Description
Anyone who has processed a real quantity of elderberries knows the part of the job nobody advertises. The clusters come in with ripe black fruit and unripe green fruit mixed together, the green ones are mildly toxic and have to come out, and sorting them is slow work that has to happen before anything else can. Growers who skip it pay for it in flavour instead. Black Diamond came out of a long breeding program at Childs Farm in western New York aimed squarely at that problem, and it produces clusters in which 99% of the berries are ripe at harvest.
The sweetness came along with it. Black Diamond runs 16 degrees Brix and higher where older American elderberry cultivars sit at 12 or lower, which is a real difference in the glass rather than a specification. The juice presses out a bright pink to purple, and the fruit carries a blackberry and mulberry aroma alongside the elderberry character most people expect.
The plant is easier to live with than most of its species. American elderberry commonly runs 8 to 12 ft and needs cutting back to stay reachable; Black Diamond holds around 5 to 6 ft, which puts the fruit where you can get at it. It will set some fruit standing alone, as American elderberries do, but a second cultivar within bee flight range makes a visible difference to cluster size and to how evenly the crop comes in.
Overview
- American elderberry selected at Childs Farm, western New York.
- Clusters ripen 99% uniformly, with almost no green berry to remove.
- 16 Brix or higher, against 12 or lower in older cultivars.
- Juice presses bright pink to purple, with blackberry and mulberry aroma.
- Compact for the species at roughly 5 to 6 ft.
- Ripens about a week ahead of ‘Johns’ and ‘Adams’.
- Cold tolerant to -26 F.
- Partially self-fertile; plant a second cultivar for full crops.
Growing Details
Latin Name: Sambucus canadensis ‘WCE’
Site and Soil: Full sun for the heaviest crops; moist, reasonably drained soil, and it tolerates wetter ground than most fruit
Hardiness: Cold tolerant to -26 F, roughly USDA Zone 4
Chill Requirement: High
Propagation: Grown on own roots from cuttings
Size at Maturity: Around 5 to 6 ft, noticeably shorter than a standard American elderberry
Fruit: Large clusters of deep black berries at 16 Brix or higher, with 99% of each cluster ripening together
Ripening Time: Late August into early September, about a week ahead of ‘Johns’ and ‘Adams’
Pollination: Partially self-fertile; a second American elderberry cultivar within roughly 50 to 60 ft gives larger clusters and a more even crop
Pests & Diseases: Resistance to Phytophthora, stem blight and stem blotch documented in the breeder’s New York trials
Additional Notes
- Grower’s Insight: The uniform ripening is worth more than it sounds on paper, because it changes elderberry from a crop you sort into a crop you pick; if you are planting for juice, syrup or wine rather than for the shrub, this is the trait to plant for.
- Regional Insight: Bred and trialled in western New York, and the two traits that carry it, even ripening and cold tolerance to -26 F, travel without much change to the Upper Midwest, the interior Northwest and the maritime Northwest; performance in the low-chill South is less established, and the high chill requirement is the reason to be careful there.
- Black Diamond is a patented cultivar, so plants may not be propagated for resale.
- Explore more elderberries in our collection: Elderberries
