With the good weather we had this weekend, I decided to plant some seeds: Trailing Blackberry (rubus ursinus), and Silver Buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea), Yellow Fruit Variety. Trailing Blackberry is native to BC and more cold-hardy than the invasive species that is found EVERYWHERE in the Lower Mainland. Silver Buffaloberry is native to Canada, a nitrogen-fixer, and produces very healthy fruit. For the moment, these seeds are all started in 3" peat pots. I also use plastic trays from Superstore to hold them. If you buy Farmers Market muffins (chocolate chip, blueberry, etc.) they are the perfect size to hold 3" peat pots. When the season is finished, they get put into plastics recycling where they would have gone earlier anyhow. I use a small nail to poke a few holes in the bottoms for drainage, and the table is angled slightly to face true south. The peat pots also get some extra holes poked in them. They already come with a hole at the bottom, but I find they still get a green film of algae on top after a while. Plus, having some extra holes on the bottom makes it easier to tear the peat when the plants are transplanted into larger pots. So ... at the moment, there are twelve Trailing Blackberry seeds planted and twenty-one Silver Buffaloberry seeds planted.
22 July 2024: An Update I brought the newly-sprouted Silver Buffaloberry plants up to the Bulkley Valley and put them in the ground. They are supposed to be cold-hardy to Canadian Zone 2, so a Zone 4 winter should be survival for them (but I've been surprised before, so fingers crossed!). Of the plants that were already there, only two are left. The original five were purchased as two year old plants from treetime in Edmonton. The first winter, three survived. Lost another one last winter. The remaining two seem to be doing okay. This summer, they are four years old. See photos. This past week, I put some 1/4" galvanized mesh around them, to protect them from mice, which might girdle them. I also read that mice don't like cow manure. So I went out into the field with a shovel and scooped up some cow pies and placed those around the plants. I'm trying to make the locale inhospitable to mice. Finally, I bought a bale of pine shavings and spread those around the plants to serve as extra insulation over the winters. I hope this helps. Plus, I brought twelve of the new sprouts up with me and put those in the ground. These are yellow fruit variety which I started from seed myself (Spring 2024). Ordered the seeds from Oak Summit in Manitoba. See third photo. Hopefully, some of these plants will be successful and turn into long-term thriving shrubs.
Incidentally: Not a single Trailing Blackberry seed came up. But the germination rate of the Buffaloberry seeds ordered from Manitoba was pretty good.
