Could not resist, got 2 kiwi vines at Sam's last week -
Male and female (says they need both)
1- hardy kiwi berry Meader (male)
1 hardy kiwi berry Cordifolia (female)
I want to plant them in large pots to go up over a wrought iron arbor. I was going to put a handful of Aquasorb to the potting mix as they say to keep moist.
Should I plant them both in the same pot? How close do they have to be to pollinate?
Anyone ever grown them around here?
I had a friend in Columbia who had a Kiwi vine. The variety she had was huge, heavy and needed a very sturdy arbor. I have since heard that they have come out with newer and better behaved varieties. I would think in ground would be better than containers for large vines like these.
pyromomma, I've got a tip about saving money on the water crystals like Aquasorb, unless you've already purchased it. A garden friend passed along this idea: buy the cheapest diapers you can find. In a bowl or sink, wet the diapers so that they inflate. Drain, and cut into the diapers to expose the inflated cyrstals.
I've used the diaper trick in planting some of my water lovers, and it seems to work well.
Being curious about this I did a bit of research and learned that Meader is the male and Cordifolia is the female and it bears small, acorn sized, very sweet fruit. Sounds yummy.
I didn't find out how large this one gets. My friend's Kiwi vine bore full sized fruit like you would buy in the grocery store; maybe that is why her vine was so large.
Sam's club is cheapest for diapers. I have know idea how much absorbent stuff you get out of a diaper but I do know they swell up incredibly big. I would think the medium sized ones would give you the best bang for the buck.
Plant them like you would a grapevine. I think in the ground would be better. The male and female need to be growing on the same arbor. It can take 3 to 4 years before they fruit. Good luck I planted 4 vines last year.
Allthough a bit late, (it is March 19th!) and I just found this thread about growing kiwis. I am sure you can grow most any varieties in Columbia - I have purchased some land and planning to build a new home in Yonges Island (Hollywood/Meggett), SC. Right now, I live on Long Island, NY, and have been growing both the large, fuzzy type as well as the thumb-sized smooth types for quite a few years, now, and I plan to grow them when I move to SC, probably later this year. I have found great growing information from the websites of both Alabama and Oregon Agricultural Extension Programs, and will try to get back to you with the websites (unfortunately, I lost all my info when my mac's hard drive burned out on me a couple months ago, and I have just started to "refurbish" my plant files. Not knowing, at first, how to design the best support for my vines, I didn't know the importance of setting them up properly, which would make taking care of them much easier. My large, oldest vines are growing up over a pergola, and are hard to prune up there! My younger vines with the smaller fruit are trained along cables, like grapes, and are much easier to handle. I will try to get back in a little while with more info.
Although a bit late, (it is March 19th!) I just found this thread about growing kiwis.
I am sure you can grow most any varieties in Columbia - I have purchased some land and planning to build a new home in Yonges Island (Hollywood/Meggett), SC. Right now, I live on Long Island, NY, and have been growing both the large, fuzzy type ("Hayward") as well as the thumb-sized smooth type ("Arguta") for quite a few years, now, and I plan to grow them when I move to SC, probably later this year.
I have found great growing information from the websites of both Alabama and Oregon Agricultural Extension Programs, and some more, which will follow this note.
Not knowing, at first, how to design the best support for my vines, I didn't know the importance of setting them up properly, which would make taking care of them much easier. My large, oldest vines are growing up over a pergola, and are hard to prune up there! My younger vines with the smaller fruit are trained along cables, like grapes, and are much easier to handle.
The following websites have a lot of information about kiwi fruit, and how best to produce them - GOOD LUCK! Let me know if you have any specific questions or problems, and, especially, successes! ( By the way, my kiwis ALWAYS bloom during the first week of June.)
Here are the websites:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw507.pdf
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/aaes/webpress/1989/kiwi.htm
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-208.html
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1084/
and, copy this one carefully:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uyW9ELLrIqo/RyDEPsxm7FI/AAAAAAAAAEM/B1kGfZUKjn8/s320/varietiesOfKiwi.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tofarmagain.blogspot.com/2007/10/wonderful-kiwi.html&usg=__ONTKwJv6BuyMrZdZ5mmp5YSpKQw=&h=230&w=320&sz=22&hl=en&start=25&um=1&tbnid=q0ToLuSzOEWenM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DKiwis%2Bfruit%2Bvarieties%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1
ENJOY!
karlmale
