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Email: Southwestcenter@missouri.edu

Superintendent:
Dr. Richard Crawford - Bio
14548 Highway H
Mt. Vernon, MO 65712-9523
Phone: 417-466-2148
FAX: 417-466-2109
Email: crawfordr@missouri.edu

Elderberry trials bear "fruitful" results

In 2000, we initiated the elderberry pruning management study at Mt. Vernon and Mountain Grove, using three cultivars (Adams 2, Netzer, and Gordon B). Netzer and Gordon B are promising new selections from Missouri that we have been evaluating for several years.

The objective of the study was to determine how the elderberry plant (which is a large multi-stemmed shrub) responds to various pruning methods, and to determine the most economical method of pruning management for producers. The pruning treatments included 1) pruning plants to the ground annually, 2) pruning to the ground every other year, 3) selective pruning and removal of old wood, and 4) unpruned control. This sevenyear experiment was concluded in 2006.

Results from this study are summarized in Table 1. The easiest and least costly pruning management technique would certainly be to prune the plants to the ground annually or biannually, which could be efficiently accomplished with a brush-hog or other motorized brush cutter. Our results indicate that laborious selective pruning produced higher fruit yields but not statistically greater yields than bi-annual pruning. Considering the labor involved with selective pruning, it appears that bi-annual pruning to the ground may be an excellent way to manage the elderberry plant, thereby keeping it vigorous and productive.

However, selective pruning and annual pruning may have other important advantages or considerations. For example, even though annual pruning yielded less overall, such a pruning management method might improve predictability and uniformity of ripening. On the other hand, selective pruning may permit the producer to extend the harvest over a longer period of time if desired. We also believed that annual pruning might reduce eriophyid mite and bacterial leafspot infestation because of the annual removal of infested branches, but our data did not support this concept (data not shown). We have much more work to do in the area of elderberry pest management. Of the three cultivars in the study, Gordon B had a larger berry and yielded nearly triple that of Adams 2, probably the most common elderberry cultivar in production today. These yield results are across 5 years, 2 locations, and all 4 pruning treatments, so we are confident that Gordon B is a truly superior cultivar for the Midwest. Elderberry plants at Mountain Grove yielded higher than those at Mt. Vernon. We do not entirely understand why, but the plants at Mountain Grove were established on raised soil ridges, which may have important benefits for elderberry.

And finally, when looking across five years, fruit yields rose to their highest in the second year and dropped during the fifth year. Because the study was concluded we do not know if the plants may be short-lived and were beginning to decline or if 2006 was simply a poor year for elderberry for some reason. Stay tuned for more elderberry results over the next year or two.

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