How To Harvest Blackberry Seeds

We have a local farm that has some delicious fruit. In fact, we had some of the farms’ strawberries in the filling of one of the tiers of our wedding cake. It’s that good. The farm also grows blackberries and blueberries, and the blackberries are so good. I’ve honestly never seen them larger before. So, instead of purchasing a blackberry bush online, we decided to harvest blackberry seeds from this farm’s crop.

Now, in order for any fruit bushes to fruit, you need to cross-pollinate it with seed from another plant (same fruit, different bush). If you don’t cross-pollinate, it will grow, but it won’t ever produce fruit.

So, if you decide to harvest blackberry seeds from a batch you got locally and loved, be sure to also harvest blackberry seeds from another batch from somewhere else.

How To Harvest Blackberry Seeds

Step 1:
Wash the blackberry, and put it in a small strainer.

Step 2:
Use the back of a spoon to mash the blackberry. This will start to separate the flesh from the seed.

Continue mashing until all the flesh is removed from the seed.

Step 3:
Rinse off the flesh. Store the seeds until they’ve dried and you are ready to plant them.

When you’ll plant is dependent on your growing season. Many growers sow fruit seeds in pots and containers around November and the growing season ends around May, but that can vary based on where you live and if you can grow year round. If you keep the dried seeds dry, they’ll be fine until your growing season.

When you’re ready to plant them, put about an inch of dirt in a small plastic nursery pots. We save ours from when we buy seedlings and then just reuse them. Add two or three seeds per opening, then top with soil. Water every other day, and give them indirect sun. When they start to sprout, you can transplant them.

Have you ever tried to harvest and sprout blackberry seeds?