Black Chokeberry

Size, growth and what to expect

In a yard black chokeberry makes a mounded, suckering shrub 3 to 6 feet tall and wide, though it can reach 8 feet. It grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot a year in youth on an average site by our growth estimator's model for a shrub its size.

Plants begin to bear in their second or third year, and the University of Wisconsin puts significant yields at years four or five, averaging 15 to 20 pounds of fruit per plant. Clusters of small white flowers with pink anthers open in May. The shiny purplish black fruit, about half an inch across, ripens from late August into September, and birds usually take it in mid to late winter. Grouse and prairie chickens eat it, and deer and rabbits browse the stems. The name refers to the tart, astringent fruit.

It grows wild across the Great Lakes region and the Northeast and down the higher Appalachians, in moist woods and drier thickets on bluffs.

How to grow Black Chokeberry

Black chokeberry grows in full sun or part shade on any moisture from a dry ridge to a wet ditch. Fruit and fall color are best in sun. It suckers slowly outward and works in a rain garden or a low hedge, spaced 4 feet apart.

Plant dormant bare-root saplings in late fall or early spring. Dig a hole twice as wide as the roots and no deeper, keep the root flare at grade, and backfill with plain soil. Lay a mulch ring two or three inches deep that stops short of the stems. Clean the seed well, because seed left in the pulp germinates poorly. Sow it outdoors in fall a third of an inch deep, or keep it damp in the refrigerator for three to four months before a spring sowing.

Soak it once a week through the first summer. Rabbits clip the stems in winter and deer browse aronia in some areas, so a wire cage for the first two years is worth it. After a few years, cut the oldest stems to the ground in late winter to keep the bush productive.

A single chokeberry sets fruit without a partner. Seedlings begin bearing in their second or third year, with berries ripening in late August. The fruit is astringent fresh and better cooked. Few pests trouble it.