How To Grow Blue Spruce Seeds

Blue spruce trees are exceedingly easy to grow from seed. Simply collect the seeds, plant them, feed them and wait. Nature will take care of the rest. However, before you plant, make sure that your yard is a suitable place for this living Christmas tree. Blue spruce can reach 100 to 140 feet in height and spread 20 to 30 feet at its base. If you have the room, you'll find the blue spruce a beautiful landscape tree that requires virtually no care at all.

1. Collect Closed Pine Cones

Collect still-closed blue spruce pine cones from the blue spruce's branches in early September.

2. Store Pine Cones

Put the pine cones in a paper bag. Seal the bag and leave it on a window sill for roughly one month.

3. Shake and Collect Seeds

Shake the bag vigorously. Open the bag and collect the seeds that have been released from the cone. If the cone has not yet opened, close the bag and check again in another month.

4. Put Seeds in a Freezer Bag

Place the seeds in the freezer bag. Store the bag in the freezer until the first of April.

5. Soak Seeds in Water

Remove the seeds and soak them in water for 24 hours.

6. Prepare Seeds for Planting

Wrap the seeds in a moistened paper towel. Place the towel and seeds back into the plastic bag. Store the plastic bag in the refrigerator for six weeks.

7. Plant Seeds in a Pot

Fill a 2-gallon container to within 2 inches of its rim with moistened seed-starting soil. Place a seed in the center of the soil. Cover it with 1/4 inch of course sand. Moisten the sand with water sprayed from a hand sprayer. Cover the top of the pot with plastic wrap to seal in the pot's moisture.

8. Prepare for Seed Germination

Place the pot in indirect sunlight until the seed germinates. Monitor the pot's moisture level while you wait. If the soil begins to look dry or there is no condensation on the underside of the plastic wrap, moisten it with water from your spray bottle.

9. Place Pot in Sunlight

Remove the plastic wrap once the seed germinates. Move the pot to a window where it will receive direct sunlight. Water with a watering can whenever the soil (not the sand) feels dry to the touch. Check twice a day.

10. Fertilize the Baby Plant

Fertilize the blue spruce seedling with a liquid 20-20-20 fertilizer twice weekly once the seedling reaches 1 inch in height. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for application rates and amounts. Always water after each fertilizer application. Stop applying fertilizer in mid July.

11. Prepare Seedling for Outdoor Conditions

Harden off the seedling. Bring it outside in direct sunlight for two hours each day for three to four days. Then increase the amount that it is left outside incrementally until it spends a full day outside.

12. Transplant into a Bigger Container

Transplant the blue spruce seedling outside. Dig a hole just as deep but twice as wide as the container. Then plant the seedling at the same depth that it grew in the pot. Water the soil thoroughly after you plant so that it is moist to the depth of the spruce's roots.