Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-389
Chokeberry Red
Aronia arbutifolia
Red Chokeberry is a suckering shrub of wet, low ground that carries bright red berries from autumn well into midwinter - birds and game only take them occasionally, so the fruit hangs on the branch far longer than most. Raw fruit is astringent, though some ripens sweet after a hard frost, and it cooks well into jam, jelly and syrup or dries for storage. Profuse white flower clusters draw insects in spring, and the shrub turns a rich orange-red in autumn. It spreads on its own by root runners into a widening thicket, useful as free hedgerow stock as long as it is given room or a mown margin.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–9
- Soil
- Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Moist · Wet
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 6.8–6.8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 6–10 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–5 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3–6 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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