Aronia Berry
Aronia melanocarpa
Sold as a 5 pack - 5 plants for $20
Aronia produces a dark purple colored, blueberry sized fruit which is loaded with antioxidants. Aronia is a woody perennial shrub that is native to the eastern United States and hardy to Zone 3. It grows in full sun or partial shade. Beautiful, very productive and easy to grow, and widely used in Eastern Europe in delicious juices, soft drinks, jams and wine. White spring flowers become clusters of glossy, round, violet-black berries with a strong, tart flavor that comes from high flavonoid/anti-oxidant content.
Interest in “eating healthy” has led to worldwide growth in the popularity of aronia berries and products made from them. This in turn has led to the planting of aronia as an alternative cash crop in the Midwest (Trinklein 2007).
They are well adapted to a wide range of soil drainage classes from poorly drained to excessively well drained, but they will do best in well-drained soils. Aronia produces loose clusters of 10 to 15 berries at the ends of shoots. Individual berries are firm and about one-quarter inch in diameter. The fruit ripen from late August through mid-September. The fruit tend to hang well on the plant, allowing for a broad harvest window of four to six weeks (Hardin 1973). Although the fruit is often referred to as a berry, the plant is closely related to the apple and the fruit is a pome, not a berry. Unlike apples, however, aronia is self-fruitful and does not require a pollinator for fertilization and fruit set. Therefore, only one cultivar is required for fruit production.
Like other fruit crops, aronia develops its next season’s fruit buds while maturing its current season’s crop; hence a grower is always managing two crops at once. Aronia has a chilling requirement, meaning that a cold period, or rest, is required before flowering. Actual chill requirements have not been determined.
Two years after planting, aronia shrubs produce about two pounds of berries per bush when planted at eight feet in-row. By the third year after planting, berry production is about 3 to 5 pounds of fruit per bush. Production levels off at 15 to 20 pounds of fruit per plant (at in-row spacing of eight feet on center) by the fifth or sixth year in commercial plantings in Western Iowa. When in-row spacing is halved, yield per plant roughly halves as well. At a 4 foot by 12 foot spacing (900 bushes per acre), yields should average eight to ten thousand pounds of fruit per acre. When processed to juice, one acre should yield 600 to 750 (0.075 gal/pound) gallons after processing loses. On mature plantings in Eastern Europe, yields as high as 37 pounds per bush have been reported. The average yield is around 23 pounds per bush in Eastern Europe (Trinklein 2007).
Height at maturity: 5-6'
Spread at maturity: 5-6'
Hardiness Zones: 3-8
Container Size: 2"W x 5"D
Height at time of sale: 9-15"