The native land of chokeberry is eastern North America, where in the wild it easily adapts to different conditions. It grows up to 2.5 m tall and 1.5-2 m in diameter. The flowers are white and produced in corymbs 5-6 cm of ca. 20-25 together. The extended blooming period starts in late May. The fruit set quickly, which almost eliminates the effect of late freeze and the percentage of fruit set is around 80-90.

The period of fruit formation in various years is 80-90 days. The fruit is black, globoid or oval, with light waxy bloom, 8-12 mm in diameter and 1-1.5 g in weight. The shrubs grown through vegetative propagation (and this is the only method I recommend to start a commercial plantation) will bear fruit in the third and sometimes even second year. The productive period is sometimes more than 20 years. The annual fruit yield is 12-17 tonnes per hectare, mean 15 ton/ha.

Chokeberry growing gives good economic results owing to the regular annual abundant fruiting. Chokeberry fruit can be used fresh or in preserves.

Due to the presence of anthocyanin pigments, chokeberry preserves have a beautiful and clear colour. The natural juice, even at 100 times dilution, is not decolourized and shows a pink colour. However, the biggest value of chokeberry fruit is not the beautiful colour or the delicious taste of the preserves, but is unique content of vitamins for which chokeberry is recognized as a medicinal plant. The content of Vitamin P is between 1200-5000 mg%, mean 2500-3500 mg% (in most known fruit the content of Vitamin P does not exceed a few dozen mg%).

Black chokeberry fruit and natural juice can be recommended for wide use in the treatment of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, gastritis, haemorrhoid and capillary conditions. Te recent studies show that natural Vitamin P in chokeberry fruit can be very helpful as a preventive and healing agent against the negative effect of radiation on a human body. Besides the already mentioned Vitamin P, chokeberry fruit contain Vitamins: C, PP, B2, B6, E and carotene (pro-Vitamin A). Fresh fruit contains also microelements, such as: radium, molybdenum, boron and iodine. The comparison with other fruits rich in Vitamin P, such as lemons or mandarins, works clearly to the advantage of black chokeberry. Thus, in the treatment of hypertension the patient is put on a 4-day Vitamin P cure during which he/she is given 1 kg of fresh chokeberry fruit in a daily dose of 25 dkg. If you wanted to replace the chokeberry fruit with lemons or mandarins, you would have to eat 25 kg of lemons or 25 kg of mandarins. The presence of tannin gives black chokeberries their astringent flavour, which makes them less favourite to eat as fresh fruit. However, with the addition of sugar they can be used to produce delicious preserves, jelly, jam, marmalade, etc. Particularly valuable are the preserves, in which the P-active compounds can be conserved almost intact. Chokeberry can be a very valuable addition to meat or poultry. Kranke 25 kg Zitronen oder 35 kg Mandarinen einnehmen. Aufgrund des hohen Gehalts an Gerbstoffen kennzeichnet sich die schwarze Apfelbeere durch den herben Geschmack, was dazu führt, dass sie in rohem Zustand weniger gern eingenommen wird. Nach der Zuckerzugabe lassen sich jedoch daraus sehr schmackhafte Konfitüre, Gelees, Powidl, Marmeladen u.ä. herstellen. Als besonders wertvoll gelten die Konfitüre, bei deren Herstellung es gelingt, fast völlig die P-aktive Verbindungen zu erhalten. Aronia kann auch eine wertvolle Beilage zum Fleisch und Geflügel sein.

Choosing a position for cultivation

Chokeberry adapts easily to different environment conditions. Therefore, it can be grown all over the country, including piedmont regions (where it is most successfully grown on north or north-west slopes). When choosing the position, you have to remember that chokeberry is a photophilous plant which needs good lighting to produce regular annual crops.

The annual demand for water is 500-600 mm of rain, but chokeberry is quite tolerant to both to poor moisture as well to excessive dampness. Owing to its root system structure, chokeberry is successfully grown in the soils with low- and high-level ground waters. Long periods of draught can affect the yield and the quality of fruit (which may then turn bitter), especially in the summer, at the time of the intensive growth of the fruit.

Generally, it is not recommended to grow chokeberry together with other fruit trees or shrubs. High yield is obtained only on homogeneous plantations of the area of minimum 1 ha, where machines can be used in the cultivation process.

Chokeberry is most successful in rich and airy soils with high water capacity. However, with adequate fertilizing and care high yields have been also found on lower class soils (class 5 or even 6). Stony and gravel soil, as well as marshy or saline soils, are of little use. Chokeberry grows well if the lower layers of the soil consist of sandy clays with good aeration and sufficient water retention capacity. It is less successful if the lower layers of the soil are heavy clays, where excessive water retention occurs, which in turn has a negative effect on the development of the root system.

Preparing the soil

A well prepared soil before starting the plantation is fundamental and will have an impact on the beginning of fruiting.

