Anyone growing kiwi?

Any advice or experiences would be helpful.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/109938/index.html

Have wanted some hardy kiwi for awhile. I just got Arctic Beauty, haven't planted them yet. Should be interesting and looking forward to it! ~ Suzi :)

I have three Artic Beauty, one 3-year old male, one 2-year old male, and one 2-year old female. They have done absolutely nothing exciting so far, but seem to be nice plants and fairly hardy (the female was hit by the riding mower and lived).

A lot frost bit mine down to the ground, but it is leafing out again very nicely. I've heard that it take a few years before they'll bare fruit. I'd be happy if it managed to climb up the trellis! Maybe in the heat of the summer, it'll take off.

I've been growing arguta's for a number of years. The variety "anna..." just started blloming last year, after about 5 or 6 years. The male I have has yet to start blooming after 4 years. I've been collecting different varieties - have about 6 or 7 now.

I strongly recommend getting Issai as the first variety to try or if you don't have a lot of space. I have a plant in a 7 gallon pot that is producing in its second year - Issai is self-fertile, and doesn't need to get as big as the others before it starts flowering and producing.

I am in a completely different growing environment but I grew several ‘Golden’ Kiwis from seed a couple of years ago. The plants are doing great but have not yet flowered. In winters the leaves browned up but held on the plant. In the spring they flushed out. They have grown a lot and filled out this year.

I also purchased couple ‘Tomuri’ (male) and ‘Vincent’ (female) Kiwi plants to ensure I had a couple of known male and female plants. All the plants look great.

I guess patience is the key for kiwi. I have read that they fruit on mature wood, at least one year old. It is interesting to see your experiences but I would like to know what others have experienced in blooming and fruiting time.

Also is anyone growing them in Florida and what has been their luck?

Thanks

DW

bump
I'm thinking of buying some this year
how do they do in the shade?

krowten- r u sure the isai is self-fertile- have you grown any fruit on the isai- as i have read that all kiwi's including isai are self fertile-
where did u get the isai plat from

Have had Anna(Ananasnaja), Ken's Red, Cordifolia, and a male in the ground for over 10 years, now and have yet to sample a fruit. They've been blooming, and even had some fruit set one year - back in '98, if I recall correctly, but none have ever matured.

Almost every year, they leaf out, get nuked by frost, and have to re-leaf. I'm not sure of those frosts/freezes are blasting the blossom buds as well - I've gotten to the point that I don't even bother doing anything with them - I'll look sometime in the summer to see if the set any fruit - and since they never have, I don't look again.

I've had Anna and Ken's Red for 4+ years (going on 5) now and I have yet to see a flower. I do not have the problem Lucky reports with his kiwis getting burned by late frosts. I have them growing on an arbor and the female side of the arbor tends to get over-run a little late in the season by a Sweet Autumn Clematis that out grows the kiwi.

I've got 8 females and 4 males. They are nice and healthy, but fruit would be nice.

~Chills

ditto with Chills: 4 going on 5 years and no frosts but no flowers either. I did get a few Issai fruits that fell off. They are pretty minimal care so I'm not yet disappointed in them, but if I make it to 10 years with no fruit, that will be disappointing. I have heard that pruning in the summer can help get them fruiting earlier so I have started to to more of that. Hey I just remembered I saved a great quote from kiwinut about that. Here is what he said:

Hardy kiwi will flower much sooner if pruned properly. Without pruning, many report it taking 10 years or more for them to flower. Only three year old or older wood should be winter pruned, as one and two year old wood produces most of the flowers. The method most use is to prune the side laterals when they reach about 12 inches long, back to about 4 inches. When they grow out another 8-12 inches, prune them back again, leaving 4 inches of the new growth plus the 4 inches from before. Keep doing this throughout the growing season. This encourages fruiting spurs to form.
Once they start flowering, the females can be pruned back after fruiting to 4 inch shoots along the laterals, taking off as much as 70% of the new growth. The males can be pruned really hard right after flowering, taking off as much as 90%. Just be sure to leave some of the new growth. They will form more flowering wood later that summer.

Scott

gg12345 and Chills - I am 100% totally, absolutely, completely, without a doubt sure that my Issai is self fertile. I only have one male kiwi (arguta) and inspected it regularly looking for any blossoms. I plan to use any male flowers I ever find to hand pollinate my anna (female) and any others that start blooming.

My anna is about 8-10 years old and has been blooming for 3 years. A few of the blooms produce small, immature fruits that fall off mid-summer at about the 1" size. For what it's worth, it did not start blooming until I cut it back b/c it was starting to get too large.

My Issai produced about 20 fruits while growing in a 5 gallon pot last summer. Because it is my only kiwi to produce, I took cuttings last summer to start some additional plants.

A berry farm about 20 miles aways offers hardy kiwi fruit for sale in the fall. From discussion with them, there appears to be a problem in my area with getting bees/insects to pollinate kiwi. I believe they solved the problem by setting hives near the plants and using some patience.

I obtained my Issai from One Green World. (You can check out my comments about them in 'Watchdog)