Unknown Cranberry variety >> saved seeds are sprouting!

[applestar]

I didn't go pick some at a preservation project cranberry farm in Ocean County like I usually do earlier in the fall, so for this Thanksgiving, I decided at the last minute to get some fresh cranberries at the store.

To my surprise, this bag, marked Wisconsin cranberries contained teardrop shaped cranberries, unlike the round to ovoid berries I'm used to.

Is this the kind YOU are used to? Does anyone know what variety this is?

...yes I saved some seeds

I scattered 1/3 of them around my bog gardens in hopes that they would grow -- they should definitely get the winter stratification if they need it, but will be competing with other plants -- I sowed another 1/3 in a small pot and left it out in the garage where it should also get cold enough. I dried the last 1/3 of the seeds, but I'm not sure if cranberry seeds can be dried and saved for later sowing....

[tomc]

I might ask the the packer what cultivar their cranberries are.

[JONA]

Try this.

The small cranberry (V. microcarpum) is more delicate than the common cranberry, 10–30 cm long. The leaves of this prostrate, low-growing shrub are overwintering, 3–8 mm long and triangular-ovate. The flowers of the small cranberry grow individually on the shrub, are dark red and bloom in June–July. The berries are much smaller than those of the common cranberry. The small cranberry is teardrop-shaped, red or blackish red and has a mild taste.

Any help?

[applestar]

I saved seeds from those cranberries, sowed them just before Christmas and cold stratefied them in the unheated garage, then brought them inside on Jan. 30 when I brought inside the alpine strawberry seeds that had finished THEIR designated two week stratification.

Today, I realized both the cranberries and strawberries had sprouted!

Here are the tiny cranberry seedlings

...JONA, if all goes well and these grow, I'll post how they turn out. I don't suppose they will fruit first year?

[applestar]

Update:

...ladybug on patrol...

[applestar]

Wisconsin cranberry seedlings update

[rainbowgardener]

the cranberries are the little red stems? Beautiful!

Do cranberries spread like raspberries do?

[applestar]

Cranberries are more like low creeping shrubs.

...funny... I was about to say I'm surprised you haven't gone cranberry picking or on a cranberry harvest tour -- because that seems like the sort of thing you would do.... But I then I realized cranberries aren't grown everywhere.

At the heritage farm where we go, they harvest dry, not flood (though they DO flood the fields for winter protection), and there are occasional taller clumps which are lowbush blueberries. Apparently birds plant them in the field and it's just easier to let them grow since they don't use machinery.