Growing Kiwisall you'd ever want to know about growing kiwis

Have you ever tried growing your own kiwis from seed?  Most plant lovers like myself have, at one point or another,  propagated a supermarket bought fruit to see what it grew into. With the advent of the internet, we can now see what to expect before we try. We can also, at a glance, learn how to care for that plant as it grows.

The site is dedicating to growing kiwis.

Kiwi fruit on vines

You can pop into your local garden centre and buy a kiwi fruit plant now, with the advent of new hardy varieties.

Years ago, this option simply wasn’t available unless you lived in a sub-tr0pical climate like continental Europe or New Zealand. No matter where you are in the world, growing kiwis is fun. If your climate does not support the growing of kiwi vines, you can grow them in a greenhouse or conservatory.

Kiwis like sun and lots of it, and copious amounts of water. Add that to a little protection from strong winds, and you could have a vine that is fast-growing and beautiful, as well as giving you wonderful health-promoting kiwi fruit.

Word of warning : when kiwi plants grow well, their leaves can grow HUGE, and thus block out light unless you prune it severely to keep it under control. This of course, refers to people growing kiwis under glass.

It is also worth noting that kiwi vines need both a male and a female plant to produce fruit.

So you are going to need a minimum of two kiwi vines. Make sure when you order from your supplier that you have one of each. If the area where you intend to grow your kiwis is spacious enough, buy more female plants. One male can pollinate up to eight females.

Kiwis can be trained to grow horizontally along a fence wire attached between posts.

There is no point in allowing it to grow upwards because then any fruit will be out of reach. Make sure wherever you plant your kiwis that there are no trees or high poles nearby. Kiwi vines, once established, will be off up them like a shot.

Growing kiwis are really simple to care for once you have your established plants, whether you buy locally, order online, or grow from seed.

The big disadvantage from growing from seed, is that you will not know for several years what sex your plants are. You are likely not going to need any more than one male, but you do want to make sure that your seedlings have a mix of both male and female if you ever want fruit.

Another disadvantage of growing kiwis from seed is that you do not have a named variety. Professional growers often hybridize plants to produce the best fruit for the market. Hybridized plants are then reproduced by cuttings, layerings, or graftings, not from seed which reverts to an inferior parent plant.

Even so, plant lovers like us will not be put off by such minor details. It is the plants we love, not the fruit so much. Fruit from something we grow ourselves from seed is only a bonus, not a necessity.