What are your thoughts on elderberry? Worth growing?

[Figwasp]

I bought a couple of elderberry varieties -- Black Lace and Black Beauty -- because I thought the black leaves and the pink flowers looked cool. But I'm 4 years in and they don't seem to be pollinating each other. I've thought about adding another variety between them to help with the pollination, but this is a lot of space dedicated to something I'm not even sure I want to keep growing. They are both vigorous and have grown quite large very easily, but I'm considering pulling them out and relocating them into less ideal parts of my garden so that I have more room for other fruits and berries I'm gaining more interest in. More and more, I'm starting to think elderberries are going to be more effort than I want to pick and process them once I even start getting berries.

What do you think?

Are elderberries worth growing?

[Sod]

I have a York and 2 black lace. This year in particular has been tough on them because of the heat. The black lace blossoms smell amazing but they’re really shy to produce berries. York on the other hand produces a lot but they’re super early and ripen in the hottest part of summer.

For jelly and syrup we still forage the wild blue elderberries around. We make our own cough syrup with them. Totally worth the little bit of work.

[Noah Mercy]

Agreed. IMO, worth the effort when you research the powerful antiviral and antioxidant properties.

I wild harvest about 20-40lbs of berries and the pounds of small seeds I throw out around my house have led a number of volunteers (they require scarification and stratification, so maybe it's just the birds) and there were some already established that I've left. They are prolific producers for me. I cold process the juice - you need to watch your temps and handling if you are using for medicinal purposes - you can directly see the chromophore thermal degradation as a color-shift in the dye.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9395631/

http://www.alkalinediet.com/pdf/Elderberry/ElderberryAntiViral.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15080016/

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bbb/advpub/0/advpub_120112/_article/-char/ja/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31560964/

[Vladimir]

The good: it makes excellent jellies. The bad: it will soon become very big.
It is also excellent bird food.

[Figland]

We have 7 acres and the birds have planted a lot of elderberry, mostly it's the Blue variety which I think is the native here in California. There is one with dark almost purple berries. Even though the plants are trees now and we get to see the beautiful flowers, the birds eat most of the fruit. Maybe that would happen to you also if you got them to fruit for you. Some day I will try to harvest the berries but I might have more luck foraging for wild berries in the canyons. I've read there are some really productive varieties. I hope you can get fruit from yours.

[Niagarafigs]

Yes... very worth it. It is one of the only herbal med ,that does what it says..... and the strong and delectable wine you can make.👍

[Vladimir]

Oh yes. I forgot to tell you that they make excellent wine.