Chokecherry

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Planted, it makes a large shrub or small tree of 20 to 30 feet with a crown 15 to 20 feet wide. In the wild it is often a shrub under 15 feet, and its rhizomes can send up shoots 35 feet from the trunk. Chokecherry seldom fruits in its second year, and the first good crop usually comes in the third or fourth year.

Slender spikes of fragrant white flowers, 3 to 6 inches long, open from April into June. The cherries ripen from July to September, a quarter to three eighths of an inch across and dark red to nearly black. Bears, moose, elk, deer and many birds eat the fruit or browse the twigs. Crops are regular, an estimated 15,000 pounds an acre from mature stands.

It grows from Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to North Carolina, Texas and southern California. It favors streambanks, fencerows, woodland edges, rocky bluffs and roadsides.

How to grow Chokecherry

Chokecherry grows in full sun or part shade, but it needs full sun for a good crop of fruit. It takes dry to medium soil, from silt to sandy loam and from acid to alkaline. It will not stand poor drainage, frequent flooding or heavy clay. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and at least 15 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 15 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow the cleaned pits in fall, half an inch deep under hardware cloth. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for four to five months first.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in a long drought. Keep grass and weeds away for two or three years, since young trees do not tolerate the competition. Deer browse young trees hard, so guard each sapling with wire for its first two or three years. Pull suckers promptly if you want a single tree.

A single tree sets fruit without a partner. Black knot, tent caterpillars and aphids are its common troubles, and in the Northeast it is a main host of the eastern tent caterpillar. It also carries X-disease, which damages cherry, peach and plum orchards. The leaves, bark and pits are poisonous, and wilted leaves can kill livestock, so keep hungry animals away from it.