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Propagating Elderberry from Cuttings

Good morning my gardening friends! The birds are chirping, the sun is rising, and my coffee machine is gurgling and humming my favorite morning melody. With my coffee very nearly in my grasp, I felt it was a good time to start working on another blog entry, it's well past due!
Today I'm going to discuss my experience with,

Propagating Elderberry From Cuttings




The elderberry is a very resilient and useful plant. They love water and can survive having their roots very wet for a period of time, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, a mature plant can also survive periods of drought! It is best to provide regular watering to keep the roots moist but not wet for the healthiest plant and best yields, but it's always nice to know that a plant is hardy enough to withstand a weather event!
There are SO many uses for the elderberry but today I'm going to focus on propagation!

First and foremost, you will need to obtain cuttings from a dormant plant in the fall or winter (while it can be done any time of year this is what was recommended to me as the best time for success), whether from a friend or purchasing from a grower be sure that it is accurately identified before doing this if you plan on using it for consumption!

So assuming you have an identified plant or know someone that has a plant I'm going to do my best to walk you through getting your own cuttings.
You will want to take the cutting from a healthy, mature, woody section, make sure to leave 2 buds on each cutting (see image below). It is helpful to cut at an angle at the bottom and flat at the top so you can easily determine top from bottom. Clean cuttings can be stored in a baggie in the refrigerator if you aren't starting them immediately.

These cuttings are actually upside down in this image. If you look closely the cutting is at an angle at one end, that is the bottom that I will be submerging in water.

Finding the plant and getting the cuttings is the hard part! Now, this is where it get's really easy! If watching the roots start to develop appeals to you as much as I enjoy it then you're going to love starting elderberries. Simply plop them in a cup of water with the BOTTOM buds submerged and the top buds exposed, they will grow! No rooting hormone, no scraping the bark, just easy peasy, clean water.

It's always good to label your cups if you have known varieties!
Keep the cuttings in a cool location, if it's too warm the cuttings will grow more leaves than roots and are less likely to thrive. At this point, our goal is to get the roots started. It's also important to dump the water out and refill with fresh clean water every day or so, rather than topping it off as they evaporate. This will help to prevent bacterial growth.


You can continue to do the cup method until they have a significant amount of roots but since it was still cold outside here I decided to pot them up at this point so I was less likely to damage the delicate roots white planting.


Once you're ready to plant them out, put a small amount of soil in the bottom of your pot so that the open end of the cutting doesn't come in contact with open air and gently pack the soil around your cutting. You don't want to press too hard so as not to damage the roots but lightly firm around the cutting with your fingertips until the cutting doesn't wiggle when watering.



Be sure to keep them well watered and that's about it! For the next few weeks, you can watch them slowly grow. At the time the temps outside were ranging anywhere from the 60s down to low 30s and every single cutting took! I had a 100% success rate with this method!


Once your cuttings are planted out remember they like to stay moist and are somewhat heavy feeders. Once they are about a year or so old and are quite established these are very hardy plants that will supply you with thousands of flowers and bountiful fruits to enjoy for years to come and you can show your friends how to propagate from your plants! Enjoy!


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