Anyone here currently growing this variety? How’s the taste? Similar to Ben Davis or better?
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Anyone? Someone here has fruited Black Ben Davis. I had my first Ben Davis last year and it was nothing to write home about but it definitely wasn’t bad.
Maybe it’s in here: (?)
The origins of Gano are murky, and many people believed it to be a more red sport of Ben Davis. I’ve read the taste is indistinguishable, but I have never tasted either. I wish I could be more help there.
You may be better off reading historical accounts of historical apples. Ben Davis was never famous for taste but rather looks and ease of shipping. People shopped with their eyes as much in 1900 as in 2000. Plus, without widespread refrigerated storage, apples shipping to market (especially foreign market) needed to be tough to make the journey.
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I have a Black Ben Davis, grows well. Had its first few apples last year none of which I was able to ssmple. Grey squirrels aren’t quite as picky about ripeness as I am.
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I should have known you grew it as it’s from Arkansas 
Have you fruited Arkansas Beauty yet?
I had been interested in growing the Gano apple but just like the others here I have not know anyone that has actually grown AND tasted the differences, if any.
Arkansas Beauty had just a few last year with the same problem. My farm is about 75 miles from my home. We have a plan to move there in the next couple of years.
My Black Ben Davis tree had an exceptional crop this year, about 4 bushels.
They get great red color early, but taste blaaaaa.
Checked on them once a week for a month and worth the wait. A sweet apple with very crisp flesh. Not as high flavored as Bonkers, but a very nice apple.
On Arkansas Beauty, it had a small crop this year. Colored up ready nice, but the inside was very disappointing.
Perhaps I allowed it to get over ripe or its another that needs a few years to mature.
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Let me say this about that: The Ben Davis was the Red Delicious apple of it’s day. Everyone was going to get rich off it. It is relatively disease resistant, shipped well, relatively attractive. We had a tree when I was a kid. It set lots of fruit. It was bland and tasteless. I think maybe it was ok in pies. Nobody wanted to eat one, except the squirrels, they loved it. It’s a great squirrel apple. I remember talking to an old-timer, he pointed out where some Ben Davis orchards had been, long ago torn out.
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Just saw I left the Black part off.
I do have a Ben Davis tree that made a few this year. They weren’t anything I’d walk very far for, but not as horrible as some I’ve tried.
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Thanks for the info Scott. I have Ben Davis growing but not the Black Ben. Had a a huge crop this year. Like you said I wouldn’t walk very far for one. That sums it up perfectly. May have to add that one onto it. I’m slowly grafting onto it with other known descendants of Ben Davis. Have Shackleford and Collins on it currently.
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I have a Shackleford (seedling of Ben Davis before 1883) graftling that is just establishing roots. Dave Benscoter holds it in high regard, so am eagerly awaiting the day it sets fruit. Have you heard the Ben Davis joke:
Some old coot offered his services at an apple tasting/contest, blindfolded. He pronounced ID correctly of a dozen apples before someone had the bright idea of pouring apple juice on a bit of cardboard and offering him that. He chewed, ruminated, paused…“Reminds me of Ben Davis, but if it’s that, it’s the juiciest Ben Davis I ever had!”
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That’s funny. Grown here in Arizona it’s actually not too bad. Better than I anticipated with all the bad things I’ve read about it. Crunchy, fairly juicy, but not much flavor. I could see growing it when people depended on a yearly crop though. Now I guess it’s just a novelty and neat back story.
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