Productivity and Characteristics of American Elderberry in Response to Various Pruning Methods
Horticulture & Turfgrass
Patrick Byers
Commercial Horticulture Field Specialist
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI EXTENSION
Marshfield
Abstract
American elderberry [Sambucus canadensis L.; Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis (L.) Bolli] is being increasingly cultivated in North America for its edible fruit and\r\nflowers, yet it remains largely undeveloped as a horticultural crop. Elderberry is a shrub that produces fruit on both new and old wood, thereby offering unique pruning management opportunities and challenges. The objective of this study was to document the response of American elderberry to various pruning methods in terms of flowering, fruit yield, phenology, plant growth, and incidence of disease and arthropod pests and to consider the impact of various pruning methods on horticultural management. Four pruning treatments (annual removal of all shoots, biannual removal of all shoots, annual selective pruning, and no pruning) were studied among three cultivars at two Missouri sites over 5 years. Although significant interactions among experimental effects made interpretation challenging, several trends were evident. Annual selective pruning was an excellent way to manage elderberries with mean yields of 1086 g/plant across all experimental parameters; however, pruning to the ground annually or biannually also resulted in satisfactory yields (855 and 1085 g/plant, respectively) with a fraction of pruning labor involved. Pruning plants to the ground consistently resulted in fewer, but larger, fruiting cymes compared with selectively pruned or unpruned plants, which may be important in terms of harvest efficiency. Pruning treatment generally affected the time of flowering and fruit ripening; plants that flowered only on new stems (after\r\nremoval of all shoots) ripened fruit 14 to 21 days later than plants that fruited on old wood. Although annually pruned plants generally yielded lower, the plants remained\r\nvigorous and productive, and this pruning management technique may have numerous advantages over other pruning methods.
Authors: Byers, P. L.
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Byers, P. L. Horticulture Specialist, University Of Mo Extension, Missouri, 65807