And it’s still like that today. Aronia can be planted in the garden as a specimen plant or hedge. The bush produces weird and wonderful inflorescences during its flowering period, making it an incredible eye-catcher for your garden or balcony. The dark purple berries then emerge in the late summer. Find out all you need to know about planting, maintaining and harvesting aronia here:
Cultivation and Care
Cultivation and Care
There used to be a rule:
[cl-review quote=”It’s only time to plant when all the leaves have fallen from the trees and the first frost has emerged.” author=”” occupation=”” type=”quote” layout=”clean” italic=”1″]
Planting aronia
The best time to plant aronia is in autumn. As soon as the bush has lost its leaves, you can start planting. This gives the plants the whole winter to become acclimatised to their new environment and develop their roots. These plants will be in full bloom by spring, and their fruit will be more plentiful and better than the yields of aronia bushes planted in spring.
However, bushes can be planted in pots almost all year round. The plant should have at least 4 – 5 shoots when you buy it.
You can buy the aronia as a bush or standard tree. The standard aronia tree is cultivated by inserting a graft onto a rowan tree. This requires somewhat more than non-grafted plants in terms of finding the suitable climate and soil type.
Yield, Ripeness and Harvest
You’ll be able to harvest aronia berries from late August to early September in their second year after planting. The berries must be dark red on the inside. The varieties with the highest yields are “Nero”, “Viking”, “Aron”, “Hugin” and the wild fruit Aronia melanocarpa. Once the aronia is fully grown after six to seven years, it can yield an average of three to six kilos of berries per plant.
Birds also find the berries tasty – it is better to use nets to stop them from picking away every last bit of fruit before the harvest.
Processing and Storage
The berries should be processed quickly after being picked. They can be stored for around 2 weeks in normal conditions (15 – 25°C; 80% humidity).
The berries can be kept refrigerated at 2 – 3°C for up to 3 months. They can be kept for an unlimited amount of time in the freezer.