Meader Actinidia vs Virginia Creeper on cattle panel to shade house? Also more advise please

I live in dry Colorado at 8000' elevation (zone 4).  I installed cattle panel suspended 5" away from my house cedar siding - facing south east and south west.   I want to train vines to shade the side of my house.  One section already has 2 year old Virginia Creeper.  I'm ready to cut anything back if this goes awry.  

I bought Meader Actinidia (2 female, 1 male).  Then I say this Edible Acres video where he warns of how destructive Kiwi can get and urges not to place near your home.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSH0xH7Ug4

Of course he is in a wet climate and I'm not sure mine would grow this aggressively.  

I'm ready to commit these Kiwi's to a different area if people think this is a bad idea.  In addition he says how cattle panel can't hold up to the weight these Kiwi's get!?!  I'm ready to build a different frame with posts and/or EMT conduit if the weight is really that much an issue - in an entirely new location or against the house like my original intention.

Does anyone have advise for me?  Thanks!

We have a forum dedicated to Kiwi so it cant be all that bad.

Like the Virginia Creeper I would so go for it if you are willing to cut it back.

https://permies.com/t/146416/kiwi-forum

Here are a couple of threads of interest to you or others:

https://permies.com/t/146910/Kiwi-Containers

https://permies.com/t/24550/Hardy-Kiwi-Actinidia-arguta

Anne Miller wrote:We have a forum dedicated to Kiwi so it cant be all that bad.

Hi Anne!  Didn't I post this in the Kiwi forum!?  I thought I did!?  

It says Forum:Kiwi at the top of my webpage, but please let me know if for some reason I'm confused.  Thanks

Many Actinidia varieties are quite vigorous and need a minimum of once yearly pruning. Locally, it's not unusual for a plat to put on 3 meters of cane per year. Be ready to prune back aggressively. The vines like to twist around branches/wires and will get into cracks and between places you don't want it. I would recommend putting your panel at least 1-2m away from your house so there's space for you and a ladder to prune things during the season in case some of the vines start getting ideas. If that seems too much space, don't worry - the vine will happily fill in the gap in suitable climates.

They are lovely shade, though. Working under a pergola canopy of kiwifruit is quite a lot nicer than working in more open fields.

Wow, hearing how the Kiwi could use 1-2 meters separation is quite worrisome.  I may need to stick to the Virginia Creeper and maybe that is going to be too problematic as well.  My cattle panel is only 5" away from the siding.  I had hoped the canopy would be so dense that nothing could grown underneath it (leaving the siding free from vines).  

Am I highly mistaken?

I've done something similar with grapevine.
Anything that covers well and quickly will probably need multiple prunings each year.
Otoh, maypops are said to voracious climbers, but die back to the ground each year.

My kiwi is on the north side of an opaque fence, right next to the chicken compost area.
I thought kiwi hated lots of direct sunlight , but If I'm off base that would explain my lack of success.

It is finally getting sorta outta hand but that's taken years to happen.
Still no flowers, much less fruit.

S. Marshall wrote:Wow, hearing how the Kiwi could use 1-2 meters separation is quite worrisome.  I may need to stick to the Virginia Creeper and maybe that is going to be too problematic as well.  My cattle panel is only 5" away from the siding.  I had hoped the canopy would be so dense that nothing could grown underneath it (leaving the siding free from vines).  

Am I highly mistaken?

My experience is more with commercial vines rather than home garden ones, so I can only speculate based on my in-field observations. For vines pruned vertically (sometimes done for male vines underneath the canopy), this year's growth often extends 30-50cm away from the supports. A distance of 5" will mean that the vines are basically certain to reach the wall. They'll go upward to find sunlight, but they might find a gap in your siding instead. If it were me, I'd want enough space that you can either prune through your cattle panel, or get in behind it with a ladder. That all being said, I'd take Actinidia arguta near a structure over Virginia creeper. The way Virginia creeper adheres to structures is an issue not shared with kiwiberry - the vines just wrap themselves around whatever they can grab.

William Bronson wrote:
My kiwi is on the north side of an opaque fence, right next to the chicken compost area.
I thought kiwi hated lots of direct sunlight , but If I'm off base that would explain my lack of success.

It is finally getting sorta outta hand but that's taken years to happen.
Still no flowers, much less fruit.

Actinidia is grown commercially in full sun. In nature, the vines climb to the top of trees to access sun. Growing in shade that far from the equator is likely one of your issues. Plants in nature in the shade tend not to flower as much as vines in the sunbathed canopy.

S. Marshall wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:We have a forum dedicated to Kiwi so it cant be all that bad.

Hi Anne!  Didn't I post this in the Kiwi forum!?  I thought I did!?  

It says Forum:Kiwi at the top of my webpage, but please let me know if for some reason I'm confused.  Thanks

I was not suggesting that you did not post there.  I said Kiwi cant be all that bad (since we have a Kiwi Forum)