How To Propagate Elderberry By Cuttings

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How To Propagate Elderberry By Cuttings
How To Propagate Elderberry By Cuttings

Video: How To Propagate Elderberry By Cuttings

Video: How To Propagate Elderberry By Cuttings
Video: HOW TO PROPAGATE ELDERBERRY CUTTINGS//THE MILLERS WAY 2024, March
Anonim

Elderberry, or sambuc, is an amazing plant. It has long been believed that witches fly to the Sabbath on elder brooms, and the bushes in front of the house scare away evil spirits. One way or another, this plant is very afraid of mice, rats and insects. Sambuc has medicinal properties, and black fruits are appreciated by lovers of homemade preparations. Fortunately, it is not difficult to propagate elderberry by cuttings and take care of it.

Elderberry black
Elderberry black

Elderberry in the garden

Red elderberry and unripe fruits are poisonous due to the presence of hydrocyanic acid in them. Black berries, harvested in August-September, are a natural dye for confectionery, wines, as well as an excellent raw material for pie fillings, jam, compotes, fruit drinks, jelly, marmalade.

Juicy sweet and sour berries of black elderberry are rich in ascorbic acid, essential oils and tannins. Dry sambuca flowers and fruits are most often used in medicine as a diaphoretic and diuretic, for gargling as an anti-inflammatory agent for sore throats.

Less commonly, other parts of sambuca are used: tea is made from flowers, medicinal tinctures are made from the roots; the bark and kidneys become a source of tannins and essential oils. Among some gourmets, recipes for pickling young elder shoots harvested in late May - early April are popular.

Thanks to its dense, curly crowns and unpretentiousness, elderberry can be used in landscape design. It turns out beautiful hedges, decorative compositions from large and compact plant varieties.

Where to plant elderberry

Before planting, you should choose the optimal place for the sambuca. Elderberry can grow both in the sun and in the shade, however, with a lack of light, it loses some of its beauty. The soil for planting should be chosen nutritious, moist sod-podzolic. Elderberry feels better on loam than on sandy soil. The optimal place for it should be protected from northerly winds.

Many people try to grow shrubs near compost pits and toilets to get rid of the infestation of flies; near terraces to repel mosquitoes. It should be noted that the smell of a bush also scares off cockroaches, rodents, as well as aphids, moths, weevils and some other pests.

Elderberry cuttings

The easiest way to propagate sambuc is by cuttings. To get elderberry cuttings, you need to cut off the tops of green branches of the first or second year from an adult plant in the spring. We need pieces of about 20 cm in length, with two paired leaves. For rooting, plant each resulting stalk in a wet sand-peat mixture, taking the soil components in equal proportions.

Install a film covering over the seedlings at a distance of 20-30 cm from the tops. Be sure to make holes in the plastic so that the cuttings breathe. For the first week, spray the film from the inside to maintain high humidity in the greenhouse, but also not to cause rotting of the seedlings. Remove the cover after a week.

Transplanting seedlings

In autumn, in warm weather, rooted cuttings with an earthen clod can be planted in open ground in a permanent place. The day before planting, dig a hole half a meter deep on the seedling. For each seat, prepare a mixture of fertile soil, 6 kg of humus, 30 g of potash fertilizers and two tablespoons of phosphates. Pour 2⁄3 of this soil into the pit.

The next day, loosen the bottom, lower the elderberry seedling and sprinkle with the remaining soil so that the root collar is slightly above ground level. Tamp the soil around the stem and water the seedling liberally. After absorbing moisture, tie the future elderberry bush to the peg. Regular watering is necessary until the seedling finally takes root. For the winter, you need to cover the transplanted elderberry with fallen leaves. At the beginning of the third summer after planting, the strengthened bush will bloom.

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