1. Strawberries
I ordered strawberries through a plant catalog and they are in Indiana so their weather is just as bad as mine and they say that they don’t want to ship them to me until June but they are June-Bearing Strawberries and I don’t know if they will have enough time to do their Strawberry thing! Any advice on how to make them mature faster once I get them and, hopefully, the weather straightens out? I got a package deal and they are coming with Strawberry Fertilizer and I have some Blossom Set Spray that I can use on both the tomatoes and the strawberries but how do I get the fastest growth out of them so that they can get to the bloom stage starting so late!

And how much room does a strawberry plant need? I live downtown and live above a restaurant so I have rodents outside that I have seen on my patio before so I am going to take a hanging plastic shoe organizer and layer gravel, moss, and soil in the pouches and put either 1 or 2 plants where each shoe goes and hang that from the patio above me anchored to the wall at the bottom. I think they would then be high enough up so that the rats and the squirrel that lives under the stairs will have a much harder time getting to them! Is that enough soil/space? The berries will hang over the lip of the pocket so they won’t rot sitting on soil. My strawberries are nifty hybrids, ½ of them are supposed to grow as big as peaches and the other ½ are supposed to have huge berries that taste like peaches.

Any advice?

2. Blueberries
I have also ordered 2 dwarf blueberry plants from them and the same goes for them. How long does it take for Blueberries to do their blueberry thing? They will be in pots though, not in with the strawberries. Do you think that the Blossm Set Spray would work on them too? They say Tomatoes and Strawberries right on the bottle but I don’t know what else I can use it on!

Any ideas on how to keep the rodents off the blueberries? A netting or something? Could I grow the Blueberries Upside Down like Tomatoes? Then I can hang them from the patio above!

Thanks guys!

I'm presently wondering who'll win the most of my berries: the ants that seem to be climbing two stories of our wall to get at the seedlings in the kitchen window, or the enormous house centipedes that have been turning up. No cockroaches so far, at least, but this will be our first summer in this building.

Sorry -- had to get that off my chest.

Aside from things I've read elsewhere about trapping/poisoning rodents, which doesn't seem like much of a solution near edible plants -- you seem to be on the right track with keeping the plants up off the ground.

But rodents can climb down, too. What about using those squirrel blocking devices they put on bird feeders? I've read putting Vaseline on whatever's supporting the plant will keep things off, too.

Good luck -- I'm following along in case anyone's got some better advice for you, for my own balcony garden. This is an experimental year for me, being the first.

I'm skeptical about netting keeping birds off my berries, let alone rodents, but it's worth a shot!

There are strips of plastic spikes that help keep pigeons from roosting wherever you put them. I've also read that mints will repel mice. If you plant catnip, maybe you'll attract some alleycats to help with the rats. I'm doing that, also.

I have 5 northern highbush blueberries that are about 5ft tall (not including their 12" pots). How long it will take will depend on what size/age your plants are. My very first almost 10 years ago, were 6" bareroots and it took about 3 years for them to begin to fruit more than a few and about around year 6, they were hitting a stride. My others were already fruiting in 2 gallon size (probably about 3 years old when purchased) and I've had them for about 4 - 5 years now. I'm in a hi-rise and haven't had a problem with birds eating my fruit. I get carpenter bees up here who pollinate my blueberry flowers (thankfully). They have a slightly bigger probiscus than the bumblebees (and I've read that they can sometimes knock the flowers off trying to get inside and can also put a hole in the flower...lol). And despite them being territorial (I usually get 2 up here who chase each other away on occassion and wonder what the heck I'm doing out there watching them) they do a fine job.

So being that you are lower down, you should get plenty of bees (hopefully bumblebees) to do the work without needing any blossom set spray.

I don't know what to recommend about 4-footed critters (I would think they could chew through netting), except you might want to consider some hardware cloth (like plain window screen material that comes in rolls) and sortof make an enclosed cage around your plants. It would probably be easier to do since yours are dwarfs.

Thanks for your ideas! Oh, & to clear up an urban legend – RATS CAN CLIME BOTH UP GUTTERS & UP STAIRS! LOL! I just don’t know where the people I’ve talked to picked up THAT idea!

Well, I got my strawberries in the mail today & planted them in the shoe pockets of a plastic over the door shoe holder and it looks like it is really going to work!

The weather here is STILL erratic so I am thinking of just keeping them inside. Then I don’t have to worry about cold nights OR the rats!!

I have a closet that, if I keep the door open all the time, will give them a lot of light. The only prob. is that the pockets leak a little bit. Just a drip here and there but I still need to put a pan under it!

I haven’t been able to plant my tomato’s upside down outside yet but I will post pic’s of both the Strawberries and the tomato’s when they get going!

I have been ignoring the mold on the pots and just watering them less so I think that worry is gone! They are over 5 inches now! I’m so HAPPY! LOL!

Thanks for the advice!!

Blueberries in containers do very well in containers because they are shallow rooted by nature. The critical element if you want fruit is low ph. Blueberries are perhaps the most finicky of plants when it comes to soil ph. They need around 5.0. Potting soil is lime adjusted to be near 7.0 and this isn't going to work well at all.

To do blueberries in containers you need to use peat (in the 2 cu foot bags, not the peat in potting mixes which has lime added to raise ph, blueberries despise lime). Add some pine needles, some compost etc.

After that you have to fertilize with a low ph fert, don't use any old fert because they are all higher ph if not labeled as being for acid loving plants or azaleas.

watering is another issue. I don't know what the tap water ph is in your area, but often the ph and flouride and chlorine are too much. Use rainwater. You can trap it in 5 gal buckets. If you live in an apartment talk to the landlord about it or just find the downspouts and put 5 gal buckets under them when it rains. Rain is low ph and acid rain is even lower (that's why it is called acid rain ;-).

Do all this and you can have a bountiful crop of blueberries in containers. Ph is the main thing. Get it right and all goes well, get it wrong and results are disappointing. Also, Blueberries take 4-5 years to produce well and most plants are sold as 2-3 year old plants so expect to get little to nothing the first year.

Blueberries are one of the most healthy things you can eat, richer in antioxidants than just about anything else so they are well worth the effort in maintaining a low ph for them to prosper in.