Propagation in the Wild

• In nature, blueberries reproduce through seed and spread through vegetative means.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Each spring, as blueberries blossom, bees and other insects transfer pollen from one plant to another. Inside the flowers, seeds develop, and fruit forms around the seeds. As animals consume the fruits and distribute the seeds, new blueberry plants emerge.
  
  Wild blueberries also reproduce using vegetative methods. Species like the lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium and V. myrilloides) spread across the ground through underground stems called rhizomes. New plants are identical to their parents. (See References 2) The highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum) also occasionally produces new plants from its root system, called root suckers. Plants can also grow back from a root system after the top of the plant is destroyed. (See References 1)
  
  

Growing Plants from Seed

• With some special care, you can grow blueberries from seed. Seeds from lowbush blueberries and some highbush blueberries require exposure to the cold in order to germinate, so store blueberries in the freezer for at least three months. Blend the fruits briefly in water to separate the fruit from the seed and allow the seeds to settle. Plant the seeds indoors and transplant outdoors after the danger of frost has passed.
  
  

Hardwood Cuttings

• Propagation from cuttings lets growers produce plants with exceptional taste and quality.Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  Blueberry producers propagate blueberries using vegetative production methods, which generate offspring plants with identical characteristics to parent plants and allow producers to maintain desirable characteristics in all of their plants. In winter or early spring, producers collect hardwood cuttings from the previous season's growth, before bud formation begins. The grower places the cutting in a sterile growing medium, such as peat, perlite or sand. After three or four months, roots begin to form on the cut end of the wood, and a new plant grows.
  
  

Softwood Cuttings

• Softwood cuttings propagate blueberries using a similar technique. Although more difficult to carry out, softwood propagation yields plants faster. Growers collect softwood cuttings from young, actively growing shoots. They insert the cut end of the shoot and half of the cutting into a growing medium. Eventually, the cutting develops roots and matures into a blueberry plant identical to the parent plant.