Too late in season to prune monster kiwi vines??

Hi all!

After two years on our property, we're finally tackling the monster kiwi that have grown out of control for decades. I'm a bit torn up about even touching them, as they are highly productive, but there's a couple reasons why my wife thinks it's necessary 1) they are choking out several mature pear trees 2) we need to cut the 30' english laurel they've conquered in order to open up light for stuff on N side of said laurel.. 3) most of the kiwi, at 30', are out of reach for us anyway..

So here's the issue: yesterday when I was way up on the ladder pruning the pears, I made a couple cuts on approx 1" diameter kiwi vines (they're 6" diameter at base - we have both hardy kiwi and regular fuzzy kiwi here in the PNW zone 8b), I made cuts to the kiwi and was shocked at how much plant sap started dripping out of those vines. Could have filled a quart jar at least..

Probably, this means they're already out of winter dormancy and I'm wondering if it would be a real bad idea to continue pruning these back to maybe the 4" wood like i planned to do. Will they "bleed out"?

Nick Segner
Olympic peninsula

Yes, I would be very cautious about pruning or moving kiwis if the sap is running. Have lost some that way. You could try tying a plastic bag around the top of the cut in order to keep the sap in...