I think we get about 16” of rain here. I watered last year pretty regular, Especially during and after bloom as I’ve had nice flowers but not gotten good fruit set. the plants that I’m least impressed with I’ve taken care to mulch really well. Some of the other starts I’ve spread about have better soil but no mulch and they don’t get the water they could use as I don’t want to overwater other things in my tree nursery/garden. The northside plant that fruited probably benefited from consistent soil moisture where it is. I guess even if I don’t get fruit I can take advantage of the fad and grow plants/make root divisions to sell??
No Fruit or Flowers?
If Flowers and no fruit - plants are spaced too far apart. and/or lack of pollination.
If no flowers - they are too young.
Sell where? Locally? The named ones you have are super common so i doubt you will sell many on the www. However locally you could be ‘the guy’ It would be really easy to root a cutting that you are trimming anyways… and sell for $10 per rooted plant.
Of course you will have to have pictures of how big yours get and the berries to make the most out of your selling locally.
i only prune out weak, broken / spindly canes. if the bush gets real dense ill take out the old wood in the center as after 3 years it doesnt produce much. if you prune it to the ground, depending on cultivar, you may lose a season or 2 of production. better to remove big old canes from the center every 3 years or so.
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I think that is the European ones…not the American
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Growing many fruits myself including elderberry, aronia, concord grapes, black berries , black raspberries and many others these super fruits are compared to. So some ask why then did I decide to have acres of aronia instead of acres of elderberry. There are many reasons! Aronia produce more fruit than elderberry. The two berries taste similar both are bad. Western sand cherry aka Hansen’s bush cherry is equally bad. Here are charts you need to see that explain the orac content which is the ability each berry has to fight cancer causing free radicals in the human body.
Eldon Everhart put together the chart at the bottom based on USDA data. Eldon was my consultant I hired to locate the best berry plants.
For a nominal fee he put me in touch with Harlan who owned HH wild plum nursery and bluebird nursery and Ken who owned Superberries. Eldon worked for a University at the time where he ran an Agriculture program he retired from to focus on aronia. He does consulting and discusses things related to the promotion of aronia like soil tests, location research, variety research among other things. Eldon later established an organization for Aronia. I’m not trying to promote their agendas for aronia or to get other growers interested in Aronia. Ken sold superberry is my understanding, Harlan died in an accident, and I have not spoke with Eldon in years but I bring this up because I discussed elderberry with them. They were well aware of the health benefits of elderberry and very impressed by them. They chose to focus on aronia for many reasons related to production, Mechanical harvest, and nutrient content. My beliefs are slightly different and I believe it all looks good on paper but selling aronia in the USA is challenging due to flavor. It’s my opinion we might be as well off to grow blackberry, concord grapes, or other better tasting antioxidant fruits. Consider I grow elderberry and aronia and other fruits mentioned. Blueberries are very healthy and very delicious but I cannot easily grow them here. Black currants are good tasting to me but repulse certain people. Wonder where honeyberry rank on the charts! Have done the field research as well and we know it takes years Aronia Harvest . All that said the individuals such as Eldon I brought up are very dedicated to their cause because of the health benefits from aronia. Healthy food is totally missing from the average Americans diet. Elderberry is the second highest in orac content as noted by the chart so all the good things people say are true. The original chart had acai berry on it and because the powder was used it out ranked both aronia and elderberry. Later acai was removed from the chart because the analysis was done on powder and not fruit. Still use acai myself and personally find it amazing for health benefits but rather expensive. Bilberry has amazing health benefits as well but like huckleberry and sloes did not make it on the charts.
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You’ve not had elderberries as mild as I have evidently. They can be less sour/astringent than many blueberries.
Somebody could do a study just like for so many other fruits and develop
good ones to the taste buds…or selection alone might get the trick done.
Asimina triloba…selections, then breeding, indeed produced improvements.
It’s not been done for many fruits. Only recently for haskap/honeyberries.
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Correct all fruits need improved. Aronias have been drastically improved in Russia which is where some of mine came from. Elderberry need someone to improve them more. I’ve not had good tasting ones but when you get them those are a place to begin to make the better tasting larger berried crosses.
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How does cooking affect those values on the charts?
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ive never grew the European ones.
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ive read somewhere seaberries are up there with aronia. honeyberries are a little better than black currant for ORAC values. Romance series sour cherries are actually up near elderberries. its the Mongolian cherry parentage that gives the highest ORAC benefits. i havent seen where lingonberry rates but i imagine about equal to cranberry.
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Cooking always reduces food value
Yes seaberries are extremely healthy but they are high in different vitamins
This article explains it slightly. Purple colored foods are anthocyanins
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What are anthocyanins and why are purple foods so healthy?
By
At BBC Good Food we believe eating a balanced and varied diet, including at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day, is best for health. But what’s so special about purple foods in particular?
Many purple foods contain anthocyanins
All brightly coloured fruit and vegetables contain antioxidants – compounds which play a key role in protecting our bodies – but many naturally purple-coloured foods contain a certain antioxidant called anthocyanin. These are beneficial plant pigments which give fruit and veg their deep red, purple or blue hues.
While studies are ongoing, it’s too early to say conclusively whether purple foods containing anthocyanins deserve to be lauded as ‘superfoods’ as they have been in some media reports. Previous research has linked anthocyanins to a wide variety of health claims, however, including increased longevity, cardiovascular health, cancer prevention and dementia.
Which foods contain anthocyanins?
Anthocyanins are found in high concentrations in blackcurrants, blackberries and blueberries, as well as in aubergine (in the skin), red cabbage, cranberries and cherries.
Blueberries
Blueberries are a useful source of vitamin C, which helps protect cells and aids the absorption of iron, and contain soluble fibre, which is beneficial to the digestive system. Read more about the health benefits of blueberries.
