Elderberries – Planting

updated 04/13/2026

12 April 2026

I hydrated the cuttings for several days. The plan was to plant them Saturday, but other things conspired against me, so planting happened today (Sunday).

A trip to Lowes Home Improvement brought home 12 bags of top soil (1 cubic foot each). If that’s not enough, I’ll go for more later.

My wife & I discussed where to plant — our land is heavily wooded, so there’s no perfect places to get all day sun. The best we can do is about 6 to 8 hours. So I have a spot in the side yard (near the road) that gets great afternoon sun. On the same side of the yard, in the back, that side gets great late morning to mid-afternoon sun.

To keep things organized, meaning so I can remember which cultivar is which, I’m planting each cultivar in a single row. I decided to plant the indeterminate ones up front, and the determinate in back.

The front group:

Pocahontas – Fruits over a 6 week period mid summer. Large clusters of berries, very good yields. Grows 6 to 8 feet tall.

Hamilton AKA Southern Delight – Fruits over a long season, usually can harvest up to 9 months a year. Only in winter does it not bear fruit. Good yields. Grows 7 to 8 feet tall.

These are both taller, so that also works well. Assuming that all goes according to plan, I’ll have to harvest fruit periodically and freeze until I have enough to do something with.

In the back yard:

Adams – Large berries, good yields. Fruit hangs downward when ripe preventing bird deprivation. Grows to 5 to 6 feet tall.

Bob Gordon – Large clusters of berries. Fruit hangs downward when ripe preventing bird deprivation. Grows to 6 to 7 feet tall.

Ranch – Very tolerant of non fertile soils, Handles heat well. Usually grows to 5 to 6 feet tall.

These fruit over a short period. I need to check to see if it will be all at one time, or if they will each do their own thing.

Well Drained Soil

Elderberry wants well drained soil. I have red clay, which is the opposite of that. So I have to work around that.

The instructions provided by North Florida Elderberry say to plant a minimum of 3′ apart. The root-end of a cutting is cut at a 45 degree angle, and this end goes down. The bottom set of nodes (sprouts) should be covered by 1.5″ to 2″ of dirt.

Ok, easy enough, except I don’t have well drained soil. So … I used a bulb planter to dig a hole about 1″ to 2″ deep. Trust me that digging in dry clay is FAR from easy.

The root end went into the hole, and I mounded top soil around it, in a 12″ to 16″ diameter mound, so the bottom note are 2″ deep. In essence I created a raised planter without the planter.

I read a LOT of advice for planting on the net, and like everything else on the net, consistency was not part of the situation. Reading helped a lot, and reinforced that the provided instructions are the best to follow.

The minimum distance between plants is supposed to be 3′. I decided to go with 5′ to allow for movement. I have space, so I will use it.

That was the plan, and the first row of Pocahontas is well spaced at 5′ apart in an arc. The space where they are planted makes an arc a good choice.

The Hamilton distancing started out well measured (I have a yard tape up to 100′ long), but I did a few by eye. I have serious astigmatism, and when I was done and stepped back, that was obvious. [I have no problem laughing about things!]

Let’s say spacing varied a bit. Not horrible, all were at least 4′ apart, a couple were 6′. All things considered, no problem.

Then I went into the back yard for the last 3 cultivars. The first row is another arc and 5′ spacing (by eye) was fine.

Note: An important point is that I’m working with a space that is not conducive to the purpose, so I’m making things fit to ensure the plants get enough sunlight. If I had an open field, I’d be doing things differently.

Once all 3 rows were planted, I stepped back and viewed it. Generally speaking plants in a row are 5′ apart. In a couple of spots 2 plants in different rows are closer to 3′ apart. Oh, well.

Once done, I watered well.

Going Forward

I will go to Lowes Home Improvement at least a couple more times to get lots of 12 bags of top soil. Each cutting that survives will get more soil around it. Areas where I plant anti-animal herbs and flowers will receive top soil as well.

Weeds will be kept down with a vinegar spray. Commercial vinegar is a great plant killer. It doesn’t kill roots like Round Up does, but it kills the whatever is above ground. If I spray just the weeds, I should have no side effects.

The spray that drives deer and rabbits away will be used weekly. It smells like rotted garlic, and using it last year to keep those large brown rodents from eating my wife’s roses worked. But it wears off, so weekly spraying is necessary.

Cross-Pollination

I read recommendations to plant different cultivars within 60′ of each other, to facilitate cross pollination, as that produces better fruit. The front and back patches are a bit farther apart than that, but with 2 and 3 cultivars (respectively) in each patch, things should go well.

Now I need to get a list of the herbs and flowers birds, rabbits, and birds don’t like. I’ll be planting these around and between the rows.