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I've got quite a lot of space (I know these can be very vigorous) and I ate some when I was in Japan and really liked them, so I'd like to grow Akebia for fruit.
I know that I need two plants, genetically different but the same species, for pollination as they are self-sterile.
The problem is, nowhere that sells them sells any sort of named variety (except the white variant), so there is no way of knowing whether they all come from the same stock, and are thus genetically identical, or whether they are actually different, and so I could just buy one from one company and another from a different one.
So I have two questions:
-Does anyone have any experience of buying two plants of the normal purple type, one each from two different companies, and having them both successfully fruit, thus proving they are not identical clones?
-Does anyone have experience of the white (var. Alba) variety producing fruit? I know it can be used as a polliniser for the purple one, but I have heard some vague reports that it won't bear fruit itself. Is this true, or will the white one also produce fruit?
I know that I need two plants, genetically different but the same species, for pollination as they are self-sterile.
The problem is, nowhere that sells them sells any sort of named variety (except the white variant), so there is no way of knowing whether they all come from the same stock, and are thus genetically identical, or whether they are actually different, and so I could just buy one from one company and another from a different one.
So I have two questions:
-Does anyone have any experience of buying two plants of the normal purple type, one each from two different companies, and having them both successfully fruit, thus proving they are not identical clones?
-Does anyone have experience of the white (var. Alba) variety producing fruit? I know it can be used as a polliniser for the purple one, but I have heard some vague reports that it won't bear fruit itself. Is this true, or will the white one also produce fruit?
