some successful takes with Arkansas Black scions last spring, so maybe some year I will get to try them. Hope they ripen on time this far north. (near St. Paul).
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I have Arkansas Black on M.111 and they bloomed for the first time this spring. Check with me this fall to see how well they ripen, I’m in a Z4a as well.
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@39thparallel grows some nice Arkansas blacks. Picked these last year and as your aware they keep along time. Will be eating these until spring. They have never been refrigerated. They do get very greasy. Yellow flesh and very deep dark red almost black color.
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How’s the flavor, texture, etc of these apples when you let them sit unrefrigerated for a while?
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They are still somewhat sour and eventually turn mealy but in general much better better than store bought apples. They have some sweetness to them. We love them for cooking here at my.house.
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No aromatics?
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There are many apples that taste so much better 50 or more come to mind. None of those 50 would i rather grow. The arkansas black outshines them all for storage which is what it is truly good at. If you like a tart apple for pie it’s perfect but if your looking for floral aromatics pass it by it doesn’t have them. You can look for a second opinion but i think theirs are close to mine.
" Possibly raised by a settler called John Crawford in Arkansas, USA in the 1840s, and certainly widely grown in Arkansas and Missouri later that century. It is thought to be a seedling of Winesap. This apple is notable for the extremely dark coloration, which becomes almost black after storage. The photo shows an Arkansas Black apple taken in March, having been harvested in October.
We are indebted to Monique Reed of Texas for the photo and following descriptive information.
“Now, this is supposed to be a very tart, crisp apple and a good keeper. I’d have to say it must mellow enormously in storage, as the one I had was firm and sound, but not especially crisp and not at all tart. (I’m guessing it’s near the end of its storage life, since harvest is in fall.) The skin at this stage is extremely waxy. As advertised, the flesh is medium-pale yellow. It was pleasantly sweet and tasted almost as if it were an apple already prepared to go in a dessert–as if it were a tart apple with sugar (and something else? honey?) added, and perhaps a bit of vanilla near the outside and faint but definite almond undertones nearer the core. There was more going on, taste-wise than in a Red Delicious or your average Fuji–more depth, as in many of the older cultivars. Good apple. Not my favorite, but more interesting than many others.”
Further information - see the Encylopedia of Arkansas History and Culture."
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When I was selecting my trees I went with GoldRush for the storage apple. Alan and some others stand by it.
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Dont disagree with them on goldrush but fresh it is like battery acid and in Kansas it is plagued with heavy cedar apple rust. It is like biting a lemon peel green, i have grown the variety. We tried it fresh only and friends do grow it here. My gr apples always had damage so they could not be stored very long. My understanding is it is excellent after storage like most storage apples but have never had one stored a long time. @39thparallel may have a different opinion he has ground more suited to apples. My property is as bad as possibly it could be for growing apples but im still able to grow a few. Those beautiful AB come from his property.
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In case somebody is interested in growing these varieties in my type of climate — long, hot, dry summers.
GoldRush completely ripens on the tree by late August - early September, and at this stage it has no “battery acid” flavor described above. It’s a very flavorful apple with a good balance of sweet and tart. If wanted for long storage, pick it before it reaches full ripeness (perhaps, early-mid August, but depends on year and particular location). Protect the fruit from direct sun.
Arkansas Black completely ripens on the tree by mid-late September. At that stage, it also does not have much acidity left but not much sweetness either. The flavor is kind of meh. Pick before full ripeness for storage.
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I have a problem growing them in my nursery. ACN sells the spur variety and even on 111 it tends to runt out when left to its own devices and is not irrigated. I need some wood of the non-spurring type.
It is strange though, when they don’t runt out early they are reasonably vigorous trees but once they spur up it is difficult to return them to growing adequate vegetative wood. I have better luck grafting them on other varieties where the grafts sustain reasonable or even good vigor. .
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What are your favorite apples from where you are? I remember you already mentioned Pink Lady before.
Frankly, I’m not a big apple eater — as long as I have a choice between an apple and most other fruit (peach, plum, pear, pomegranate, feijoa), I’ll eat the latter rather than the former. Hence most my apples end up dried or cooked, or eaten by my wife. 
I tasted more Pink Lady than other apples because they hang on the tree really late into the season when most other fresh fruit are gone. I also like Waltana, Katharine, and Hauer Pippin, which all are also ripening very late. Other than these, I remember that I liked King David, GoldRush, Myers’ Royal Limbertwig, and Bravo de Esmolfe. Perhaps I missed a few others. I should devote more attention to apple tasting in the future.
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