Does anyone have experience growing Issai hardy kiwi without a pollinator? I’ve just picked up one. I’ve read a lot and know it can set fruit, but will it actually produce enough without a male to be worthwhile? I’d really prefer to just grow one if we will get a harvest, but don’t want to wait several years to find out that it only sets a few fruits, and then have to wait a few more years for a male plant to grow up.
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Issai should fruits without a male. @c5tiger sent me some cuttings and I am rooting it right now. Looks like they are going to root fine.
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I had an issai cutting that spent about 4 yrs at our old house with no males anywhere in the neighborhood.
It wasn’t well cared for, I basically stuck it in mulch in the front landscaping and it grew as a sort of wiry carpet on the chips. 2 yrs it fruited and the patch that covered maybe 3 feet by 6 feet put out several dozen fruit–I would think on an actual trellis, several years old, and pruned appropriately it should produce at least several pounds…
They look good!
Thanks for the quick feedback, that’s good to know.
@cousinfloyd I think has an older one
Mine had a few flowers last year but did not set any fruit. It has a lot of flowers this year that are opening now. I bought some Flowercloud male scion this year from Burnt Ridge Nursery and grafted two sticks to my vine. The male won’t flower this year so I will be able to tell you how well it fruits on its own in a few weeks. My plant is going into its 3rd year.
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Looks great Mark🥝
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Thanks for answering! Your plant looks great, I look forward to hearing how it does this year.
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my issai’s without any male. They will produce good amount of fruit fine without a male. however to increase production flowercloud is recommended as the male pollinator for issai good luck! They taste good too! issai self-pollinating hardy kiwi vine in seattle, WA - YouTube
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I planted my Issai in 2012 or 2013 and it’s fruited very well for the last few years. We really haven’t had any damaging frosts at all this year (not on the kiwis or anything else – it’s been a really nice year in that respect), but the last few years my kiwis have all taken a pretty bad hit except for the Issai which is on the railing of my porch such that I’m able to cover it and protect it from late frosts, so the last few years it’s been fine but I’ve had just a tiny amount of bloom survive on my male kiwi. Prior to that, the first year or two they flowered I didn’t seem to get hardly any fruit. So the last few years I’ve pulled off male flowers from my male vine and hand pollinated my female flowers with them figuring there weren’t enough male flowers to make a difference naturally. But to see if what I was doing was even necessary I marked one substantial branch and didn’t hand pollinate any flowers on that branch. Pollination seemed to make a night and day difference. I can’t remember if there were any fruits on the unpollinated branch at all, but there certainly weren’t many, and the rest of the vine was loaded. I don’t know why my Issai seems to need pollination. Maybe it has something to do with my particular growing conditions/location… Whatever accounts for the difference between my experience and other growers, pollination seems very necessary to get even a small fraction of the crop I get with pollination. That’s my impression so far anyway.
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I’m glad to know they taste good! The video was helpful.
That is very interesting - a good experiment. I did read about one study in Japan, which I can’t find again now, where they hand pollinated an Issai with sterile pollen from another Issai. Even though they verified that the sterile pollen could not actually fertilize a female flower they got pretty good fruit set. There was some speculation that the mechanics of hand fertilizing somehow stimulated the parthenocarpic fruit set. Wish I could find the reference. Anyway, I appreciate you sharing your experience. I think we’re leaning towards going ahead and adding a male.
Just about finished flowering and I don’t think I will get any fruit set. My little male graft has a few flowers but will open too late. I did a little hand pollinating but also had a good number of bees on the flowers.
My male polinator is lush, but the Issai died. Sigh.
So no mini kiwis for me!
I am sad.
Oh, that’s too bad. With the size of your plant I was hoping you’d get some good fruit. Maybe the male graft will flower more/earlier next year.
So sorry to hear - that is sad.
They should, really did not expect much much this year since they were just grafted.
If I had more room I would consider adding JF&E Lone Star kiwi as a second pollinator. I might pull up my 3 plums since they always get hit with a late freeze and never produce. I am worried I am too far south for hardy kiwi but if Lone Star works in Florida then hardy kiwi should produce in SC. Don’t know if a second self fertile plant is as good as a male for pollination but if it is I like the idea of a second fruit producing vine vs just a male.
We decided to get a male plant, then found a good deal for a combo pack with a male and an Anna, so went with that. They’re both small, so we’ll probably have at least a year or two to see how the Issai does on its own.
Mark,
I think if you have a male variety nearby then your Issai would be loaded
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