Hello,

I have had some kiwi plants a few years now. I think there are two
types of kiwi: some that are self-fertile and others where you need
separate male and female plants. Rightly or wrongly I went down the
separate plants route. Was this the best choice to make?

They are climbing along a south facing trellis but they have never
flowered nor fruited. Has anyone had more success than me?

Now that winter is approaching, what should I do to protect them? I am
sure I read in the past that I should protect them with fleece. Is
that right? With the fleece on, should they retain their leaves or
will they fall?

TIA.

"Sam" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have had some kiwi plants a few years now. ...
They are climbing along a south facing trellis but they have never
flowered nor fruited. Has anyone had more success than me?
[...]

How disappointing. I bought the MF pair last spring having read how I would
have masses of fruit late in the summer. They have grown a bit, but noty the
vigorous invasive growth warned about and not looked like flowering at all.

I thought maybe next year would be better.

Tim W

On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:20:18 GMT, "Tim W"
wrote:


"Sam" wrote in message
.. .
Hello,

I have had some kiwi plants a few years now. ...
They are climbing along a south facing trellis but they have never
flowered nor fruited. Has anyone had more success than me?
[...]

How disappointing. I bought the MF pair last spring having read how I would
have masses of fruit late in the summer. They have grown a bit, but noty the
vigorous invasive growth warned about and not looked like flowering at all.

I thought maybe next year would be better.

Tim W



I grew some kiwi plants on an experimental basis, must have been
originally about 6 or 7 years ago, starting as germinating seeds from
supermarket (Tesco) kiwi fruits and then grown on indoors in pots for
a bit longer. They germinated easily in standard compost. Two plants
were then put outside and have been growing ever since up a south
east facing wall of the house (roots underneath a loose gravel covered
path around this part of the house) and these have thrived in the
sense of putting on lots of growth and throwing up shoots to 10 feet
or more in recent years. I have helped to partly train them up the
wall by using nails in the walls attached to plastic ties around the
main stems. I have had some flowers on these over the last 3 years,
but I think by looking at the flowers they are probably male plants.
They are quite attractive large white flowers that are produced. No
fruit has been set from these two plants. Because the new shoots get
quite leggy towards the autumn, I have had to prune them back at this
time of year in recent years because one of the plants is very close
to a back door into the garden and the profuse growth was impeding
access through the door. The leaves drop suddenly usually when a
reasonably hard frost comes during the late autumn, although the
leaves are still on my plants this year at the time of writing because
it has been pretty mild so far. I suspect that they possibly flower on
old wood because any late pruning of the current season's shoots on
these two plants seems to reduce the number of flowering shoots in the
next season. Out of the original batch of seedlings/plants, a year
after the first two, I put another couple outside to grow up in a soil
bed right next to the north west facing house wall on the other side
of the house. Although these have grown and "shooted" quite strongly
they have not flowered, so I still don't know if by chance I have any
female plants from the original seedlings. If not, I guess there is
not much chance of pollination and production of fruit, but I live in
hope! Incidentally, there is a well-established kiwi in the gardens of
the Scottish National Trust property Kellie Castle in Fife about 30
miles south of here that is grown in an enclosed garden against a
south facing wall that I have seen producing fruit in the summer,
although I have not visited it for a few years now.

Geoff (Dundee)

"Sam" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have had some kiwi plants a few years now. I think there are two
types of kiwi: some that are self-fertile and others where you need
separate male and female plants. Rightly or wrongly I went down the
separate plants route. Was this the best choice to make?

They are climbing along a south facing trellis but they have never
flowered nor fruited. Has anyone had more success than me?

Now that winter is approaching, what should I do to protect them? I am
sure I read in the past that I should protect them with fleece. Is
that right? With the fleece on, should they retain their leaves or
will they fall?


Sorry to throw ants on your picnic: I bought a male/female pair about 20
years ago and planted them close together. They have done nothing except
produce leaves in all this time, however last summer, the male plant died
and the female flowered for the first time :-( . They're quite hardy, you
probably don't even need fleece.

Good luck.

someone

On Sat, 3 Nov 2007 01:43:02 -0000, "someone"
wrote:

Sorry to throw ants on your picnic: I bought a male/female pair about 20
years ago and planted them close together. They have done nothing except
produce leaves in all this time, however last summer, the male plant died
and the female flowered for the first time :-( . They're quite hardy, you
probably don't even need fleece.


Thank you everyone for your replies. I'm sure I read somewhere that
you needed to cover them with a fleece to protect them from the frost,
however they are pretty sheltered growing up against the wall, so I
will leave them exposed this winter. The fleece only keeps blowing off
in gusty weather anyway.

I think last year despite my precautions, they lost their leaves when
there was a frost and I wasn't sure whether this was a bad sign. This
year they grew new leaves and carried on from where they left off so I
guess it was nothing to worry about; just the leaf drop that deciduous
plants go through this time of year.

I think I did see one flower bud on one plant (female? can't remember)
but nothing ever came of it.

It's strange that the literature and experience seem totally contrary!

Has anyone had any better fortune with the self-fertile variety?