they died, I had too much going on and they were neglected unfortunately… Weeds mostly choked them out
1 Like
Wow, all of them? You had almost 100 plants!
That’s a shame. Any plans growing aronia again?
I am growing a bunch of mckenzie aronia that I got from local soil conservation. They seem to be good, like the fruit and are cheap to purchase. I planted another 100 or so if them this spring acutally…
TheDerek, regarding the stratification process, is it okay to put all the seeds into a ceramic/glass drinking cup, fill the cup half way with chlorinated water (no other chemicals), and cover the cup with plastic/cling wrap, and store in the refrigerator, replacing the water and wiping the seeds every week? Or does it have to be in a plastic bag? How much water should I put in the bag, quarter full?
Also, should I stratify for 2 months or 3 months?
cup would probably work also, havent tried it like that, I always just use ziplock bags… Youll get to the point where you dont need to swap out the water as much, you can tell if it gets cloudy and looks kinda slimy it needs to be changed, if you get to the point where it stays looking like plain water and the seeds look clean, then I quit changing it pretty much.
Cool, thanks TheDerek. I look forward to trying one more time. I will share photos of the result.
Here’s my plan so far, please let me know if there’s anything that stands out as wrong or very sub-optimal:
- Receive the seeds from friend, and just store them in a paper envelope until ready to use.
- Two months before the start of spring, place aronia seeds into a plastic ziplock bag, filled with enough water to easily cover all seeds, and place into the fridge.
- Check every week how the water looks. If it’s cloudy, replace the water and clean up the seeds.
- After two months have passed, place the seeds into a cup with warm 50C/122F water and leave it for 12 hours.
- After the 12 hours has passed, sow into container with “Scotts Osmocote Seed & Cutting Premium Potting Mix” about 1/4-inch deep, place outside in an area protected from direct sun and wind, and gently mist the soil for 10 seconds. Leave uncovered (spring in Australia is quite warm).
- Gently mist the soil for 10 seconds every morning.
- Seeds should start germinating in 7 days. In 2 weeks the leaves will be big and can be transplanted.
- Transplant each seedling into its own cell, and place into direct sunlight and continue watering as before (10 second mist each morning).
I appreciate your help. 
1 Like
TheDerek, what’s your opinion on the taste of McKenzie aronia raw (straight off the bush)? Is it worth growing aronia for raw eating, or are all hybrids equally nasty off the bush? How does it compare to blackcurrant raw?
I had the chance to taste an aronia melanocarpa (not the sorbaronia). It had zero sweetness, zero flavour, and zero moisture. All I could taste was a bitter cigarette ashtray and nothing else. I can’t even imagine sugar helping, as it would be like adding sugar to an ashtray. I’m wondering if the McKenzie tastes the same, if so, I might skip planting aronia and plant a blackcurrant instead.
raw they aren’t pleasant to eat, but they are noticeably sweet, mine text around 17 brix when they are mature. Dried the bitter subsides some and the sweetness is more noticeable. Black Currant isnt bitter, but some are significantly more sour than others. If you want one that is more palatable raw, consider belaruskaja, they are better than the rest raw, but I dont eat many raw really, mostly I use them in smoothies and jams, etc.
Cheers TheDerek! Never heard of Belaruskaja, I will look into that. 
I can send cuttings if you are interested…
I probably won’t worry about it, TheDerek, as I live in Australia and it’s really hard to get cuttings through customs, and post from the US takes quite long. I managed to find a nursery in Australia that sells four different varieties of black currant, so I’ll probably give those a try. I appreciate the offer though. 
1 Like
I found an interesting text here: https://web.archive.org/web/20221229223141/https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/41278/PDF
It talks about how to germinate various seeds. It doesn’t list aronia, but it does mention sorbus, which is close enough. It states:
“S. aucuparia requires oscillating temperatures. Seeds DS 6 m at 70 and placed outdoors in May germ. 80% the following April. … All other treatments gave under 1% germination.”
Which I’m interpreting as meaning seeds stored for 6 months at room temperature and planted at the end of spring won’t germinate until almost a year later in the following spring. So I guess probably the cold stratification is indeed necessary.
1 Like
Just curious what kind of recipes people on this forum are using for aronia?
Hi TheDerek, just a quick question. In your expert opinion, what would be the absolute minimum volume pot that an aronia could fruit in, without getting root-bound (for the purpose of initial taste-testing before transplanting into the ground)? Thanks in advance.
honestly I have no idea, I have never kept bushes in containers long enough for them to fruit so I really have no experience with it… Sorry
1 Like
In a badly neglected part of my Nursery ,I have some aronia seedlings in 2 .5 in. X 10 in. Tree pots . Aronia plants are 4 ft. Tall with fruit this year.
They have plastic under them , so not rooted into ground. Worms have taken some of the compost soil out of the pots. So my answer is ,
" about 2 handfulls of soil is the minimum here to get fruit in a pot " !
Plants are ~ 4 yr old from seed.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply. I’m a bit confused about the measurement. Do you mean 2.5" diameter and 10" deep, or 10" diameter and 2.5" deep? Is this a cylinder, or a square pot?
Do you mean something like this (857ml)?
2.5"square and 10" deep,
Stuewe mini tree pot.
Obviously bigger would be better
Yes. That pot.
Thanks for clarifying that, sounds like about 857ml. I’m amazed that aronia could grow tall and fruit in such a tiny pot! I wonder how root bound it is after 4 years. My previous guesstimate was 10L for 3 years, so I was way off.
1 Like