Tips on growing Kiwi?

I was able to pick up three hardy Kiwi plants today. Anyone have experience growing them? Any tips. I live near Atlanta, GA. The soil is bright red clay and I have plenty of space to plant them.

What really helps with growing kiwi in the infamous Georgia clay is hoserkultur. Kiwis planted in a few inches of topsoil over a bed of clay are going to just get by at best. They need help to be able to sink their roots. Another way to help them is to companion plant a big, fat taproot like carrot or daikon radish right next to them.

My kiwis just barely got by until I got real aggressive drilling into the clay around their root zone and filling the holes with biochar, wood chips and compost.

Be careful. It's very aggressive if it gets going. We planted too close to the garden 20 years ago and we're still fighting back shoots.

John Alabarr wrote:I was able to pick up three hardy Kiwi plants today.  Anyone have experience growing them?  Any tips.  I live near Atlanta, GA.  The soil is bright red clay and I have plenty of space to plant them.

Hi John, I'm in Atlanta too! I've got 3 kiwi, 2 female, 1 male. The females have grown well for three years, male only took off this year; no fruit yet. I'm training them up a high (6.5') deck, with passion fruit vine on the other side. They seem to prefer something with a bit of substance to grow up; rope, trellis, as opposed to wires. My aim is partly seasonal shade. I'm pruning to have fruit within reach from the top of porch  deck.

I have a couple of hardy kiwi with another two males. I transplanted them so I could keep them under shade cloth. I started these two years ago so no fruits yet.
I am also growing several varieties of Fuzzy Kiwi.  Auburn University has a couple varieties of Golden Kiwi that I am growing in North Alabama.  I found that a mound mixed with vermiculite, expanded shale, soil and compost works good. The mound needs to be moist but not wet.  I have a drip irrigation system that has 1/4 inch lines hanging down and microsprayers to water the mounds.  A couple shovel full of horse poo in the spring for each one.  

Those of you growing kiwis in the South (e.g., Atlanta), I've been wondering about the two Ken's red females and male I planted on an arbor that gets a little late-afternoon sun but not much during the day. I was thinking I need to dig them up and move them into a sunnier area, but they do seem to be growing and branching okay (although I think I need to plant Daikon radish around them, as suggested in an earlier post).

In zone 8a, do you think they'd be okay left where they are and just the soil around the roots opened up some?

Diane Kistner wrote:Those of you growing kiwis in the South (e.g., Atlanta), I've been wondering about the two Ken's red females and male I planted on an arbor that gets a little late-afternoon sun but not much during the day. I was thinking I need to dig them up and move them into a sunnier area, but they do seem to be growing and branching okay (although I think I need to plant Daikon radish around them, as suggested in an earlier post).

In zone 8a, do you think they'd be okay left where they are and just the soil around the roots opened up some?

I'm in Atlanta [ITP, West Midtown] and have 2F1M planted in full sun for 5 years; no fruit but generally healthy growth. I'm scratching my head how to get them to fruit.

From what I found online is Hardy Kiwi need to be in partial shade.  Fuzzy Kiwi needs to be in the sun.  That is what i did for mine in North Alabama.

Dennis Bangham wrote:From what I found online is Hardy Kiwi need to be in partial shade.  Fuzzy Kiwi needs to be in the sun.  That is what i did for mine in North Alabama.

Ah! Then mine are planted right already. The only other person I've talked to locally who was growing hardy kiwis said when hers started to fruit, it put out a lot of fruit but it would fall before she could pick it. I've got mine planted over the chicken run, so if they fall, I hope the chickens like the fruit!

Steven Lindsay wrote:

Diane Kistner wrote:Those of you growing kiwis in the South (e.g., Atlanta), I've been wondering about the two Ken's red females and male I planted on an arbor that gets a little late-afternoon sun but not much during the day. I was thinking I need to dig them up and move them into a sunnier area, but they do seem to be growing and branching okay (although I think I need to plant Daikon radish around them, as suggested in an earlier post).

In zone 8a, do you think they'd be okay left where they are and just the soil around the roots opened up some?

I'm in Atlanta [ITP, West Midtown] and have 2F1M planted in full sun for 5 years; no fruit but generally healthy growth. I'm scratching my head how to get them to fruit.

I've been told it's seven years until fruit so you might be on track still

We just moved to a house in Nova Scotia that has hardy kiwis growing on a trellis.  We've got some fruit -- any tips on knowing them to pick them?

Hi. I bought this kiwi-plant some years ago at Aldi  supermarket (so maybe it isn't the best quality). It grows great! Each year its long vines go everywhere, even climb to the gallery (open corridor) of the next floor. Last year it grew along there, but now young cats nibble on it.
But ... I never saw any flower on it! So I don't even know if it's male or female ...
... or is there also a kiwi-plant which is both male and female (sorry, I can't find the right word for it in English)?
And does anyone here know what can be the reason why it does not (yet) have flowers? Can it be the (micro)climate, the soil, or what else?


You can barely see it, it is behind the sunchokes, but you see the high vine.