Aronia as rootstock

[CoreFlex]

I have Aronia, 4 of them, i tried an experiment with one of the bushes, i trained it to grow into a small tree in a whisky barrel, i found that by pruning all the suckers off and focusing all the plants energy into branching out like a tree it produces almost twice the fruit and bigger berries than one allowed to go it’s own way. it’s 8 years old in a whisky barrel and doing exceptionally well and survives the winters in zone 5b. Now that i know they can be grafted to a pear I’m going to try it thanks for brining up this topic.

[JohannsGarden]

I ended up grafting two different pear varieties into a mature Aronia this year (totaling 4 grafts) and all are healed and growing.

[murky]

Hopefully this isn’t a repeat. Looks like my Honeysweet on aronia has died. Still have Conference, Ayers, and Taylor’s Gold. Got some flowers, but haven’t ripened any pears yet.

There are also 2 shipova grafts and this is the 3rd year with a few fruit. Reminds me I need to tie the fruiting Shipova to a neighboring tall aronia for support. So far they’ve all been entirely unsupported and all of the graft unions have held in spite of the comical swelling.

[hobilus]

@JohannsGarden

The outcomes of a chimera would be variable.

I have a variegated kumquat, and as I understand it, it’s variegation is due to it being a chimera. The green and white portions of leaves and stems are genetically distinct. Apparently this is common to variegated forms across genera. One hang up with such chimeras (at least in plants) is their tendency to revert to one of the parent forms.

[Mtncj]

I’m surprised if I didn’t drop this above already, but I couldn’t find it.
I have grafted severa other rosacaeae onto aronia, but the two doing rather well at this time are Apyrenia Medlar. No fruit yet, but in only their third summer since graft, they have turned into right proper bushes. I may have to try the encouragement into tree-form mentioned above since the seedless fruits are usually cited as being small.

[Mtncj]

Pics from today. Trigger warning: pics do not include a well manicured lawn. I’m hoping everything else will outcompete that noxious weed others call “grass”. I only really mow the slope because if I don’t, even my lawn tractor would be able to climb the hill.

Apyrenia #2, as mentioned above. It has no cage now because it was trying to get caught in the wires and I’m hopeful it is big enough to survive a bit of deer browse.

Aprenia #1. Likely doesn’t need it’s cage any more either, but as it is a tomato cage it isn’t in danger. You can see a Red Dragon, Sweet Scarlet and some random pawpaws behind it.

This is the graft on #1. It was one of my first grafts, and I had the omega tool. Healed pretty well, I feel. I don’t use the tool much anymore. Graft was done likely May of 2021. I had a third, but I planted it out too soon. It was a bit of a runt, and I wasn’t diligent about removing root competition. It may also have been overpowered by a rabbit.

[Tree8]

Hi all, got the info on aronia by asking ChatGPT, and ended up here. I grafted two early pears on it. But was curious wether aronia is more closely related to apple thn pear. And got this answer:Aronia is more closely related to apple than pear. Aronia, also known as chokeberry, belongs to the Rosaceae family, which includes apples, pears, and other fruits like cherries and strawberries. However, within the Rosaceae family, Aronia shares more similarities with apples in terms of botanical characteristics and genetic makeup. So I will graft also a small apple onto this chokey fruit tomorrow…

[steveb4]

i read somewhere, maybe on here, that eventually the apple tree will outgrow the aronia rootstock and fail in the long term so if you want your tree around long after you, plant on apple rootstock.

[murky]

@murky

I’m probably going on year 3 and 4 with Pear and Shipova on Aronia. Shipova and a couple of the pears bloomed last spring but didn’t set any fruit.

I posted some pictures of my crazy graft unions somewhere. The pear are more than twice the diameter at the union, but they’ve survived some really heavy winds that have broken grafts on other trees. It may be because the aronia stalks are flexible, so the trees can bend with the wind.

I think my varieties on aronia are Ayers, Conference, and Honeysweet.

BTW, Shipova flower buds are enormous.

Replying to my own post, now 3 years later. I don’t think I’ve gotten pears off of the aronia grafts yet, maybe a couple little ones in a year with also some rust.

But the Shipova has born 3 times now, which is especially notable since Shipova is notorious for taking forever to bear. It’s also been much more vigorous than the pears.

[steveb4]

that’s interesting. maybe ill give it a try. would you be willing to trade some of your shipova wood for something i may have or i could buy them from you? i had one on aronia about 4 years ago but for some reason it stalled and died. id love to try again.