Blueberries and Strawberries

Planning on setting up a hydro set-up consisting of 2 blueberry bushes and 2 strawberry plants. Doing it in a shorter of the rubbermaid totes doing 2x2 in 6" pots with hydroton. Planning on using the Flora III pt. Series by Gen. Hydro.

My question is, what is the veg/flowering cycles of blueberries and strawberries, seeing as they produce fruit during the early/mid summer while it isn't natural 12/12. Do I only need the daylight and do 18/6 or should I switch it to 12/12 when I want it to produce fruit.

-C

Not sure, but I'm positive if you google it you can find LOTS of info. My strawberry plants outdoors flower a few times a year just like the citrus trees only different times...

Did do some research, and found that strawberries and blueberries are a little too different to grow in the same bin, also seeing as blueberries are bushes and take a bit of time to grow. Anyways, I've decided to grow watermelons(small ones) and strawberries. Both of which like lots of light, so I will grow them on 18/6 for veg and 12/12 if they do not induce flowering themselves. Should be fun, we shall see what happens.


-C

I love this site! I can see a grow log (hopefully) of cannabis and blue and strawberries! Are you going with Everbearing Strawberries? If your picking out types try a strawberry from Europe I think they taste better then ones in the states.

You'd probably best forget watermelons indoors... even the ones that produce small fruits still grow on huge, running vines and they require insects for pollination.

Strawberries are 'day neutral', so no need to fiddle with the light schedule. If you chose a running variety remember to remove the runners to push the plant back to producing flowers and fruit.

Most cultivars these days have 'hermie' flowers, so you shouldn't need insects to support pollination to get a fruit set. If the cultivar is a poor pollinator, you'll find a lot of small, hard, misshapen berries. Then it is time to pull out the paint brush and help things along.

Tomatoes, lettuce and chillies are also easy indoor growers.

sara.

Haven't yet looked into the actual plants yet, don't know if I wanna go from seeds or try and find some clones of something to get it started.

-C

Thanks Sara, that was awesome info. I suppose tomatoes would be an easy thing to go with, at least as a starter. Are they also 'day neutral' as you said strawberries were? And does this mean that there is no need for the switch to 12/12 to produce fruits, just need to hand pollinate? Also, which spectrum of light would be better? The vegetative spectrum or fruiting spectrum, or would it be best to when they do start to flower, switch the light spectrum but not the schedule. Thanks for the help.

-C

Really cool info. I was thinking of growing some cucumbers in my room. I did some outdoors last summer with great results, I've never grown a vegetable before. Sure they are sprawling on a vine, but that would actually look sort of cool in the grow room.