Iowa Blackhaw Viburnum Seeds

Raisin Like Flavor-Easy to Process-Delicious Fresh-Fast Growing and Durable Viburnum

This Iowa prunifolium seed strain is tree like with larger fruits, greater vigor in its progeny and heavy yielding. Unlike all the other edible fruited raisin like species of Viburnums this one produces the highest fruit ratio.   I originally purchased this particular strain from a seed collector in Iowa. It was misidentified it as Rustyhaw Viburnum. I grew out this selection from seed and soon found it was the only type able to grow in my drought soils and remained vigorous and healthy. It was by far longer lived than the Nannyberry which is more of a wetland species. Iowa also produced a colony and spread by stolons. This allowed for easy clonal reproduction as well. ,This strain out performed other sources and is now by far the best yielding blackhaw I have at the farm.  The cuttings I supply are from the most tree type plant with the largest caliper too. These vigorous tree types in particular have good yields. Stolons are important as they are essential if you want to clone it out further to expand your orchard or sell the plants in a nursery in an efficient way. Seeds are collected from the most productive 3-4 plants in the planting.  

 "Iowa"   This selection is the most vigorous tree like plant but also does produce stolons. The yields are heavy and the foliage remains clean all summer. This selection is a good starting point to develop other varieties of heavy producing plants as this particular species has never been fully explored as a fruit producer. The large dark black and blue fruits remain ripe on the tree for a long time. The flavor directly off the bush is delicious. It is best to harvest them in October so they are ripened fully but not dried. As they dry the flavor diminishes. Very to easy to harvest. Best use is to make a paste out it with a  little sugar. Very easy to process and use. Grown from seed, the seedlings of Iowa are close to the parent in fruit production both in size and quantity of fruit. For stolons that I send with each order of seeds,  I harvest from two plants that show the greatest vigor. 

The seedlings of this strain have 50 % larger fruit than my Michigan seed strains. From a processing standpoint this species really has an amazing flavor that doesn't have to be masked like the American Cranberrybush with sugar. The fruit easily cooks down into a paste. The fruits are up to 1/2 inch in size. Plants in general are lateral bearing with this species, not just on the tips.

To germinate the seeds:  Warm, cold, warm, cold is the dormancy requirement for Viburnum seeds.

Plant outside as soon as you can and wait for two seasons. The roots go down after the first dormancy in the second season in the fall. Then the top comes up in the spring of the second year. Plant 1/2 inch or slightly more in depth and tamp. Using a sawdust mulch is a good idea to hold the seed in place to prevent heaving in the winter. 

Refrigerator method:  Put in a zip lock with moist media and store in your refrigerator for 120 days. Then store at room temperature for the warm period for the summer months. When fall comes the seeds will produce a root in the bag. During this period make sure they get a little air but keep the moisture level uniform but not overly moist.  Then store again for another 90-120 days in cold 34F-38F to break the cold dormancy. Then they can be potted at this point or direct seeded into the nursery or location you are growing them permanently. 

Seeds are kept refrigerated at our farm. We store the seeds with as little drying as possible. This is a common issue with other seed companies who leave them over dried. The cuttings are small stolons with a single stem pruned back. The stolons are sent in dormant in March and April.