Sorry no one has responded to your question. I am a fuzzy kiwi want to have but have not. Though further north we have the same hardiness zone with mild winters but unpredictable when we have a late frost year. Due to pandemic restriction I have not visited the kiwi plantings in my area and do not have personal experience if they will flower again. Pleas post if you have any experience to share.
I'm not aware of any method to trigger kiwi to flower again after they've already been damaged by frost. There are things you can do next year that will protect plants from frost and this will probably be the only solution. If the ground is mostly clear of weeds, grass, etc. under and close to your kiwi plants it will radiate more heat at night, preventing frost damage. Placing a few large rocks around the perimeter of your kiwi vines will also help, rocks tend to radiate lots of heat on a cold night and help prevent freezing.
If this is still a consistent problem every year, you may want to try planting kiwi plants in locations that will protect them from frost. If you remove the lower branches off a conifer, the space below it will be sheltered. The branches of the tree will reflect heat back down, and the space underneath it will be less prone to frost. A vine planted next to a cliff or steep mountain side will also get more radiation from the ground on cold nights.
The only thing I know that in Germany they spray water over their apple trees to reduce the damages from freezing.
BUT, you need to spay continuously as long it is freezing, the trick is that the moment when water changes to ice it creates actually heat.
then as 2nd option is that the soil below the plant is weed free. The heat radiation from the ground shall not be blocked by weeds or grass.
I don't think there is another way to trigger the flowers to open later, when the nature calls with spring temperatures at daytime its a point of no return
I don't know if this has ever been tried for that particular situation, but I have heard of plants being tricked into flowering by bruising them. Choose a spot where the damage won't endanger the plant, a leaf-stalk near the growing tip works well. You can bend it or squeeze it, your choice, but stop as soon as you see signs of bruising.
I've seen this work on plants that should have been flowering but weren't, and I'm testing it for use in getting day-length sensitive plants to flower outside their preferred latitude, but I have never heard of it tried with a plant that flowered too early. I have no idea if it would work. If you decide to try it, please let us know!
The replies remind me of my observations of 2 successful plantings. one is under limbed up fir trees that are above but not blocking sun from the south. The other is on a lakefront that gets a warm up flow from the lake on cold nights and is on the south side of the house.
Post by:autobot
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