A study in the European Journal of Nutrition found that a supplement containing dried blueberry powder improved brain power in children aged 7 to 10.
Research from Tufts University suggests that consuming a blueberry supplement may be effective in improving or delaying short-term memory loss in rats.
However, the NHS points out that the existing studies into how blueberries might prevent cancer or improve memory have so far relied on small sample groups or animals, and it is not yet clear whether these findings will translate to larger groups of the human population. Read more from the NHS about the nutritional benefits of blueberries.
Pomegranate
Somewhere between red and purple, the jewel-like colour of pomegranate is a consequence of its anthocyanin content. Pomegranate is a good source of fibre, and also provides vitamins A, C and E, iron, and other antioxidants such as tannins.
One study found that pomegranate helped to strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis in mice through decreased inflammation and oxidative stress.
Another study found that consuming 50ml of pomegranate juice per day reduced damage to arteries and cut cholesterol build-up in people with narrowed arteries.
A further study found that a daily glass of pomegranate juice improved blood flow to the heart, resulting in a lower risk of heart attack. However, the NHS points out that as it was a very limited trial these positive results could have been down to chance.
Purple sweet potato
Purple sweet potatoes have recently been in the media spotlight. They are commonly eaten on the Japanese island of Okinawa, which is home to an exceptionally healthy elderly population – with a large number over the age of 100, and rates of dementia reported to be up to 50% lower than in the West. Some scientists think that the large quantities of purple sweet potato in their diet plays a key role in keeping their bodies and brains healthy well into old age. However, to date, there are not many studies into the health benefits of the purple sweet potato, and it’s impossible to say that the Okinawan’s longevity is down to this one food alone.
A note on beetroot
Beetroot’s deep purple colour comes from plant chemicals called betalains. Like anthocyanins, betalains have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. You can also find betalains in the stems of chard and rhubarb but it’s the flesh and skin of beetroots which are especially rich in them.
Beetroot is also a good source of vitamins and minerals, including folate, iron, manganese and potassium. They’re also nitrate-rich, which contributes to many of beetroot’s perceived health benefits. For example, a study from 2013 found that consuming beetroot juice was linked with lower blood pressure.
Beetroot juice has also been found to moderately improve athletic performance.
Another study has suggested that a diet that includes beetroot juice may increase blood flow to the brain, which some have interpreted to mean it may help prevent or improve dementia. However, these findings are limited by the fact that it was based on a very small sample size of 16 elderly people over an extremely short interval. This means that much more evidence is needed before we can conclusively say that beetroot juice aids cognitive function.
So should we be eating more purple foods?
There’s no doubt that naturally purple-coloured fruit and vegetables are an excellent addition to a varied diet, but it’s also important to remember that balance is key along with including a rainbow of differently coloured fruits and vegetables for optimum health benefits.
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ive been investigating this topic for about 15 yrs. now and trying to eat more deeply colored fruits and veg. i really love beets and how i feel after eating them. for some reason pickled beets really pumps up your system. maybe the vinegar and spices have a effect as well. if i have a busy day, ill eat a half cup of pickled beets in the morning and it keeps me going past mid day. ive replaced white vinegar with organic apple cider v. with the mother and it gives even more energy. no wonder athletes love beet juice! ive been really keying in on darker cultivars of fruits to grow as well for the anthocyanins. black currants have the highest most palatable levels of them so i have quadrupled the amount im growing. in a few more years i should have enough of them in production to keep me in juice and jam throughout the year. slightly sweetened they are far more palatable than aronia and elder. tastes like a richly flavored concord grape juice. even my picky wife loves it.!
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Any kind of slightly fermented food eg. Apple cider vinegar. Sauerkraut etc. Is healthy but combined with a suerfood eg. Beats that’s incredible!
Don’t want to get to far away from elderberries it’s not my intention to hijack the thread. Im bringing up food related items that explain why elderberries might be amazing like aronia or beets its coloring. Can we ferment them? Can we incorporate them in our recipes for sauerkraut or beets?
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Not to get TOO off topic but along those lines, Baker Creek seems to have a lot of purple colored seeds in their portfolio.
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yep. just got a order from them. even growing some purple potatoes / carrots this year.
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I got black nebula and cosmic purple from Ohio Heirloom. We’ll see how it goes.
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going to grow some purple cabbage to make some sauerkraut with. 
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grew a purple heirloom from bakers last summer. was very good.
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I think everything that is ‘healthy’ tastes bad. lol. I see on your charts that blackberries are 2X - 3X less healthy than the bad tasting berries…but personally i can eat 4X more blackberries. So am i healthier because i can eat more blackberries?
At what point of sugar or honey addition do Elder and Aronia ‘taste’ as good as blackberries? Adding sugar isnt a good thing if one is trying to be healthy. I know alot of people say that the Elder and Aronia jellies are great but there again is the addition of sugar.
There is something that your charts do not talk about on the Elderberry and that is the flowers. Maybe the flowers are the healthiest part of all?
If you read online about the health benefits of Elderberry flowers it dang near cures or helps everything. The average person is never going to eat flowers of anything so its a moot point as far as marketing. I cant imagine trying to sell flowers to eat at a farmers market.
Here are some more facts for thought-
In one placebo-controlled, double-blind study conducted by Israeli virologist Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, 93.3 percent of people taking an elderberry preparation reported significant improvement in influenza symptoms within two days of starting it, compared with the six days it took for the placebo group to see improvement.
Researchers also have found that people who have taken elderberries have higher levels of antibodies against the influenza virus, demonstrating that the berry may treat flu symptoms and prevent influenza infection. (Roschek, 2009)
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