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Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

McKenzie Aronia Berry

McKenzie Aronia Berry

Species: Aronia melanocarpa

History: McKenzie was created by the USDA who, in 1976, planted several seedlings of the variety to evaluate its performance. It was named 'McKenzie' in honour of its first planting site in North Dakota, possibly named after McKenzie County specifically. The variety was officially released in 2008.

Why We Grow It: McKenzie boasts vigorous growth and good production, reliably producing firm blue-black fruit that is tart with an earthy taste. The berry clusters are easy to pick and have a wide range of uses!

    Fruit Specs

    Recommended Use: Fresh eating, baking, cooking, jams, jellies, sauce, juice

    Fruit Size:

    Storage: Keep about a week in the fridge

    Harvest: August

    Growing Specs

    Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4

    Soil Preference: Adaptable to most soils except for shallow chalk or very boggy conditions

    Flowering Time: Middle

    Bloom Colour: White

    Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different Aronia variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

    Sun/Shade Requirements:

    Partial shade to full sun (approx. 6-10 hours of sun daily)

    General Growth Habits:

    Shrub reaches 1.5-3m tall, vigorous with a round and upright growth habit, hardy, produces good crops. No notable diseases. Harvest August, but fruit sweetens if left on the bush longer.

    Shipping vs. Pick Up

    CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

    Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

    Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

    Size at Purchase

    Our ungrafted fruit tree seedlings, nut tree seedlings, berries, and other miscellaneous plants are categorized into the following sizes excluding the roots:

    • 5-15cm
    • 15cm+
    • 30cm+
    • 60cm+
    • 90cm+

    All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

    Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively. 

    Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

    Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

    Size
    Regular price $35.00 CAD
    Regular price Sale price $35.00 CAD
    Sale Sold out
    Shipping calculated at checkout.
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