Wow I never get berries from every single flower like that. That’s amazing!
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you should be. its funny as i never see polinators on my elders yet they are all pollinated. maybe night bees come pollinate them 
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Interesting. I see bees of various kinds whenever I go over to them. They only get about 75% pollinated the last 2 years. I’m kind of throwing my hands up and saying WHATEVER, FIGURE YOURSELF OUT when I walk past them. Other things to do, help and eat!
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There are some real good ones growing wild here and some that are not so good. The good ones develop full heads of berries that ripen all at the same time. Havest the entire head is very nice.
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You want to try and root some hard wood cuttings? They root very easily and I can send you some cuttings from the one pictured late this winter. I dont have a clue about the variety though. The one pictured grows about 8 to 10 foot tall. We stand in the back of the pickup a snip off the entire heads. Then we freeze the heads overnight and the smack the head on the inside of 5 gallon buckets the next day, the berries fall off pretty clean with very little stem if smacked while frozen. We then bag them up I think 4 cups to gallon and stick them back in the freezer. My wife processes them when she gets an itching too, so I cant really comment on that part.
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Great method! I would love to add a wild one, thank you for offer! I’ll message you in January.
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Besides for bees and other insects, I believe elders are also wind pollinated. Of course it helps to have some honeysuckle close by and also give the stems a thump while walking by when they are in flower. Similar to how you would pollinate corn when it’s in tassel.
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Absolutely, please do message me and i’ll get you some fresh hardwood cuttings to root.
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I drove several hours for vacation this year during peak bloom and kept my eyes peeled for excellent roadside specimens. Check this one out! It looked like it was on second or third year of vigorous growth and fighting a sumac grove for the sun. About 10’ tall with this single monstrous 16” bloom. I wonder what it will do with full sun and no competition! Replanted the main trunk/roots along my back fence with my other elders. We’ll see!
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There are some pretty remarkable specimens near where I work, it’s definitely a bumper year for them
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Elderberry is one of the favorites of the JB’s in my area
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we dont have j.b here yet but a few other things will nibble but not do much damage on my elders…
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Just a warning to anyone else propagating these for the first time, they root so quickly and aggressively, I just discovered my 10 remaining 1g made this spring were deeply and extensively rooted through the pots into the ground. I think it’s been a few weeks since I moved them around. Future plan is definitely to sell/give them all away by the end of May! These have finally found a home with a county planting project.
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That’s awesome! How did you get the county into getting them?
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The naturalist at locust grove is the only direct contact I have, so I tend to email her with questions or things like this. She knows me from the last few years as being the crazy lady with little kids and multiple lists buying hundreds of plants at the native sales. It happens they were looking for elderberries for a “riparian buffer” project. Definitely had to look up that term. I’m donating them and hoping they’ll let us donate annually.
Side note, I pulled all the roots I could from the ground where they had exited the pots, but I’m not confident I won’t have elderberry growing in this very non ideal cramped spot next yet!! Maybe I need to put a tray/barrier under them in the future
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Try getting your hands on some pallets and placing the one gallon pots on top of them, that should create enough of an air gap that they root prune before they reach soil.
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Thanks for the idea!
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Deer eat my wild TN elderberries…
I have a nice two crown clump of them on a 4 ft round borderless raised bed. They have filled in that entire spot well and are spreading out past it.
The elders on the outside edge get pruned back by deer… but the ones in the center get too tall for the deer to reach… around 7-8 ft now loaded with small fruit.
Looks like a good harvest coming up this year.
I dehydrate the berries and make tea from them.
TNHunter
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That is all? Dehydrate, add water, tea?
I haven’t used elderberry yet, but just bought a couple small plants a few weeks ago. I’ve only really seen syrup/jam recipies. (Not that I’ve gone looking for many.)
I am always interested in learbing different ways of use for things I have! The more uses the better, really.
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