Anybody working with blueberries? I tried 2 years in a row to germinate blueberry seeds and failed. Looking for success stories.
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I donāt have a success storyā¦ but I am interested in trying some time. What method did you use to try to get them to germinate? Scarify the seeds? Cold stratification? Soaking in hydrogen peroxide? I just read online that they do better with those methods and it may take 2 to 3 months or even up to a year for all of them to germinate. I also read that one-year-old seeds germinate better than fresh.
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I would be interested in a blueberry landrace.
I have spread a lot of different blueberry seed to hopefully grow and landrace on itās own.
I wont know if it grew or not for a few years.
Very very interested here. I keep planting blueberries here and just received a good trove of Vaccinium spp. from Sheffieldās this past week to start stratifying or direct sowing in hopes of getting many many more going here. I need fruiting things that do not care about frost cycles. Blueberries definitely do not care. Hilariously, I would add, I bought a handful of so called āBlueberry seedsā off of Etsy last summer on a whim of āI need more blueberries and Iām shopping for a friend why donāt I just buy some seeds here quickā¦ā and they classically turned out to be a mix of oregano; tarragon; and thyme seed. 
I am planting these as an herb layer beneath, well, actual blueberry plants. A good marriage.
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The first ones I tried were some that were supposed to be already stratified from an online blueberry seller. Kentucky blueberries or something I canāt remember. Me and Austin Vaughan both planted some and neither one of us had any germinations.
I also tried putting some berries down in the soil in a pot to let it overwinter outside. I donāt even know what one would look like if it germinates but Iām guessing tiny. Iām not sure how to grow one outside and keep it from getting choked out from weeds even in a pot.
I think I might sow some seeds in a 128 tray and put it in the fridge to overwinter and bring it out early spring.
Yeah, Iām pretty loathe to take seeds from sources that claim to pre-stratify. I had a similar experience with the āWeāll stratify them for youā¦ā well-intending persons running Peaceful Heritage Nursery in Kentucky. I trialed their pawpaw seeds along Oikos. I had maybe a 10% germination rate with theirs and a 90% with Kenās that I stratified myself? None the less, I now essentially require I ācontrolā the stratification process. I understand why a nursery would want to do things uniformly so I donāt begrudge them for doing lot stratifying. But, my experience is very few nurseries actually understand the art of processing, drying and curing, and stratifying woody perennial seeds. There is quite a bit of nuance.
With Vaccinium corymbosum what Iāve learned is (as with nearly all my woody perennial seeds) soak for 24 hours. Cold stratify a minimum of 60 days ( I tend to go a bit longer than recommended stratifications on all my seeds due to the frigid nature of my valley ) Surface sow the seeds in whatever vessel I am using - could simply be a drainable flat or could be a variety of (insert gallon sized pot here). I lean large flat here given the nature of blueberry roots which tend to prefer matting horizontally versus down below. I definitely lean acid heavy in the grow mix so whereas for most other plant blends I may use a 10-20% peat percentage with Vaccinium as a baseline I may go 40-50%. I also add pine chips and shavings from my chipper at about 20% and the remainder is straight perlite and compost. I donāt add anything much beyond that. With the more northerly Vaccinium angustifolium and progeny I use a minimum of 90 days cold stratification. I do the same surface sowing here and I know the Lowbush varieties will germinate at roughly 70 F (much like many apple seeds) after about a month living in those temperatures. AND, these seeds will actually likely continue germinating for another 1.5-to-2 month period. Because I am mimicking a pseudo bog-like environment I kept their seed bed surfaces moist and give both species some dappled shade. An ideal version of this (that I donāt currently have but have thought of doing) would be a 30% shade cloth set up with misters on timers and I could simultaneously do shitake logs alongside. BUT, then Iām essentially doing a side hustle of blueberry plants and mushrooms
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Another variable with the pre-stratification is that it doesnāt account for your climate.
Depending on where your seeds are coming from, what works well for the people who pre-stratified the seeds may not work well for you.
The conditions of the final planting (or the continued seed storage) environment is kind of a final stage of the stratification process.
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Try buying frozen blueberries and then take the seeds out of them they sprout pretty quickly
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Thatās a great idea, Larry. Thanks for the reminder. I actually once was given that same recommendation for Black Currants from Northwest Wilds. AND, I have yet to do it 
. One thing is certain: theyāll be pre-stratified guaranteed.
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There was a similar discussion the other day about the seeds from grocery store apples due to cold storage.
I think a lot of seeds probably stratify/germinate very well inside of the fruits if you have the option of using that method.
It provides good regulation of moisture and temperature and Iām sure there are also many benefits of the acids, enzymes, and gasses released as the fruit begins the process of ripening and/or decomposing.
Right now I have some blueberry seeds in the fridgeāon a wet paper towel since the end of January. My first experience attempting to grow blueberries from seed. Purchased here: Elizabeth Coleman White's Blueberry Breeding Mix ā Experimental Farm Network Seed Store Growing tips at the very end of the (lengthy) webpage.
Holy heck. this is incredible. Thank you for sharing that link. Elizabeth Coleman White is a pioneering woman much in the Spirit of Narcissa Whitman (look her up). These are extremely important seeds.
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Iām about to pull the trigger on another EFN order and have that breeding mix in my cart.
Last year I had some beautiful blueberries that got forgotten in the bottom drawer of my fridge. They didnāt mold so much as halfway turn into blueberry-raisins, so I decided to try to save the seeds. I pulse-pureed the fruit, poured off the pulp, and dried the seeds. Eventually I soaked them overnight, surface sowed them in a red solo cup, and covered with some plastic wrap. I think I had sprouts in less than two weeks? It wasnāt high germination, but they were about to put out true leaves when my feline monster tramped through that tray of cups and destroyed the whole batch. Stillā¦ it gives me hope for the EFN seeds, if I can get random grocery store blueberries forgotten in the fridge to give me plants.
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I think Im going to start saving all my kids leftover/gone bad blueberries and dry them out like that and just store them in the fridge until I have enough to be worth planting. I usually just compost them.
There is still pretty good genetic diversity in the commercial blueberry markets (compared to some other crops). There are a lot of different breeding programs and a lot of different growing regions/countries.
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Nonononono! Please donāt send me to EFN! Please donāt throw me in that briar patch! 
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EFN gets me in trouble every time. 
I shouldnāt complain, thoā¦ my first order this year got me two gorgeous Plentiful Apple seedlings so far, among all the other fun. This order with the blueberries will just make for another fun fruit projectā¦ of course now Iām wondering if I could talk my community garden leader into letting me put a few bushes in the community pollinator/edible herb garden weāre expandingā¦ hmmmā¦
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I got the Blueberry breeding mix from EFN as well. I didnāt get them prepped over winter though, so for this coming winter.
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