Aronia chokeberry in Russia is often called chokeberry, but these cultures are not close relatives, they are united only by belonging to the same family - the Pinks. It is grown everywhere as an ornamental, fruit and medicinal plant. It is not in vain that the name of the bush is translated from Greek as "help", "benefit".
Aronia chokeberry - beauty and good
Aronia chokeberry - a shrub that grows up to 3 m in height. It is winter-hardy, highly branched, has a superficial root system. Young plants are quite compact, but over time, the crown can grow to 2 or more meters in diameter. Aronia blooms in late spring or early summer with white or pinkish fragrant flowers that attract a large number of insects. Fruits are purple-black with a bluish bloom, ripen in late summer. In September, the chokeberry leaves turn purple-red. Against their background, black clusters of berries look beautiful, which are recommended to be collected after the first frost.
Photo gallery: chokeberry aronia is beautiful in all seasons
- In winter, the fruits of the chokeberry chokeberry remaining on the bushes are the best delicacy for birds
- Aronia flowers rarely freeze - late flowering protects them from spring frosts
- In summer, the bushes are very attractive: flexible shoots, leathery dark green rounded leaves, large clusters of shiny black berries
- This plant is especially beautiful in the fall, when shiny black berries stand out against the background of purple-crimson foliage
Confirmation that the fruits of chokeberry chokeberry are valuable and useful for the body is the inclusion of them in the list of medicinal substances by the Ministry of Health.
Aronia berries contain a lot of iodine, as well as rutin, which increases the elasticity of blood vessels and slows down the aging process. They are useful for high blood pressure, accelerate the treatment of nervous and cardiovascular diseases.
The usefulness and beauty of the chokeberry chokeberry are undeniable and testify in favor of its cultivation in garden plots.
Landing
If you decide to grow this beautiful and healthy plant on your site, you need to know when, how and where it is preferable to do it.
When to plant chokeberry
There is no definite answer to the question of when it is better to plant a chokeberry: in autumn or in spring, and it cannot be. It all depends on weather conditions, soil quality, availability of free time at the gardener and other factors. Each season has its pros and cons, which must be taken into account when deciding on a landing.
Autumn landing
Autumn is a great time to plant a chokeberry. The optimal planting dates are from late September to early November. They can be called floating, since it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the climatic zone and weather conditions. The main reference point for starting planting is the entry of the plant into a state of biological dormancy, which occurs after the leaves have fallen from the bush. Advantages of autumn crop planting:
- benefit. In autumn, seedlings of the crop are more affordable in terms of price and variety of varieties;
- ease of fit. Autumn planting is not a lot of trouble. After planting, the plant is watered, and then nature takes over;
- comfort. The plant itself will be at rest, but before the onset of frost, it will have time to grow thin absorbent roots. Autumn humidity and temperature conditions are comfortable for this process. In addition, during the winter, the soil around the seedling is compacted, so autumn plantings begin to grow much faster than spring ones;
- time saving. In autumn, gardeners have much less trouble than in spring.
Disadvantages of autumn planting:
- chokeberry seedlings can be damaged by severe winter frosts, especially in the northern regions;
- in addition to frost, winter threatens seedlings with other troubles: icing, strong winds, snowfalls. They can break a young plant;
- in late autumn and early winter, rodents are activated, which can damage the roots of seedlings.
Rodents can damage choke seedlings planted in autumn
Spring planting
The plant tolerates spring planting well. The main thing is to conduct it in compliance with all the features of the procedure and early enough - until the end of April. Spring planting has its positive and negative points. The advantages of planting a chokeberry in the spring include the following:
- in the spring, when there is planning of plantings for the current year, you can pre-prepare the planting pits, since the site is practically free of other plants, you do not need to wait for the harvest and release of the planned place;
- although the plant later starts growing, it has a whole season ahead for vegetation, which means that next summer you can get a crop. If you postpone planting until the fall, the fruiting of the crop will shift for the whole season.
Cons of spring planting of chokeberry aronia seedlings:
- increased attention and care. A spring seedling should be regularly watered, especially if the spring is windy and arid;
- lack of good planting material;
- in spring, there is much more work in the garden and in the garden than in September - October: preparing the soil, growing seedlings and caring for it, sowing vegetables and other important activities.
Where to plant chokeberry chokeberry
Chokeberry is a perennial plant, it can perfectly grow and bear fruit in one place for up to 30 years, so the choice of a site for planting should be approached with all responsibility.
Perennial herbs and siderates are the best predecessors for chokeberry chokeberry.
Aronia is undemanding to soil. The plant is preferably planted on moist loamy soils with neutral acidity. But at the same time, it will grow normally on soils with high acidity, pre-treated with dolomite flour or lime, as well as on sandstone. Aronia does not suffer from a close occurrence of groundwater, as it has a surface root system located not less than half a meter from the surface. Chokeberry only grows poorly on highly saline soils. However, in areas with insufficient moisture, chokeberries can be small and dry.
Chokeberry chokeberry is undemanding to the soil and grows poorly only on saline soil
For excellent flowering and abundance of fruits, the culture needs good illumination. With severe shading, including internal, the bush will stretch excessively upward. Aronia adjoins well with garden and garden crops.
