How is my kiwi fruiting??

I have maybe 4-5 year old female hardy kiwi, not sure the exact variety, and I found a handful of kiwi fruits on it the other day. I was super excited because I have been wanting her to fruit for years, but I am super confused because:

1. I haven’t seen a single flower on her and Ive been paying pretty close attention

2. The male plant is only about 2’ tall and I havent seen him flower either

3. As far as I know, no neighbors have a hardy kiwi plant to supply the pollen

We planted a male (i think Ken’s Red) at same time as the female but he died. We planted another the next year, he struggled along for a couple years and also died. We just planted this current male plant last year. Its alive and well, but young and small. I just dont understand how or why this female is fruiting.

there is at least one variety of self-fertile hardy kiwi. issai, i think? but there may be more.  looks like you’ve got one.

for what it’s worth, and i know it won’t affect you now, but ken’s red is a female variety. got a man’s name in it, but makes fruit = female.

greg mosser wrote:there is at least one variety of self-fertile hardy kiwi. issai, i think? but there may be more.  looks like you’ve got one.

for what it’s worth, and i know it won’t affect you now, but ken’s red is a female variety. got a man’s name in it, but makes fruit = female.

Issai doesnt sound familiar, so I dont think I have that variety. Maybe our female is a Kens Red. The tag is long gone at this point and I don’t remember what I ordered. Our male is an Actinidia Arguta, or so the tag says.

Brody Ekberg wrote:Issai doesnt sound familiar, so I dont think I have that variety. Maybe our female is a Kens Red. The tag is long gone at this point and I don’t remember what I ordered. Our male is an Actinidia Arguta, or so the tag says.

Actinidia arguta is just the genus and species of hardy kiwifruit, not a specific variety name, so your male could be anything (including a seedling grown plant).

The vast, vast majority of hardy kiwifruit are not self-fertile. Your fruit set is pretty low -- flowers (and fruit) typically occur in clusters, but your  photos are of single fruits, indicating very poor pollination. It could be that somewhere within 500-1000m of your property there was a male plant which a bee visited before visiting your hardy kiwis, and had just enough pollen to pollinate a couple of flowers. Or perhaps your male produced one or two flowers -- he's pretty small, but I have seen some precocious males of A. arguta flower at that size.

Either way, it's nice to have some early fruit and hopefully your unnamed male does better next season and you get more fruit.

M Broussard wrote:

Actinidia arguta is just the genus and species of hardy kiwifruit, not a specific variety name, so your male could be anything (including a seedling grown plant).

The vast, vast majority of hardy kiwifruit are not self-fertile. Your fruit set is pretty low -- flowers (and fruit) typically occur in clusters, but your  photos are of single fruits, indicating very poor pollination. It could be that somewhere within 500-1000m of your property there was a male plant which a bee visited before visiting your hardy kiwis, and had just enough pollen to pollinate a couple of flowers. Or perhaps your male produced one or two flowers -- he's pretty small, but I have seen some precocious males of A. arguta flower at that size.

Either way, it's nice to have some early fruit and hopefully your unnamed male does better next season and you get more fruit.

I guess I didnt think about bees bringing in pollen from 500+ meters away. That’s definitely a possibility since there are several farms in that range and a lot of honey bees visit our yard and garden.

Roughly how big are the hardy kiwi flowers? Ive been watching the plants pretty closely making sure the male is doing ok and weaving the female’s vines into our garden fence and never saw any flowers. But maybe they are very small and short lived.

If you ordered your kiwi online, many times you can log in, go to "orders" or whatever they may call it, and you should be able to find the information you need.  I do this often when I can't remember what the variety of something is.  If you got it locally at a store, it might be a bit harder, although, they might have some sort of record, too.  

here’s a pic i took of some of mine in may. they’re somewhere between a cm and a half inch across. they were visible as buds and then developing for a few weeks at least.

I love your use of using gender on plants. It makes it so much more real, more connected to Nature.

The flowers are rather small, white, and hard to see, so I wonder if you just didn't see one.

John S
PDX OR

Barbara Simoes wrote:If you ordered your kiwi online, many times you can log in, go to "orders" or whatever they may call it, and you should be able to find the information you need.  I do this often when I can't remember what the variety of something is.  If you got it locally at a store, it might be a bit harder, although, they might have some sort of record, too.  

Good idea, but I cant even remember the nursery I ordered it from at this point.

John Suavecito wrote:The flowers are rather small, white, and hard to see, so I wonder if you just didn't see one.

John S
PDX OR

Very possible, especially if it flowered before putting on all the new growth that i have been braiding and weaving into the fence.

greg mosser wrote:here’s a pic i took of some of mine in may. they’re somewhere between a cm and a half inch across. they were visible as buds and then developing for a few weeks at least.

Thanks! I may have just missed the flowers if it was in may. I didnt pay much attention to it until all this crazy new growth started up.

mine were flowering in may, but i’d expect yours to do it in june, as much farther north as you are than me.

Mine also flower in May.
John S
PDX OR