The Tropical Fruit Forum
Temperate Fruit & Orchards => Temperate Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: stuartdaly88 on February 12, 2015, 04:13:20 PM
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Had a beautiful little plant in ground for a few years now it flowers but no fruit.
Does it need to be cross pollinated?
Anyone ever use the flowers to make a drink? I heard you can do this but mine don't taste sweet at all.
Any info and especially experiences on elder berry I would love to hear:)
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I got tired of mine and cut them all down. Some times, at certain points during the day they had a nice tropical aroma but most of them they had no smell at all. The berries tasted like medicine. I think the ones with the best flavor (and flowers that smell good all the time) are the European, Sambucus nigra. Most of the people around here that like them tend to mix them with other summer berries. You might want to check to make sure the species you're growing is edible, a few of them are not. I do not think they need cross pollination.
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Sambucus nigra aka elderberry ("baza čierna" in slovak language) is very invasive plant here, but we do not eat the fruits in my area, the only thing we use are flowers, we brew a syrup from fresh flowers, it is great syrup, very aromatic syrup, I like it. Drink it diluted with water. Here is one recipe.:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXFJnT-4rCE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXFJnT-4rCE#)
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in Serbia as well as in Slovakia. it's everywhere, growing wild
We use flowers to create very fine drink(syrup), but here from the fruits made also syrup
I can found the recipe if anyone is interested :)
I've heard that it can make a rakija (brandy) from the fruits
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Thanks:)
Recipes welcome:)
I originally got my elder berry cauz the syrup sounded delicious and meant to be a history of medical use for colds and flu. Preliminary studies on small scale look promising too.
http://www.inl.asia/resources-main-navigation-bar/three-scientific-papers-on-sambucol-elderberry-extract-and-the-flu (http://www.inl.asia/resources-main-navigation-bar/three-scientific-papers-on-sambucol-elderberry-extract-and-the-flu)
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I think....
Some varieties are not self fertile, not positive tho.
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The syrup is really great, fully recommended to everyone. Also you can make a sparkling wine from the flowers, taste great too. However as mentioned above it is fast growing and invasive.
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No, sorry, they are not self-fertile. You need two varieties. This gets confusing because they sucker readily, so you could have dozens of clones, but since they're clones, they are not going to pollinate each other. The good news is that the elderberries are cheap and so you could get another one pretty inexpensively. I have a John and an Adams variety.
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No, sorry, they are not self-fertile. You need two varieties. This gets confusing because they sucker readily, so you could have dozens of clones, but since they're clones, they are not going to pollinate each other. The good news is that the elderberries are cheap and so you could get another one pretty inexpensively. I have a John and an Adams variety.
Thanks!
Can the unpollinated flowers still be used for drinks?
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Thanks!
Can the unpollinated flowers still be used for drinks?
Yes, the main flavor is in the pollen and flowers.
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Has anyone tried growing elderberry in the tropics? I had someone here tell me that it grew fine for them in Hawaii. But i never actually saw it.
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Sambucus canadensis is apparently able grow well here so it wouldn't be a stretch for it to grow were your at in HI.
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I was given one last year, mine is still a bit small but I have been told that they produce well here (k, I'm in the wanna-be tropics).
I'm finding several reference on the net to elderberries being self-fertile, but do better with another.
I hear that they can be invasion due to birds distribution.
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keep in mind that Elderberry is an alternate host for Pierce's Disease so if you are trying to grow table grapes you might have a problem. If you are growing Muscadines or Scuppernongs or any table grape bred for the deep south you shouldn't have a problem.
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Only Pierce resistant grapes.
Wasn't aware of that, thanks.
Do you mean that they are a carrier for the disease, or they get infected too?
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The disease spends part of its life cycle living in Elderberry - like the way Cedar Apple Rust lives part its life in Cedar Trees (Junipers) and then part of its life in Apples. If you could remove all the junipers from your area, you could possibly remove the disease too. Most table grapes are highly sensitive to Pierce's disease which is why hardly anyone commercially grows table grapes in the Southeast. I believe the southern regions west of the Rocky Mountains do not have Pierces disease.
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The hill country of Texas (central) goes quite a few grapes and I'm pretty sure Pierce's disease is prevalent there. Of course it is mostly the resistant varieties.
So are Elderberries adversely affect by it or is it more like figs and FMV, there but doesn't do much harm?
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I don't believe it does any damage to Elderberries. Around here if your table grapes die over the winter (like the hard winter we are having now) the grape experts say they died of Pierce's disease. The disease evidently weakens them through the summer and then they die during the winter.