It is not recommended to plant a chokeberry next to the cherry, as these plants have common pests: the mucous sawfly and aphids.
Chokeberry is often used to organize hedges, as well as for group plantings. The grafted chokeberry can be formed in the shape of a ball and will serve as an original decoration of the site if ordinary mountain ash or hawthorn is used as a stem.
The chokeberry hedge has a beautiful appearance, a dense crown, low growth and ease of pruning and caring for it
Landing rules
The methodology for the autumn and spring planting of the culture is identical. When planting a chokeberry, it is important to have healthy seedlings. Choosing them, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the state of the root system.
Dryness, weathered roots indicate that the plant will not take root well, get sick for a long time.
If there is a need for transportation of seedlings, then they must be carefully covered, protecting from drying and freezing. Immediately before planting, it is recommended to inspect the seedling, remove dried and damaged roots and shoots, and then dip the root system into a mash of clay, water and manure.
Landing is best done in the evening in cloudy weather. Pits for landing should be a diameter and depth of about half a meter. If you are planting several plants, then you should make sure that the nutrition area for each is approximately 2x3 meters. The following elements are included in the soil mixture for filling the seedling:
- topsoil and humus (1: 2);
- superphosphate (150 g);
- wood ash (300 g).
The process of planting chokeberry includes the following steps:
- The prepared mixture is filled in the third part of the landing pit.
- Add fertile land, filling the pit to half the volume.
- Watered using at least 10 liters of water.
Before planting a seedling, water the soil in the planting pit
- The seedling is placed in the center of the planting pit, making sure that the root neck is buried no more than 2 cm.
- The roots are carefully straightened.
- They fill the hole with the remaining soil mixture and fertile soil.
- Tamp tightly.
When planting a shrub, the root neck is buried in the soil by a maximum of 1.5-2 cm and the soil is densely packed
- Poured a bucket of water.
- Mulch the earth around the seedling. As mulch, you can use straw, peat, sawdust.
If the seedlings had a well-developed root system, then the aerial part of the plant after planting can not be pruned. Otherwise, it is recommended to cut the shoots, shortening them to 15-20 cm and making sure that a few healthy kidneys remain on them.
Video: Aronia chokeberry planting instruction
Transfer
Sometimes on the site there is a need to transplant an adult bush of chokeberry to a new place. It is better to do this in the early spring, until active sap flow has begun. If you can do without dividing the bush, then it is optimal to transplant with a lump of earth.
- Around the bush they dig a trench 25 cm wide and about 50 cm deep.
- With a crowbar or shovels they lift the roots together with a clod of earth, they are strained from their places.
When transplanting an adult plant, they dig it out and carefully drag it along with a lump of earth to a new place
- They drag the bush together with the earth onto a burlap, a sheet of metal or dense cellophane and transport it to a new place. In this case, it is preferable to maintain the orientation of the bush to the cardinal points.
- A bush is installed in the prepared landing pit, watered and buried in fertile soil.
If desired, an adult plant can be divided into several parts. In this case, you should slightly clear the root system of the soil, then divide the bush with an ax or other sharp tool. Each divide must have young healthy roots and several strong shoots. Places of slices sprinkled with charcoal. Then each part is planted in the intended place.
In the spring, before the sap flow begins, a bush of chokeberry is dug up, all old branches are removed from it, the root system is cleaned of soil and, if necessary, divided into parts
After transplanting, the bush must be inspected, cut off old, dry branches, having missed the places of cuts with charcoal. This procedure helps rejuvenate the chokeberry and reduce the load on the rooting root system.
Experienced gardeners note that the transplantation of chokeberry transfers painlessly and already in the next season gives a good harvest.
Gardeners reviews about planting
In the spring, after my requests, the neighbor brutally tried to chop off a piece of chokeberry, but after fruitless attempts she gave up and allowed me to. She had a chokeberry about 30 years old, I dug up a bush with virtually no roots, planted two broken off branches with normal roots in my hedge, didn’t even notice the transplants, and stuck a piece of the old bush on the street by the fence, it dried up to death, it seemed to me, well I didn’t water there, I tied the helenium to it so that it would not fall apart, I decided to wait until spring with the final decision, and now that dried black chokeberry has released new leaves. In my opinion, chokeberry - from the series "You Can’t Strangle This Song, Don't Kill".
Elly//dacha.wcb.ru/index.php?showtopic=13670
Chokeberry is very unpretentious. When building a summer house, I planted it along the road near the site. Almost in rubble. Sand in half with rubble. I dug a very shallow groove, sprinkled it with a suede and the whole chokeberry grew. After 5-6 years (last year), a fire water pipe was laid along the road and my black chokeberry was cut down to the root. This spring, she again sprouted even thicker than before.
lagad//dacha.wcb.ru/index.php?showtopic=13670
A properly planted chokeberry aronia will harmoniously fit into your garden plot, and its exquisite beauty will be complemented by the useful qualities of the berries of this unpretentious plant.
