Hi.
I am wondering if others would please share their opinions as to which produces better kiwi fruits: male & female or the self-fertile one.
I'll be siting it in a glasshouse in Southwest Scotland. Coud lthe male plant be just outside the glasshouse or would they both need to under cover.
I have asked this before but lost my thread! I'll try to hang on this time.
LOL
Welcome to A4A Dora and Percy... I assume that the older male/female combination is better than the self fertile ones.. are you near the coast? It can be quite mild near the coast in SW Scotland in which case the male would survive outside. Be careful as they take up a lot of space under glass.... :-\
thanks saddad for the advice, confirming what I have been thinking anyway but was hoping for more experiences shared either way. It is a big glasshouse and not too far from the coast though we are very frosty (again!) at the moment.
Has anyone tried using a self-fertile one to fertilise a female? It should fertilise the female better than it does itself but I can't find any reference on the web.
Also, I have a self-fertile A.arguta 'Issai' (the baldy grape-sized one, hardier, earlier and very nice) and a very small self-fertile 'Jenny'.
The Issai gives a small crop and they say that self-fertile ones aren't 100% so I'm hoping that when my tiny Jenny flowers they will cross-pollinate each other and achieve better pollination without a male (waste of space - I'm only referring to the vegetable kingdom here).
Has anyone else tried this and got results?
I'm also hoping the combination will provide good pollination for other females of other related species.
I've seen much more different species cross in other genera, and there is also a documented effect in many genera where even when active pollen is 'rejected' it can promote more complete self-pollination.