Elderberries- improving your crop collection and tree choices

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hedgerowpete

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As I write this in deepest January. I thought I would mention ways to improve on your Elderberry crop this year.
Now before I get on my high horse I must mention I am not a flower picker, I am a berry man. In fact anyone caught distroying the berry fruit harvest i belive should be thrown in the local canal!!! Hotley followed by Hugh Fernley Whittingstall for starting all this flower nonsense in the first place.

For many people the Elder bush is total ignored all year except for a few weeks each year when the berries are in fruit. Then armed with buckets off they go to grab as many as posible with out thinking of the effort put in.

My name is "Hedgerow Pete" for a reason. i harvest hedgerows, i also plant specific trees and bushes to suit my food needs. mint instead of nettles, basal lemon grass and so forth, we also plant trees and nuts too.

If you did not know aan elderberry crops on fresh green groth,not old wood. by pruning and trimming we can get the bush to produce new shoots and therefore new growth points and there on new berrys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What we need to do in the winter time is to pop along to the elderberry bushs you know of and help them , help your self, anything old, broken or diseased. grotty or congested, saw it out or cut it out, it means more effort goes into the main bush or tree system. next up is the tips of all the branch ends, you want three tips to each end, any more and cut the thinest ones out, some times we do a big prune and here we will snip the first foot back on every limb, some times the bush is congested with ivy and weeds and broken and damaged stems and here in a few rare cases we will pollard it back to a metre tall, hack all the ivy out as ALL IVY MUST GO and generally clean the elder out of rubbish and rot.

no elder in your area?
make some!
cutters the size of a pencil snipped and stabbed into the ground will grow, or take all those seeds and berry pulp and drop it in fixed places along the hedgerows too reseed it.

The only thing i suggest you dont do is cut down the bush completley and remove it or kill it off, according to Warwickshire, Witchcraft legends theres supposed to be a witch underneath, held captive by the roots, so dont let her out.
 
I agree however a further point is Elder coppices very well and not much grows faster, I suppose that's why it is used within a traditional hedgerow. All hedgerow species want to become a tree it's only pruning keeps them within a well kept hedge so ideally for berries you want something slightly neglected. A tall spangly tree can be coppice close to the ground in winter and will promote loads of new stems the following spring much the same as Hazel.
 
One small elderberry has started growing out of the bottom of my house wall.

I saw the episode where Wittingstall made Elderflower champers, It was easy to tell he was not a winemaker.!!!!!

Has anyone else noticed Elderberry and stinging nettles seem to like growing together
 
Elder is terrifically resilient and grows in nearly all environments,there is loads near me and it is easy to get what I need without affecting the crop left for the birds. There is an attractive black leaved variety used as an ornamental in some gardens I do.
I dont know about Warwickshire witches,but it is supposedly unlucky to burn the wood.
When I first started making wine a long time ago I tipped the used must onto Dads compost heap,next year he had little elder trees coming up all around the garden....
 
They are technically an understory tree species in our broadleaf lowland woodland and so often thrive under and on the edges of the main canopy trees ie. John brambles, nettle, ground elder and the like. Elder and nettle wine?
 
Na Nige its a childhood thing with me I hate nettles,Even the smell as I walk past a clump makes my stomach churn.
 
done nettle wine many times before, its okay but not brilliant, chlorafil, cellulose and wine mixed
 
Na Nige its a childhood thing with me I hate nettles,Even the smell as I walk past a clump makes my stomach churn.
Ha. I know I've fell in a few, I've only had nettle tea which isn't has good as Pg, never made or tasted nettle wine and I won't be picking any.
 
Elder is great for wood ear mushrooms too, especially this time of year when very little else is available
 
I wrote something similar about improving your local wild fruit supply last year as we have a derelict railway line here which is now a public path.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/improving-wild-fruit-supply-guerrilla-gardening.81876/

Access is easy and there are some there already, but also an awful lot of crows which had them all last year. I didn't think about pruning them though.

What time of year is best to take cuttings to push in to start another bush? Round about now I would think.
 
I wrote something similar about improving your local wild fruit supply last year as we have a derelict railway line here which is now a public path.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/improving-wild-fruit-supply-guerrilla-gardening.81876/

Access is easy and there are some there already, but also an awful lot of crows which had them all last year. I didn't think about pruning them though.

What time of year is best to take cuttings to push in to start another bush? Round about now I would think.
yes , just plant them in the right direction, tops upwards. some times you can really give them a good snipping to refresh them
 
Make sure the sap is up, mabe a little early yet but they are one of the first trees to kick off.
 
Just out of interest elder pith is great for watch and clock makers for just applying the correct tiny amount of lube.

Also for Harry Potter fans making wands:laugh8:
 

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