Glut of Kiwi Fruit

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Stealth! Welcome to this madhouse otherwise known as the Grapevine!

[STeALtH]

Hi Lesley Jay, thanks for the welcome I actually Admin a large forum so it's a nice change to be able to just post without the workload, kind of relaxing.

Will do my best to offer any advice I can as a retired Chef and pick up hints from you guys n gals on how best to grow my own

Just to keep myself on topic:

I forgot to mention in last post that Suttons Seeds sell a variety of Kiwi called Jenny which is self fertilising and a good cropper it's £15.95 and can be found HERE

[Lesley Jay]

I know you are admin on another forum! I check everyones details!!

[jools]

Just received two kiwi plants I bought on e-bay from Banwy Valley Nursery (under name Sydandcarol). One is the female Hayward and the other is male. They cost me 10.80 including postage but the seller refunded £2.00 as postage was not as much as he had expected!! They aren't large plants but they look healthy and I know they are fast growers so it certainly beats £30-ish for 2 plants.
I know that there is a self-fertile one called Jenny but it is supposed to be smaller than the Hayward fruits and kiwis aren't that big anyway. I guess it depends how much room you have. I'm going to grow mine on a little in the greenhouse & I need to find out how far apart I can grow them.
Jools

[GardenFan]

Maybe getting a little OT here so quickly Parkers were selling a Kiwi Jenny for 6 pounds for 1 cane, it was garden center only (should be a ok treck if your in the Manchester area). I picked up a few bare fruit trees at same time each for around 6/8 pounds so well worth the trip. It's worth growing them on in a GH so it gets a good structure before you place it out. Mine is going on a south facing wall but I think I will wait until May before I put it out.

[TonyF]

Blimey, how much for one plant?

Kiwi fruit farms all over SW France - I bought 3 a couple of weeks ago, two females and one male (apparently one male can pollinate up to 6 females) and the three cost me less that £15 sterling.

All now settled in their new raised boxes and sprouting away like anything. And have three others for chums garden going in next week.

[inca'smum]

I bought a kiwi Jenny last year from Ebay, it cost me about five pounds inc the postage. It was about 10cm in height and looked like a green furry stick.
I was sure I had been ripped off but within a matter of weeks it was romping along the wires on my fence. ( south west facing )It is meant to be hardy to -25 it has certainly survived the scottish winter with no covering etc and is covered in buds at the moment. I am hoping it is going to fruit this year. Fingers crossed.

[wheatleys wheels]

Good luck with yours> I've gotten my first kiwi plant this year and have planted it in the ground but I have no idea as to how to grow it and also have no idea how long I have to wait before I get the first fruit. Anlyhow... I currently have the furry stick so lets hope I have some luck like you do. If you have any tips please let me know.

[inca'smum]

Hi WW, The buds are now little leaves, once these things take off they just go for it. I dont really do anything to mine, except watering last summer in dry spells. I think I fed it twice last summer, just a bit growmore. If you put a cane next to it, it will curl its way up it on its own. I have vine wires attatched to the fence - about 3 feet and 5 feet up. I gave it a garden cane to climb up and its now twined round the five foot wire and heading about 3feet along the fence. Good luck with yours but I dont think you will need it.

[wheatleys wheels]

Many thanks for the advice. I'll put a cane up later today.

[Alexx]

jools,

I bought two kiwi plants from the same seller in april this year. It's been nearly two months since i've planted them and they haven't grown an inch. A couple of new leaves (very tiny) is all I've seen so far. They get sun from the sunrise up until 4 pm and i water them well when its dry. Still the leaves on the female one (that is Hayward) are covered in reddish pigmented spots.

I read about them a lot and apparently they are not too fussy about soil type as long as it's well drained. There's no mentioning of any diseases or pests apart from cats rubbing their backs on the vine and deer munching on new shoots in the wild

Just wondering if I'm doing something wrong or they are just going through a lengthy period of adaptation. How are yours getting on?

Thanks,

Alex