Kiwi
Actinidia deliciosa
Vigorous twining vine — train it high and let lavender feed its pollinators.
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Green
- Sunlight
- Full sun to part shade
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, moist, well-drained
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, then a liquid feed every two weeks once the fruit has set.
- USDA zones
- 5a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Pinch summer growth beyond the fruit, and cut the fruited laterals back in winter.
- Overwintering
- Drape frost cloth over the flowers when a late frost threatens; the vine itself is hardy once established.
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 170 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- at the first fall frost
- Mar–May Bud Break
- May–Jun Flowering
- Jun–Oct Fruit Set
- Oct–Nov Harvest
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 11 ft 6 in
- In-row spacing
- 9 ft 10 in
- Between rows
- 13 ft 1 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, and deeper than the stem suggests
- Working depth
- 24 in–4 ft
- Can reach
- 6.5 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 10–20 ft across, about 1–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A vine puts far more below ground than its one thin stem implies, and that is where the alarming vigour comes from. Give the root run depth and drainage at planting; it will forgive almost anything done to it above ground afterwards.
The habit is Kiwi’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- When
- October–November in the UK (hardy kiwis/kiwiberries in September); pick before hard frost. Vines take 3–5 years to first crop and need female + male plants (or a self-fertile variety like Jenny).
- What to look for
- Fuzzy kiwis are picked mature-but-hard: the reliable cue is black (not white) seeds when you cut a sample fruit, plus full size and easy snap from the stalk; sugars develop off the vine from stored starch. Kiwiberries (Actinidia arguta) are eaten ripe: they soften slightly and sweeten on the vine.
- How to harvest
- Snap the fruit off at the abscission joint with a slight bend, or snip; handle gently — hard kiwis still bruise, and bruises turn to rot in store.
- How often
- Fuzzy kiwis: one or two bulk picks before frost. Kiwiberries: pick over the vine every few days as they soften, or pick firm and ripen indoors.
- Storing the crop
- The vine fruit that keeps: hard-picked kiwis store 2–4 months in the fridge (keep away from apples/other ethylene sources, which soften them fast). Ripen batches as needed at room temperature — an apple in the bag speeds it; ready when the fruit yields to gentle pressure. Kiwiberries keep only 1–2 weeks chilled.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Comfrey, Lavender, Marigolds
Good neighbors
Most kiwis need a male and a female vine to set fruit — and they're loaded with vitamin C.
Green-leaved fruit with green flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com