Growing fruit in containers

[Garden Lurker]

Hi, First post of many, I hope.
I'm so sick and tired of buying Strawberries from both fruit and veg stalls here in Lincoln and getting them home to find the top ones all OK and the rest a bunch of mush in the bottom of the plastic box. So I bought ten plants off eBay today (Thursday) and intend to grow them indoors in old plastic washing up bowls. These are about 7ins deep and roughly 12ins square.

I've got a biggish garden, but its ruled by the local cats who think it was designed just for them. Will the strawberry plants flourish in an indoors environment and what can I do to enhance their growth.

I already have Mint growing in several pots (I love the smell) dotted around the home mainly to make the spiders life hell, not those big ones, just the spindly type with slim bodies that seem to spin their webs across doorways just to annoy me. OH, I do hoover every couple of days like everybody else and the place is clean or as clean as a bachelor's place can be.

Michael
(Garden Lurker)

[Penellype]

Hi Michael, welcome to the vine.

Your strawberries should be fine in a washing up bowl providing that you drill some holes in the bottom for drainage, as they really don't like sitting in a puddle. Strawberries can be grown indoors but you will hit a few problems if you are not careful.

Firstly, strawberries need a period of cold otherwise they won't produce flower buds and hence no fruit. You may need to put the bowls outside in the winter to set them up for fruiting. They also need pollinating, so unless you put them outside when the flowers are open you will need to go over the flowers every day, rubbing the centres with your finger or a paintbrush to pollinate them. If you don't do this the flowers will not turn into fruit, or the fruit will be partially pollinated an misshapen, with densely seeded patches.

The other issue you can get with indoor plants is red spider mite, which attacks the leaves and weakens the plants. If you see the leaves looking pale or mottled look for tiny dark dots moving around (they are very, very small) - you may notice the webs round the leaf edges first, by which time you have a large infestation. Misting the leaves with a little water helps as spider mite like warm, dry conditions.

If you decide to grow the plants outdoors, a net will keep the cats off and also the birds, which will otherwise help themselves to the ripe fruit.

[BUFFS]

With regards to the cats, if you were to pee I to a bucket, can, smaller watering can, and just dribble about a teaspoonful onto the garden, once each 6ft (2m) so you cover the area like a grid, then you will find a sudden lack of cats, done once a month from march to November you should find they keep clear, I was taught this over 55yrs ago and have never had to buy any of the commercial products (which don't work), and its only ammonia so it feeds the soil and the amounts so small you would never ever guess it was there. It must be male pee as female, for some reason, doesn't work. I am surrounded by cat families but get none except they walk up the drive but not on the garden unless we have had constant rain, then it might need redoing..

[Kirk]

No idea if you would be interested but I was looking at an elevated plastic moulded container 2 days back that seemed ideal for strawberries.

The brand was Elho and a quick google seems to imply it is called an Elho Grow Table. Appears they are in various sizes and costs, well costs anyway. The smaller of the 2 I saw was £20, the bigger was £40. The smaller seemed well suited to strawberries.

Might be worth a search either on the internet of around a few garden centers for one, at least to have a look at.

They were in some bright colours, the green one was a lime green and the purple one certainly made itself known.

[Potstubsdustbins]

And don't forget they will need feeding, high nitrogen for green growth followed by high potash once fruit arrives.

[rary]

I would persevere with planting outside which would eliminate a lot of bother, you could try sticking clear plastic forks into the ground near your plants, with the prongs sticking out of the ground, or try the tip that Buffs has given, which I will be trying myself

[BUFFS]

You can lay rose bush trimmings on your garden border and if you lay them right the cats cannot make their deposits, so its one for the ladies to use, briar roses grow so fast that they are ideal donors..