The only Ark Black Adams County Nursery sells is spur-type and it is a terrible nursery tree for me because even on 111 it is a full dwarf in the conditions I try to grow it in- that is without irrigation. I can remove all the flowers even remove the spurs, but I cannot get this variety to size up nearly quickly enough to make any profit on it- in fact I have 10 year old trees on my property that are still too small to sell and show little hope of ever getting there. They are healthy but behave like they are on something like M9.
I’ve not had this problem with any other of the many varieties I grow in my nursery. Oddly, it I graft it on an established tree the graft will grow with adequate vigor. It is a good apple to grow in NY- beautiful, very dark red fruit with very dense flesh and nice sugar-acid balance when fully ripe.
The fact that it’s the only one ACN sells suggests to me that it is the most common variety in small commercial orchards in the east- north and south.
My tree is 33 or 34 years old, so I can’t claim that makes it old fashioned or not. But, after the fruits fall and lay on the ground or after they are picked and stored 30 days or so, they are a good (but not super) to eat. I do dried apples…air dried, and also apple cobbler using the Arkansas Black. They cook up some, but not into mush like a Macintosh might.
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Now everything makes sense. I have read previously that Ark Black was early bearing. I was wondering what they were talking about because my Ark black was a huge tree. By far one of the slowest and shyest bearing trees i have. I picked one off the tree today very crisp and tasty. What made me look this up today was that i was looking for Ark black scion wood and came across Ark Black spur type.
I just ordered 1 of the spur type last night as im not sure which type i get from the local scionwood exchange. I assume spur type fruits more than tip-bearing type? (So have to be careful pruning tip type?)
In one of Larry Stephensons recent videos he did specifically say that the standard Arkansas Black was much slower to bear and a shy producer compared to the spur variety. I grow both but my spur type had fruit faster than most of my other varieties. Really impressive and tastes great off the tree here in northern Arizona.
The spur type can grow well if it is coddled the first few years. My nursery trees get no supplementary irrigation here in S. NY and this apparently turns a Ark Black apple on 111 into something that grows more like something on 9. It is the only variety that has dwarfed this way in my nursery and most varieties grow very well.
I have installed young trees in the past to other sites that grew into typical semi-dwarf trees. On 111 they can grow like 7.