Arkansas Black produces a medium size fruit with dark red skin almost black in color. The apple flesh is firm, white, juicy and crisp. A well balanced pleasant flavor that is good for fresh eating, Arkansas Black is also excellent for juice. A heavy bearing hardy (zone 4) and vigorous tree, Arkansas Black’s apples are also excellent for storage. I will say that the apples, although kept their firmness 3-4 months after they were picked, did lose some of their tartness (although they were still fairly sweet). Another bonus is that the trees show resistance to cedar-apple rust with some resistance to scab and fireblight.

Must be planted with either Honeycrisp, Macoun, McIntosh, or other McIntosh derived apples for pollination.

These trees are 5-7 ft. tall and are grafted onto the smaller semi-dwarf M26 rootstock, which is one of our favorites for productivity and cold hardiness (at least -40F according to Bob Purvis), which is surprising for an English rootstock.

First two images courtesy of Forest Starr and Kim Starr. CC2.0 and Calstanhope.