Elderberry Experiment: Update #4

[NeoGreen]

Last edited Fri Apr 13, 2018, 12:56 PM - Edit history (2)

Not much to report:


Just making plans for next year's expansion.

Probably should start including links to previous updates:
Elderberry Experiment: In the beginning: https://www.democraticunderground.com/11597228
Elderberry Experiment: Update #1: https://www.democraticunderground.com/11597235
Elderberry Experiment: Update #2: https://www.democraticunderground.com/11597246
Elderberry Experiment: Update #3: https://www.democraticunderground.com/11597391

[democratisphere]

1. Good idea on the expansion. Hope your experiment works!

Good luck!

[NeoGreen]

4. Thanks...

...I had good results last year, hopefully the trend will continue.

[Ohiogal]

2. Wow, do you grow elderberries?!

I thought I was the only one who planted elderberry bushes in my back yard!

May I ask where you live? What do you do with them? We make jelly out of ours, because a PB & J sandwich just screams for elderberry jelly! And it's getting harder and harder to find in the grocery stores.

[NeoGreen]

5. My plan is...

...to expand up to a full acre of plants, and maybe someday sell to the local food co-ops.

Personally, I want to make anything I can: pies, jam, juice, wine, syrup etc.

I'm in upstate NY.

[Ohiogal]

9. Thanks and best of luck to you!

I made wine out of them one year when we had a bumper crop. Sooooo. Good....

[Botany]

3. Are you a member of Xerces?

https://xerces.org/announcing-the-publication-of-attracting-native-pollinators/

[NeoGreen]

6. Not familiar with Xerces...

...I will have to check it out.

[Botany]

7. Worth it!

Lots of very simple but important things you can do that help keep
your native pollinators happy which in turn will help in your fruit
production.

BTW i would recommend Doug Tallamy's "Bringing Nature Home" too.

I notice from your picture that you have your Sambucus sp planted lower
do you have to water them?

[NeoGreen]

8. I did water all the plants...

Last edited Fri Jan 5, 2018, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

...this year, since they were new and I wanted to minimize losses.

I used a 12-volt pump set in my small pond adjacent to the grove and powered by an extra 12-volt battery I had kicking around.

Watering got tedious with moving the tubing to each plant so I bought a few hundred feet of 3/8" tubing this year to start building a buried irrigation system that will be fed from the pond and pump. My plan is to set up a solar powered pump to fill a ~200gallon tank during the day. I will discharge the tank water into the tubing system by gravity as needed at night.

Elderberries don't mind being moist, as long as they are not inundated.

Additionally, I will be building up the mulch for each row to keep the moisture in and the weeds down.

[WhiteTara]

10. This is a native here in Arkansas and my garden

produced so much fruit last year that in addition to the birds gorging, we even got some for pies. All the books say to make sure you don't get a single green berry mixed in. Lots of berry cleaning and culling but an interesting pie. Be sure to wear gloves as you become a purple hand!

Have fun with your experiment. It took about 3 years for ours to produce, I think. The flowers are so beautiful and that's what drew me to the plant.

[mopinko]

11. they are wild in my backyard. i mostly leave them for the birds.

they got hacked back last year when i had a new fence installed, but expect them to roar back.

the chickens love them, and they are quite hilarious trying to jump up and get them.