I promise this is the last part of my order from Suttons (you can see what else I ordered here and here)!
I've wanted to grow a kiwi fruit for a long time but I've never had anywhere to grow it against and my mothers kiwi has never fruited (or even flowered) so that has put me off as well.
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| As usual a well packaged plant and a good size as well |
Then I read on the internet about the "cocktail" kiwi (or kiwi fruit "Issai"), from Siberia, hardy down to minus 35 and a mature plant can produce over 1000 fruits in a year, they're the size of grapes, with no fur and dry to make kiwi sweets. Sounds like my kind of plant! I just needed somewhere to plant it.
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| Our "beautiful" shed that we inherited when we brought the place. Although it does face south west... |
I kept thinking about where I could grow a climber like this but struggled to find somewhere that wasn't on my plans to be knocked down or moved. I then decided to stop thinking so long term, sometimes you can be thinking too far into the future and not utilise what you've got now. The old tin sheds in our front yard are going to come down at some point, but not before I've built the extension and a barn, so that means they're going to be about for at least five years and they're blinking ugly as you drive up to our house!
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| Hopefully the kiwi will soon fill this trellis |
I found some old trellis up the field at my dads and wired it to the shed, dug a good sized hole and filled it with soil and compost before planting the kiwi and training it up the timbers.
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| Already some little fruits on it. |
Kiwis grow quite fast so hopefully it will begin to cover this old shed and produce some fruit in the meantime, there's already some little fruits on the plant. I've got a little more trellis for the other side as well, so there I'm going to plant a clematis for a bit of colour.
Anyone else keep thinking long term and not using what they've got now because of it?
Also anyone else grow kiwis and have much success? Any tips?
The only thing I've heard about Kiwis is that one needs both a male and a female plant. Do you have both?
ReplyDeleteThis one is self fertile so I shouldn't need another.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor has one. He planted it years ago against the side of his brick house. Since then it's pulled down 2 downspouts and a gutter, climbed up over the roof and must be viscously cut back every year. The roots are pervasive so it will be there forever. Hope yours is better behaved.
ReplyDeleteMy mums grows like mad each year but never has any flowers or fruit! The leaves on this one seem completely different, probably not even a third of the size, so I'm not sure how it will grow. I just hope it has lots of fruit!
DeleteWell, his has a ton of little fruits every year - buckets of them. He doesn't remember the variety, so can't help you out there. Good luck with yours. Kiwis are delicious!
DeleteI really like corrugated iron sheds, Kev. The rust leaves a wonderful patination and you can never enough sheds on a smallholding. They remind me of this passage from Bill Bryson, Notes From A Small Island:
ReplyDelete"Now and then we passed through winding valleys speckled with farms that looked romantic and pretty from a distance, but bleak and comfortless up close. Mostly they were smallholdings with lots of rusted tin everywhere -tin sheds, tin hen huts, tin fences-looking rickety and weather battered. We were entering one of those weird zones, always a sign of remoteness from the known world, where nothing is ever thrown away. Every farmyard was cluttered with piles of cast-offs, as if the owner thought that one day he might need 132 half-rotted fence-posts, a ton of broken bricks and the shell of a 1964 Ford Zodiac."
Doesn't that sound like the perfect smallholding?
It does - I think he must have driven past my dads farm at some point!
DeleteI won't mention this comment to Dad, Kev, he will be deeply hurt. We may have the fence posts, the bricks (although most have been used for my gardening builds this last fortnight) and old Landrovers etc., but not any rusty galvanised sheds anymore. We have huge posh green ones now and I think the farm looks very smart. Love Mum
DeleteI have never seen any here but if the fruits were good, it would be nice to have something that grows good. I would put it out on a fence to form a hedge as I don't have any cool buildings like yours.
ReplyDeleteCool building! It's not even six foot tall, leaks everywhere, only has supports at the corners - I'm not even sure how it stays up! I did think about training one along a fence but this is one of the warmest spots so I thought it might be a good place to grow something, all my fences are in an area that gets more frost.
DeleteKiwi are something I too would like to get going. I tend think down the road myself. Sometimes to far and not live in the day I am in :O). One does have to plan but its easy to get to far ahead of oneself :O).
ReplyDeleteIt's what I do all the time. I think, "that's going to go there eventually" and then don't do anything to that area, whereas really I could use that space for a good few years to be productive.
DeleteThe only fruit trees I have are two pear trees I panted myself. It took a few years before they started bearing fruit, but I have yet to try one. Seems we start out with 2 dozen buds on each tree. By mid season we are down to a dozen mangled looking pears, and by the time the are ripe they all seem to mysteriously disappear from the tree over night. Some critter might be climbing the trees and eating them at night.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've got something eating them! Mind you, you guys seem to have lots of critters to fight against!
DeleteI have grown Kiwis for several years, although not the one you have, I have taken a cutting each time I have moved, it is just flowering now, I cut it back each year not too much of a method just cut back the bits that are growing wayward, we have had fruit although they dont grow tothe size of the ones in the shops but still taste the same. I took a cutting last Autumn that is now in full leaf ready to move with us again
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take some cuttings from my mums and see if I can get that one growing as well, we all love kiwis in this house!
DeleteI like your shed , Kev- don't ever pull it down.
ReplyDeleteIt's gotta go at some point. It's the wrong shape and size, leaks everywhere, has no timbers supporting it and I'd really like to have a garage there at some point to park the cars in. It just rough when you drive up to our house!
DeleteHave added this to my want list.
ReplyDeleteMy parents have a passion fruit. it does actually fruit. they live in Devon. With the snow we have had here in the past few years I think it would die here
I tried a couple of Kiwis in my last polytunnel., they were either both boys, both girls or just plain stubborn, they lived with me for a couple of years and then died leaf by leaf. So I'm not the person to ask for advice about Kiwi plants.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with yours.
I love your old corrugated shed, I'm another one who romanticises falling down and derelict farm things and buildings. Lovely Hubby has thrown the most divine old kettle he dug up recently onto his scrap metal heap that I simply must go and rescue and pop a plant into :-)