How to Grow Blueberry Seeds

Preparation of the Seeds

• 1

  Place the blueberries in a freezer bag and freeze them for at least 90 days.

• 2

  Leave the blueberries out on the counter until they thaw to room temperature.

• 3

  Place the blueberries in a blender. Then add 3/4 cup of water. Blend the blueberries at high speed for 15 seconds.

• 4

  Pour the blueberries into a container and allow the slurry to rest for five minutes. The viable seed will sink to the bottom, and the pulp will float.

• 5

  Separate the seed and the matter. Pour off a little of the pulp slowly. Let the slurry rest for five more minutes, then pour off a little again. Add more fresh water and allow the slurry to rest for five more minutes. Repeat the cycle of adding water, resting, then pouring the pulp off until you are left with only blueberry seeds in the bottom of your container. Scoop out those seeds and spread them on a paper plate to dry.

• 6

  Sprinkle the blueberry seeds evenly over a seed flat filled with moistened, finely chopped sphagnum moss. Cover them with a thin (no more than 1/4 inch) layer of moss. Cover the flat and keep it indoors in a warm, dark place until the seed germinates in roughly a month. Check the moisture level of the sphagnum moss periodically to make sure it remains moist at all times. If the sphagnum moss begins to dry out, spray it with water from a spray bottle.

• 7

  Remove the covering once the seeds begin to germinate. Place the seed flat in a sunny window (or greenhouse, if available) and allow the seeds to grow until they reach 2 to 3 inches tall. Continue to keep the sphagnum moist at all times with the spray bottle.

Planting the Seeds

• 8

  Transfer each seedling into a 3-inch pot filled with a moistened mixture of 1 part sphagnum peat moss, 1 part sand and 1 part seed-starting potting soil. Remove the seedlings by sliding a pencil into the bottom of the seed flat and pushing up. Then dig a depression in the pot's soil with the pencil and plant the seedlings in the pots at the same depth they were growing in the flat. Take great care not to damage the plants. Keep the pot in the same sunny window. Keep the soil moist at all times with gentle watering from a watering can. In two weeks, begin fertilizing the seedlings with a liquid houseplant fertilizer at half the recommended amount but at the usual rate.

• 9

  Transplant the blueberry plants outdoors as soon as all danger of frost has passed. First prepare the soil by loosening to a depth of 6 inches. Then incorporate a 10-10-10 fertilizer at a rate of 1 pound per 100 square feet of planting area. Mix well with a hand trowel.Transplant the blueberry plants at the same depth they grew in their 3-inch pots.

• 10

  Water the soil around the base of the plant until it is moist to the root depth. Continue to keep the soil consistently moist until the blueberry plant establishes itself and produces new growth. Then water whenever the top 2 to 3 inches of soil dry out.

• 11

  Spread 2 to 3 inches of organic mulch at the base of each plant at the start of the first winter (but not after that). Remove the mulch in spring when new growth commences.

• 12

  Fertilize the blueberry with a 10-10-10 fertilizer at a rate of 1 pound per 100 square feet. Fertilizer annually in early spring as soon as new growth commences.