In the first place, the area must be cleared from weeds, which will make the cultivation of the seedlings easier in the first years because chokeberry is particularly sensitive to weeding. At the age of 4-5 years, chokeberry is strong enough to choke weeds out.

One year before planting the seedlings, you must check the soil acidity and, if needed, bring the acidity down to Ph 6-7 through lime treatment. In the vegetation season preceding the planting it is recommended to apply a soil cover with papilionaceous plants for early plough-up. The fundamental treatment is a deep plough which should be preceded by phosphoric fertilization in order to introduce the not easily shiftable phosphorus into the deeper layers of the soil. For poor soil organic manuring is recommended before planting chokeberry.

Starting the plantation

The distribution of the shrubs on the plantation must allow for machine work. Therefore on large plantations the recommended interval between rows is 4 m. The spacing of seedlings in a row can be ca. 1.5 m. Large plantations should allow for machine harvesting in the future and therefore the seedling spacing in a row should be 0.6 - 0.8 m. It must be remembered that the plantations with densely planted shrubs for machine harvesting will give double the yield in the first years of fruiting, which will quickly compensate for the higher cost of starting the plantation.

Seedling material

The seedlings for permanent planting should be homogenous, preferably two-year or well-developed one-year plants. After they have been removed from the nursery (which is usually done in October), the material should be heeled in, preferably close to the planting site. You should avoid overdrying and freezing of roots, which has a serious impact on the percentage of successful establishment of the seedlings. Healthy, strong and properly secured seedlings guarantee one hundred per cent establishment.

Planting technique

It is analogical to that used in most fruit shrubs and trees. After the rows and planting points have been marked out, holes are dug in - the poorer the soil, the deeper the hole. With poor soils it is recommended to prepare the holes by adding manure, hotbed soil, deacidified peat or compost dressing. You must make sure that the roots are well spread and have no immediate contact with the manure. The seedling should be planted 3-5 cm deeper than it grew in the nursery, which will enhance shrub spreading. After the seedling is planted, a little hollow should be left around it to help retain water near the roots. With large plantations planting machines should be used to significantly speed up the pace of work.

Cultivation of plantings

The main method of soil maintenance in young plantings for the first two years is black fallow. For the first two years the inter-rows can be used to grow vegetables and papilionaceous plants (no cereals are allowed in inter-rows). Starting from the third year, inter-row sodding is recommended with herbicide fallow in the rows. In ecological plantations herbicides are not used and the weeds in the rows must be combated mechanically.

Fertilization

Fertilization should be preceded by the lab tests of the soil. A good sign of the sufficient amounts of nutrients is the dark colour of the large leaves, their density on the shoots and a significant growth of the shrub.

Small and pale leaves indicate inadequate soil nutrients or an excessive density of the shrubs, root freezing or draught. Chokeberry can be fertilized using natural (organic) or mineral fertilizers. Natural fertilizers are dung or liquid manure. With mineral fertilization you must remember that not easily shiftable fertilizers, such as phosphorus and potassium, should be applied in the autumn or very early spring, while nitrogen fertilizers are recommended twice or three times throughout the vegetation season, starting in April and the last one in June. The estimate quantities of a pure nutrient in the fertilizer are as follows: P - 80 to 100 kg/ha, K - 100 to 150 kg/ha, N - 100 to 150 kg/ha.

Cutting

It is one of the most important procedures, the purpose of which is thinning and removal of weak or damaged shoots. Cutting is recommended in the winter (February, March). In the first place, cut such shoots which make harvesting difficult (creeping or blocking the rows) and any damaged shoots. Then, remove parts of any old shoots that choke the plant and the excessive number of young sprouts, laving only the most healthy of them, which will replace the old shoots in the future.

Protection

Chokeberry does not cause many problems because so far there have been no pests or diseases in such a quantity to endanger our plantations. Occasionally, chokeberry, its young shoots in particular, is attacked by aphids or leaf-eating caterpillars. In such cases, a one-time spray with one of the available insecticides should be applied. In ecological plantations, where no insecticides are used, the nature itself successfully combats the pests - as proved throughout many years of observations - by increasing the population of beneficial, pest-combating organisms.

Harvesting

In Poland, chokeberry ripens in late August, depending on the environmental and weather conditions. The ripening season may vary by two weeks. There is one-time harvest, which is started when all the fruit are completely formed and well-coloured. The containers must not be overfilled, otherwise the fruit may get crushed. Chokeberry fruit are persistent and can be stored unharmed in the containers even for a few days. It is a significant advantage because it makes it possible to make a one-time delivery of the fruit harvested from a large area to the processing plant. For mechanical harvesting with the use of a currant harvester, the right harvesting time is very important so that the fruit can be easily pulled off the pedicle. In our area chokeberry is harvested in late August or early September.

Prepared by
Piotr Eggert, MSc. Eng.