Is Chokecherry deer resistant?

Deer do eat this one. Chokecherry is a preferred mule deer browse on winter ranges across the Intermountain West and Northern Great Plains, so read the rating as a twenty to thirty foot tree absorbing the damage, not a plant left alone. The stems, leaves and seeds carry cyanide, worst while the growth is wilting.

Black knot is what kills garden chokecherries, and the mistake is pruning at the wrong moment. The galls start as velvety olive-green growth along the stems and harden black by the end of summer. Cut them out in late winter, February or March, while temperatures are below freezing, at least four inches below the gall, and burn or bury what you take off. Every winter, not once.

It also runs. The root system is shallow and spreading and throws up new plants from long underground runners, so put it where a thicket is welcome rather than in a bed. Branches break off easily in ice storms.