Elderberries in the Food Forest: New Varieties!
Elders have captured my attention for years.
What attracts me most about this glorious plant is the strength I can feel emanating from this being.
Being medicinally rich, delicious, hardy and easy to propagate, I’m sold. These hardwood cuttings are from selected cultivars (wydewood and marge, pictured above) which are chosen for first year fruiting tendencies and high flower yield respectively. They’re ready for a new home.
Food Forest Champs
These represent another addition to the ever expanding diversity of our forest garden and permaculture nursery. As a potent immune boosting and antiviral ally, elder’s berries, leaves and flowers will yield important medicine in years to come.
When building our food forest, multi use plants are what we’re looking for. Elders fit this description perfectly.
Take, for example, this Bob Gordon variety from last year. We chose Bob Gordon because of its precocious nature, adaptability and high yields. It is a selection from a wild plant from Osceola Missouri.
We prefer species that exhibit qualities of adaptability and resiliency and have multiple uses. Elder is one such plant.
The first pic is where we have started with each year: an elder cutting. The second pic is 1 year of growth and this third pic is year 2 spring growth.
We got this variety from a neighbor’s yard. Presumably it is a wild elder. Last year we got a few bunches of berries from it and are hoping for a bigger yield this year!
Isn’t it cool to be able to produce such a beneficial plant from just cuttings!?!?! In years to come we hope to keep propagating these and some day offer cuttings of all of the varieties we have here on Homesteader’s Co-op. We believe such an amazing plant should be in every yard!
If you want to propagate your own, check out this very useful post we wrote last spring:
Easiest Way To Grow A Lot Of Elderberries | Incredibly Useful & Medicinal Shrub!
Green blessings!
Beautiful growth! My fella and I are interested in starting a good bunch of fruiting berry plants. They keep well frozen and are such a lovely flavor for year round treats.
I wonder if there is a way to prune them in order to provide optimal yields....
Great! Many of the selected varieties are routinely mowed to the ground every year. They will grow up to 8' each season and yield of the 1st year growth. All the best.
You’ve been visited by @porters on behalf of Natural Medicine!
Wonderful that you can propagate such a beneficial plant from cuttings! We propagate golden willows and red osier dogwood that way. We just take the cutting and push them into the soft ground - easy peasy!
Here's hoping your many varieties of elderberries thrive so you can spread them around through your Homesteaders Coop store!
We are also running our fortnightly competition for steem rewards, where you can explore a plant medicine. This fortnight's plants are mullein, ginseng and alder... Plus a wild card where you can choose your own! Find out more Here
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Us too, we love the easy peasy plants. Happy you're getting more willows and dogwoods in ground.
The one in the photo was forgotten in a 4 inch pot and left for 3 months, upon return in was still growing. Such vigorous plants, they HAVE to be healthy!
We are indeed looking forward to getting these cutting out there through Homesteaders coop.
Elderberries are my favorite and elderflower soda is my favorite drink of all time. We've planted some along one of my vegetable garden beds, going for a hedge. I was recently told that you should plant two types of elderberries (two varieties) if you want a really good crop so YAY foryou that you have so many varieties. I am on the lookout for another variety because we've just planted once type. (can't recall which).
So do is a great use for them. I don't actually know much about pollinizers but I'm always up for high diversity. Happy to share in the future.
When it comes to fruiting trees and shrubs, I am totally obsessed with wanting to collect every variety. Really excited to see these elderberry cuttings taking root.
Love it. We both feel the same about getting ALL the trees and shrubs. I feel a bit greedy sometimes...
Would you be offering elders on the Homesteaders Coop? I'd not be in the market for them for a couple years, until the building is done. But I sure would be interested in a bunch then!
Yes!! It will be 2 yrs til we have them for sale, but an emphatic yes then ☺️
Yay!! That will be excellent timing then. :))
You've been visited by @sagescrub from Homesteaders Co-op.
How fun! Your elderberries look great! I too love elderberries ... I just had wild (blue) elderberry jam in my yogurt this morning for breakfast :) I had stratified some dried black and blue elderberry seeds this winter and look forward to see if they germinate. You are inspiring me to be prepared to do a bunch of cuttings later on when we have our spot!
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That's awesome! Eating fruits out of season makes me happy. Hope the cutting do well for y'all. they're hardy buggers for sure! We had some from last year that I was sure had died, but upon closer inspection were sending up new shoots.
Unbelievable growth in just 2 years. Do you think you'll have berries this year or does it take several years to produce? I love the multiple uses this plant provides, smart choice! Oh the orchards you will have :) oxox love you! Happy planting!
We should get fruit this year. These varieties bear on 1st year wood, so looking forward to yummy and medicinal berries. Excited to share the bounty with you and seeing what you can create!
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Propagating gives me SUCH a buzz!! Love it. Nice post. The Tibetan prayer flags? Yes. I'm sure they help everything grow as they flutter their prayers and energy.
Yes! Propogation is awesome and exciting indeed. Keeping up the positive vibes on the homestead.
We love elderberries great for stuffy children who neeed to sleep 😴😊
Yay for medicines that help children (and all of us!) sleep! Go elder! 🌿💚