Growing Blackberries and Raspberries

Our blackberry seeds have been sitting in the refrigerator for 2 months while our raspberry seeds have been in there for a month. Now it is time to plant them.

Obtaining Seeds
Getting seeds is quite easy. You can either press the fruit towards the side of a glass bowl the fill the bowl with water. The fruit will float while the seeds sink. Scoop out the fruit. Place a coffee filter in a strainer and gently pour the water in. The coffee filter and strainer will prevent the seeds from seeping through.
The way we did it however, was a little bit more simplified. Whenever we ate raspberries or blackberries we had a paper towel handy. Anyone who has eaten these berries know that you get a lot of seeds stuck in your teeth. Gently remove the seed with your finger and wipe it on the paper towel. Leave the seeds overnight to dry. Place a coffee filter in a strainer and gently pick off the seeds. Rinse the seeds.

Growing Seeds
The seeds need to be stratified. Place them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for at least a month. When you are ready to plant the seeds they will need to be scarified first.

1. Get a large sheet of sandpaper and place the seeds on.
   
   
2. Fold up a corner and rub the seeds between the 2 sheets.
   
   

Experiment
We will be doing an experiment when it comes to growing these seeds. I found this method to soften the outer part of the seed by soaking them in bleach for an hour. Then add 4 cups of water for every tablespoon of bleach used. Using the coffee filter-strainer method, drain the seeds. In a large bowl add 4 tbsp of baking soda and 1 cup water. Soak the seeds for a few minutes to neutralize any remaining bleach.
For the experiment half the seeds were soaked, while the other half weren't. For the blackberries, half of both kinds were planted in seed starter, while the other half are going to be in a paper towel. The raspberries were only planted in seed starter.
We will see if soaking the seeds in bleach will make their germination time any sooner.
I have heard anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months for the seeds to grow so we'll you up to date.

Growing Strawberries From Seed

Next up on the list is strawberries.

Getting Strawberry Seeds
You can gently pick the seeds off the strawberry or you can slice up several strawberries and throw them into a blender. Add enough water so they are just barely covered and puree the strawberries for about 10 seconds. Wait a few minutes afterwards. The "bad" seeds and the fruit will float to the top while the good seeds will sink to the bottom. Scoop out the top layer of strawberry. Put a coffee filter in a sieve and the sieve over a bowl. Pour out the remaining seed water mixture. Rinse and repeat with the remaining seeds. Let the coffee filter dry over night. Now you have your strawberry seeds.
Growing Seeds

1. Place the seeds in a folded paper towel then into a Ziploc bag. From what I read online the seeds need to be put in the freezer anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 months. A majority of the sites said 1 month so I froze the seeds for 1 month to stratify them.
2. After a month place the seeds in lukewarm water for 1 to 3 days. This softens the outer coating. To keep the water warm place the container on top of a refrigerator or anywhere else that feels warm.
3. We used a 12 compartment seed tray greenhouse. Fill that with seed starter. Over a sink, gently pour the water containing seeds over the soil. Try to evenly spread it. You will also have to rinse the remaining seed out.
4. Place the greenhouse cover and put in a sunny window.
5. They say it takes 7 to 21 days for a strawberry seed to germinate so we'll keep you up to date.

For the seeds being soaked in water we place the container on top of Trevor's computer. At one point it seemed the water was getting so hot that it was evaporating. Getting too hot might have killed the seeds but we won't know for sure for another 7 to 21 days. If these seeds fail to germinate we will be replanting them. Next time instead of soaking them in water we will try scratching them with sandpaper.