Im thinking about adding a kiwi plant to my plot, ive got a redundent peice of trellis up my greenhouse what i could grow it up. has anyone got these growing in the uk? im particulary interested in Actinidia deliciosa Jenny variety as they seem to be the choice hear + female self fertile. anyone got any tips?
Mr flowerdew has a couple in his norfolk garden (I have visited his garden) but his are male and female on 2 seperate plants. ;)
Hi lightyears,
I planted a kiwi early in 2007(just fancied growing one after seeing one in a garden centre) Got nothing on it in the summer of that year. The summer last year i had four small fruits on the plant ,that grew to the size of a grape. Actinidia is the variety. Also think it needs to be in a very sunny position. I planted mine where it only gets the sun from about midday onwards. Hope it goes well for you.
I got quite excited there for a moment...but you mean Kiwifruit!
Yes there is a trick to pollination and I read about it recently......just trying to remember where ???
I think it's because they don't have nectar so bee's are not that interested so try hand pollinating the flowers. They need shelter and lots of sunshine plus plenty of water.
behind me greenhouse seems ideal, sun from dawn until dusk in summertime, my sprinklers go nearby so pleanty of water on hand, i am right in thinking that self fertile dont need polinating?
i sowed 3 seeds that grew quite well last year, then the frost got them, or so i thought, for some reason i didnt get round to pulling them up and now they have lovely big buds on them ;D
I got 13 from mine this year, although they were thrown away in the end as they wouldn't ripen! I only had 2 male flowers, so I picked them & hand pollinated - wasn't too hard. Mine are separate boy/girl plants, so it's easy to tell which flower is which.
There are some growing in a hedge in the RHS Rose Garden at St Albans... as you go in from the car park... well when I last went which was several years ago now... :)
It was reported on some tv programme that they are perfectly suitable for growing in the UK.
It seems it will tolerate to -5C which, most of us do not often get down to.
I am not over keen on the fruit, but like to experiment, so if others have had success then, planting seeds from the fruit, I think I might try planting some seed too.
I have a wilkos kiwi growing up a trellis against my lottie shed, which is still alive to my surprise, I found it when trimming down my Jasmine :)
It has never flowered or produced fruit, which is ok as I am allergic to them, but I do like a challenge!/ shades x
I ordered a Kiwi 'Jenny' and an 'Issai' couple of weeks ago so I hope they're ok outside in the UK - certainly won't fit in my GH :)
All the suppliers agree that 'Jenny' is a self fertile variety and doesn't need a male pollinator. 'Issai' is also meant to be self fertile but the fruit are much smaller (grape sized) smooth skinned and grow in clusters.
well we went out to the garden centre and they didnt have none left so not being beaten we bough some black currants instead. We will go back for kiwi another day
Just remember these vines need loads of room, a bit of trellis is not enough. I have cut 5m lengths from mine when I trim them back into their space. The fruits will not ripen outdoors but will last on the vine even in some frost. Pick a few at a time and put them in the banana bowl, a few weeks later they are ready to eat. Although some of mine go in the rumptoft jar.
Our vine is about 7 years old and I have been cropping it the last four years and get about 15k of fruit. Luckily enough they farm them a couple of miles away so pollination is not a problem.
thanks for the pointers ace, the trellis was just for the kiwi, i have planted these accordingly