Kiwiberries

Gardenfuher

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Does anyone have any experience growing kiwiberries? I was gifted one about 3 years ago. I threw it in the ground and it's been happily establishing itself on a trellis all this time.

I was told not to expect fruit for the first 3 years and not a full harvest until 5 years. It's also supposed to be a self fertilising variety.

Welp, we got flowers last year but I don't think we got fruit (I was heavily pregnant at the time so left some gardening stuff go unattended). This year we got flowers and seem to have tiny fruit starting.

It's netted and happily doing its thing but I'm finding conflicting information on how long it takes to ripen and ifit needs anything extra at this time. It's planted in my berry patch which is a more acidic soil.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.
 

JP 1983

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I was able to find this technical article on Kiwiberries by the Rare Fruit Club. I've tried these before; they're great! But never grown them myself.

Translating the technical jargon from the article for you, kiwiberry flowers will self pollinate, but the stamens/pollen (male parts) are only viable for 2-4 days, whereas the pistils (female parts) are viable for 9-10 days. If you notice flower drop without setting, you could probably get away with gently shaking new flowers on day 2-3 to make them self-pollinate (I recall stories of NZ kiwi farmers using helicopters to encourage fruit setting on particularly windless seasons!). Sometimes it helps to add a second plant to increase pollination rates.

You could also try hand-pollinating if the above proves unfruitful - run your finger around the stamens on day 2-3 (preferrably in the morning before the wind gets to the pollen) and then run the same finger around the pistils.

Kiwiberry.jpg


The article goes on to say that kiwiberries will reach almost full-size after 6 weeks, and are ready to pick at 14-16 weeks (March-April in southern hemisphere). Keep up the mulch and water (consider extra feed after year 5), judicious pruning (fairly similar to annual grape pruning, if you are familiar with that - details in the link above) and you should harvest bountifully year after year.

All the best!
 
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Gardenfuher

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Thanks for the info. I have grapes so the pruning should be easy enough. Mulching and watering is no worries.

I hope it'll self pollinate OK. I like my perennials to be low effort and anything that needs a lot of babying will probably end up getting replaced. Any idea if they go well from a cutting? I could squeeze in a second vine to help with pollination.
 

JP 1983

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Any idea if they go well from a cutting? I could squeeze in a second vine to help with pollination.
Yeah cuttings are the best way to propagate them with good success. I reckon see how you go with fruiting for the next 2 years (your plant is only young anyway); if there's no problems don't worry about the fuss of a second plant.

I also realised that a less intensive way to pollinate the flowers if you do have issues is to use a leaf blower from a distance on low setting during flowering to simulate natural wind pollination, or attract plenty of bees, native or otherwise.
 
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Gardenfuher

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No worries. I'm not too worried about pollination at this point (now I know it's possible with only one plant). It's pretty breezy here so it gets a bit of a shake on the trellis that way.

I prefer having at least two of every plant anyway just incase something happens to one of them.

I'm on the fence about keeping this though as it tends to put out its first leaves a bit early and they don't handle the handful of frost they're exposed to. I've had to put a frost cloth over it for a few nights. I dont like having to baby plants

So far it's not a big deal but if we add pollination issues (or something else) to it....
 

JP 1983

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I'm on the fence about keeping this though as it tends to put out its first leaves a bit early and they don't handle the handful of frost they're exposed to. I've had to put a frost cloth over it for a few nights. I dont like having to baby plants
The source I cited above ([Link] in case you missed it) addresses these points and more. The young plants are vulnerable to frost; established plants are good to -30 C! So you'll need a bit of patience there, but you'll be rewarded with a plant that will laugh at the coldest of Vic weather. They also mention winter and summer pruning if necessary... you should have just a main trunk and two trellis cordons like with grapes, from which you get the lateral fruiting growth each season. Like with grapes, in winter you can just hack it back to 8-10 buds on the cordons. Never let anything grow out of the main trunk (except the left and right cordons for the trellis); hack that off straight away whenever you see it sprouting from the trunk rather than the cordons.
 

DThille

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Interesting. I'll have to take a boo at that link. The only kiwi plants that are hardy here are not the self-pollinating varieties, so I wasn't aware they existed...learn something every day.
 
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