Does anyone know if miracle berry is generally grown from seed? There isnt all that much information online about it or varieties available but I don’t want to put several years into growing it if it turns out there are named varieties that are more productive.
Thanks!
From what I have read the seeds don’t store well. No one really sells seed. With a perennial bush you will also be waiting years even if it germinates.
I had seen someone on another forum selling seeds. I read this article afterwards. With shipping cost for seed, I would just buy a small plant.
Got it, I was not aware of the poor storage time on the seeds. Thank you!
Great information to know, thank you very much!
miracle berry like any tropical has seeds that must be plante immediately. they grow very slowly and must be watere with acidified rainwater, no city tap water.
Growing miracle fruit trees. For those of you not familiar with them they make a small berry that if eaten will make sour food taste sweet for around a half hour. A lemon with taste sweet but sort of odd as well. I’m very experienced killing miracle fruit trees. They are a very acid loving shrub. Potting soil for them is best to be perlite and peat moss or ground pine bark and pine needles. Easiest way to kill them is commercial fertilizer and city water(pH is usually 8 or so) as I killed at least a dozen that way. They like shade. Use rain water on them and even better get some phosphoric acid Ospho from a hardware store and add a tablespoon per gallon to get to a 4 pH as verified by pH paper. The only fertilizer I didn’t kill them with is blood meal. Give them a shot of blood meal and acidified water and they will thrive and give you lots of new growth. Some say water only sparingly but I watered mine every day and they loved it. Cold weather is another story however. They don’t like under 40F. I didn’t have a greenhouse and lost about half of the plants every winter as I don’t do much watering in the winter. I tried keeping them inside but I’m forgetful about watering house plants. Use acidified water and blood meal and you will get plenty of berries. I finally decided they were just a novelty and after a few tries of lemon and lime tasting sweet I lost interest. Still very exciting for those that haven’t tried them. Grow easily from seed but seeds will die unless water is acidified. Best to buy a larger plant for a start but they are expensive since they grow pretty slowly. One time I bought several plants and thought I would air layer some. None of the air layers worked. Last year I nearly bought another one for $100 that looked like it was calling me.
Miracle fruit trees are a super tropical and die for sustained temps below 50F
I’ve killed several with city water — my city’s water is north of 9 PH! — and just got a new one that I intend to plant in blueberry soil and fertilize with marine cuisine.
I’m reading mixed things about whether to plant in a clay pot (to help avoid root rot) or definitely not a clay pot (since it will help make soil less acidic by leaching clay, I guess?). Does anyone know?
@Petey
For those of us who must irrigate, the pH of the water will set the pH of the soil. In our situation, if you try to control the pH with amendments you’ll just take the plant on a pH roller coaster ride.
Thanks Richard. My plan was to irrigate this plant with bottled — either spring water or distilled. I was mostly curious whether or not I should worry too much about terra cotta (my usual go-to) vs glazed or plastic — how big of a factor it is.
I’d use a tall 15 gallon rigid black nursery pot.
Note: I planted this one in acid-loving plant mix from Coast of Maine in a terra cotta pot and have watered with rainwater or, now that it’s inside, Poland Springs. I may switch to distilled for more acidic water, just for it anyway.
It’s the first plant to survive (so far) and has been producing berries like crazy. I may try to plant some seeds.
The seeds go bad incredibly fast. The berries do too, if you pick them off the bush. So if you are going to plant them, do it fast.
Mine started fruiting last year, and had a really good harvest this spring. Its starting to flower again now, but much less profusely.
I picked the berries two days ago. If I refrigerate will they last until tomorrow?
I put the seeds in a wet paper towel and plan to plant tomorrow.
The seeds should be fine if you already got them on a paper towel. I’ve never refrigerated it, but as long as its not dry and desicated, the pulp should be good too.