Topic: Who else has done it?

[PurpleHeather]

I have bought some kiwi fruit and am going to take some seeds out and plant them.

There are loads of them on our allotment site owned by various tenants. All bought as plants and no one has yet had any fruit, (some are 5 years old) so I am not wasting money buying a plant for a straggly looking tree that does not bear fruit. But I will try a few seeds.

If any one else has tried, I would love to hear from them.



 

[cjb02]

I grew one 18mths ago from seed. I overwintered it in the greenhouse 07/08. It was about a foot tall then. Last year I planted it at the side of my garage and it made 8ft tall. Left the stems up the side of the garage in over winter 08/09 and they are now just starting to break bud. I think this year it might go bonkers or I hope so and cover the garage.

Trouble is, you need two, a male and female to produce fruit and they can take about 7yrs to do that ( I can wait though). I have just put some more seed in and any resulting plants will go round the garage too and hopefully I will get a male and female. I find the kiwi plant quite attractive, The leaves are large and have red veins in them. Definitely worth growing from seed.

[Barnowl]

Trouble is, you need two, a male and female to produce fruit and they can take about 7yrs to do that ( I can wait though).

There are now some self fertile varieties: the two I know of are 'Jenny' and 'Issai'
but there are others...

http://carreglefn-nurseries.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8

Also Reads Nurseries have them

[cjb02]

Before I planted my seeds. I read about the self fertile varieties and the impression I got was that even these did better with a pollinator. However although interesting and worth  knowing about, I dont think you would get a self fertile one is you grew one from seed out of a kiwi fruit bought from the shops.

[PurpleHeather]

I deliberately mentioned that there were other trees already on the allotment site because I thought that every one would twig on that if they eventually blossomed and even fruited there would be a possible source of pollination.

I think the information that it takes 7 years sounds like it could be right too.

It is the growing from seed bit I wanted to hear about, so thanks for that. I had a nasty feeling that the seeds would be sterile or something had been done to preserve the fruit which would kill off the seeds.

I will keep it in the greenhouse or may even bring indoors over winter if I get a live birth.

[cjb02]

From what I can remember it took ages to germinate. I put all the seeds in from one fruit and got loads of little ones appear. However I managed to murder all but one.

I have also been trying to find out how to sex a kiwi fruit plant and I think the best way is by flower identification but that is all the information I can find. If you find any thing else out about sexing a kiwi plant, I would love to know.

[zigzig]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kiwi-Flower,_male.jpg

Kiwi fruit flower

[cjb02]

thanks zigzag. That will prove useful when mine flowers. On the same site there is a male and female flower. the only difference I can see if that the male flower is more elaborate.