Last year I had my first kiwi harvest, a handfull of fruit. About 90% of the female blossoms dropped. I assumed this was because the male had bloomed later, And the overlap appeared to confirm this.
This year I have established lines, very vigorous, with much more flowers. Despite the male again being late, and just after blossom, it appeared as though all of the females were growing fruitslets. I assumed a neighbor must have a male kiwi vine.
I was very disappointed to see almost all the fruitlets have fallen off. Is it possible these are not fruitlets at all, but that all female flowers just look as though they have developing fruit? Or do kiwi massive self-thin, like citrus etc do?
If this is due to the fact that the male blooms just as the females are finishing, what can be done?
I tried a male cutting early in a warm window sill, And it bloomed exactly on the same day as the inground vine anyway.
My male is labeled “early blooming yellow Kiwi companion for Rocky”. This is the only yellow male I’ve seen available at all the local garden stores. It is sold specifically as the companion plant for the gold female and red female vines I have. Would buying an identical male perhaps happen to bloom earlier? Alternately, is there another yellow male variety that is guaranteed to bloom earlier that I may be able to order online?
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I haven’t ever seen a big drop on my fuzzy kiwis. If you want unlimited pollinators plant some seeds and you will get a bunch of males in a few years. I did that once looking for new females, but I ended up keeping three seedling males since they gave me a wide range of pollinators.
Thanks Scott. Are mine dropping from no pollination, or from something else?
I don’t mind buying males here, as the price and quality are excellent. But there’s no point if they all bloom the same time. Would seed males be of a different commercial (pattented) breed?
Seed males would be new varieties, genetically unique.