Pruning Elderberries for propagation and access

We grow a wide range of elderberries. We love them as plants, enjoy their beautiful flowers and medicinal fruits and partially make our living by selling dormant hardwood cuttings of their stems for others to propagate at home and enjoy. These plants are incredibly easy to root from dormant cuttings simply stuck in nice soil. It is magic.
We plant them in a way to promote more frequent pruning and harvest of dormant stems. This keeps them vigorous and productive and provides wave after wave of vital and ready-to-root stems we can get into the hands of other folks!

Edible Acres is a full service permaculture nursery located in the Finger Lakes area of NY state. We grow all layers of perennial food forest systems and provide super hardy, edible, useful, medicinal, easy to propagate, perennial plants for sale locally or for shipping around the country…
Happy growing!

[gillsmoke]

I can hear David the Good cackling, "That's right prune like a madman. More. More."

[dogslobbergardens]

I too have found that if I put things out of my way they tend to get neglected... but if I put them where they're often next to my path they get better care and more immediate attention. Seems to work for everything from perennials plants to just clutter in general. ;)

[holisticheritagehomestead]

When we bought this property, we didn’t even realize there was a very large hedgerow of elderberry plants. It forces us to learn more about them. Looks like we have some pruning to do. Thank you.

[Tsuchimursu]

Interesting idea. Leaving it undone would annoy you til you get it done... Works for the laziest of us. Nice.

[acsoul]

I would totally watch a 45 minute video of you just working without any dialogue. Just watching your movements and motions alone are enough to inspire work lol.

[peterellis]

Planting where they will get in your way to motivate you to prune for propagation is inspired brilliance ;)

[gotdream]

This video is right on time for me! Thank you and you have one of the most awesome informational channels on You Tube!!!!

[oldmanfigs]

Another fantastic example of useful information nicely put.

[backtonature]

Always have some awesome ideas, , no regrets following your channel 😃😃😃

[oliverblackhall]

We cut our black elderberry back to the trunk every year in the winter and by June it's huge again. Really wonderful plants.

[catherineshiddengarden]

I have Gordon, medicine wheel and some type of Adams which have huge heads on them. Remember they love to off shoot as well. 3D’s dead, diseased, damaged are the rules for 1st pruning. Then cross branching & air circulation. Ty for sharing your garden tip. You have such a nice peaceful manner to yourself.

[thehillsidegardener]

Inspired by various videos of yours I stuck half a dozen (European) elder cuttings into the ground along a fence line early this winter past and sure enough, although the tips look dead, on closer inspection they are all putting out leaves further down as we head into the warmer weather. I won't be managing those much, I just want the flowers for cordial, and to fill out the boundary of our land. I didn't know hardwood cuttings were that simple, have done it with gooseberry, blackcurrant, raspberry and more, too, looking forward to those springing to life soon. Free plants, what's not to like!

[bryanbeast]

Is there a video showing how you process those cuttings?

[deepfriedcherrypie]

Your lawn to food forest playlist got me thinking, have you ever approached a local school to plant food forests by them? We always hear about underfed kids, and obviously it's expensive for charities to buy and ship in quality food to schools. Permaculture on the other hand as you've taught us can be extremely inexpensive. Maybe a few parents would even do most of the hard work and maintenance, while you could just supervise! the follow-up videos of children getting to eat fresh and FREE fruit at their leisure would absolutely go viral as well. Not that you seem to care about YouTube metrics, but you deserve the recognition.

Love your videos, thanks for making them!!! Sorry I feel like I'm always asking prying questions but it helps the YT algorithm :)

[justinp]

Great timing on this video. I got a bunch of elder cuttings from you last year which have now become a lot of gangly long branches bushes. I started pruning them over the winter but never finished. Thanks for the reminder to circle back to them!

Side bar question: what’s your experience with transplanting elders a year or so after planting the cuttings?

[angelad.]

A video over at Roots and Refuge Farm dropped today and they mention you guys and your chestnut stratifying video. You are about to get some new subscribers(big smile)

[danoral]

I wear my old EMT pants for everyday outdoors work they are the best pants for that type of work.

[sethhofstetter]

Thanks for reminding me...I need to prune my elderberries and chokecherries!

[CorwynGC]

As always great content, but also great motivation. Rain coming, but hopefully by this weekend, getting out and doing ours. Filling up the heat box.

[redinthethevalley]

These were great tips! Oh and I saw that fancy yoga movement there😆👏🏼reminds me of when I could do that lol all the best to the both of ya!