It may depend on whether you are east or west of the Cascades. There will be less problem if you are in the drier climate to the east. I have never noticed a problem with chokecherries suckering, however they do put a lot of fruit on, which the birds will love, and a lot of pits will fall onto the ground under the tree and grow, making it look like the tree is suckering. I just mow them off when I mow the rest of the lawn under the tree. I have had a number of chokecherries in an old orchard with plums and Early Richmond pie cherries. Periodically there will be black knot on some of the chokecherries and on the pie cherries, but it is more of a curiosity than a problem for me. These chokecherries are about 20 feet tall & we don't pick them, just let the birds eat the fruit. About 15 years ago I planted a seedling that was growing in the yard in some lawn about 100 yards from the orchard where the rest are and keep it pruned to a manageable height for picking and have never had any hint of disease. My climate is very dry and many diseases don't spread easily. Chokecherries make very good jelly and syrup and the fragrance when they bloom is intoxicating, so don't avoid them just because they are susceptible to some diseases. Plant them with some clearance to the cherries so that disease doesn't spread either way, and remove or treat any disease when it appears. The one caveat with chokecherries is that the young leaves and shoots contain cyanide with the content decreasing as the leaves mature. If you have livestock where your trees are, don't let them graze on the chokecherries. As I recall it takes a pound or so of leaves to kill a fully grown sheep with cyanide poisoning. By fall, the cyanide levels have declined to nearly nothing and the fallen leaves can be eaten safely. A bite or two eaten with other forage won't hurt them, but a meal will do them in, so just keep the trees and livestock separated from when the leaves come out in the spring until at least August or so.

Blaze, you are having fun but the organic bit is a straw man. The point I was making wasn't never to use poison- synthetic or otherwise, but to ID your pests and deal with them in the most efficient way possible. The poster hasn't even identified the pests doing damage. The curling leaves sounds like aphids but not the holes. Aphid damage is not always a significant problem anyway and up here 90% of the time you are best served to let them run their course. When I suggested using outdoor ant stakes- that is a synthetic pesticide- but it is easy to use and doesn't spread much poison where it's not needed. Usually aphids are only persistent outdoors when protected by ants, IME. I manage fruit trees full time (and am a licensed sprayer who uses restricted synthetic pesticides) and I have observed a strong correlation between spraying my aphids and losing my ladybugs. Maybe because of using different materials.

jFlowerman you really hit the right approach for having fruit trees in containers! !! What a huge difference!! We're in Norco Hills high up with cool breezy winds and hot summers! The black plastic big containers -- 15 to 25 gallons seemed big enough and are but the hot summer sun hitting the black plastic cooked the tree roots so I was dragging pots to bottom shade or wind protection... Then I discovered Paradise Nursery in Riverside and they sold us big boxes -- the ones nurseries use for trees ---wood is light blond so cooler and huge compared to the pots. We bought 3" casters at Home Depot screwed on the casters -one at each corner... four each box and now our trees are ultra healthy and I can slide them into shade or away from wind like magic! Zero effort!!! The nurseries grow the bigger trees in these boxes and my miniatures to standard are easy to prune, cool in the heat and Super attractive on the patio! Buying the soil will cost but getting half a yard for 22.00 for four boxes---plus the 18.50 per box-- is super cheap compared to whiskey barrels or bags of soil in black deco hot pots! And one can always fill boxes half way if desired! hope this helps!

Just to see if it can be done, I tried this as an experiment. This is supposed to be a Double Mahoi...it didn't double, so I really can't be sure. It's growing and fruiting in an 18" diameter and 18" deep pot. The main trunk is 4 foot tall. It was planted as a one foot pup this past April and it's fruiting so I now know it can be done. So give it a shot. The only problem that I can see with the 12 foot tall variety is that it's going to be top heavy and might have a tendency to fall over. You'll definately need a bigger pot for that size and might want to try and stabilize the container somehow... ...here are a few pics... ...it has 3 pups left on it now and I've already removed a few and planted them in the ground... ...and the fruit ...good luck...Z