Growing elderberries isn’t hard, but there are a lot of conflicting sources of information. Probably because different growers use different methods.  Some start in pots, some outside.  Some use rooting hormone, some don’t. Etc.

I’ve had the best success starting in the ground (usually planting in March) without rooting hormone. When planting a field for production, I do a soil test and  address glaring deficiencies.  But I’ve also had success by just preparing the hole by spading in some compos…

Do you know how to prune an elderberry bush?  Me neither. Although I've grown elderberries for over a decade, I'm still relatively new at growing them on a large scale and managing them for production.

Despite not being certain as to the right approach,  I started pruning this week on a 50 degree February day, and I hope to finish within the next 10 days or so.

Some of our plantings are now old enough that they need to be pruned, so I’ve been looking at what the literature says and what other …

Why do we grow elderberries? 

Several people have asked this question, and it is a reasonable one.  Unlike some, I have no childhood memories of picking wild elderberries or savoring my grandmother’s sweet elderberry pie.

I only became intimate with elderberries as an adult, when I unboxed 2 small specimens of the ‘York’ variety. I had been exploring useful native plants that we might be able to integrate into our modest suburban yard. Elderberry seemed a possibility, small enough for our yard…