I have a couple of questions with regard to aronia orchard establishment. Around 3 acres.
I have read that aronia is a self pollinating bush tree. Would you recommend planting only one sort in order to minimize harvest period and labor.
As known, in blueberries (for most of the varieties) the fruits do not ripen at the same time for each tree which makes harvesting very labor intensive. Do aronia fruits ripen simultaneously. In brief: can I harvest all at once.
aronia fruit hangs on for a long time and nothing here eats the berries. i let mine hang from 2 weeks to a month after the 1st ones color up and harvest then. they are still rather firm but all are fully ripe. i pick mine by hand but for a orchard a blueberry rake would be much faster. it will get 2-3 seasons to get the bushes to grow fully up right but then the picking gets easier. i have 2 varieties. one from the U.S and the other from poland. i don’t notice the difference between the 2. berry and bush size are the same. fruit ripening are similar also.