Im looking to grow a couple of hardy kiwis up a 4’ wide x 8’ high treillis. Can kiwi be spaced 2’ apart if they are grown vertically? Would like to plant 4 varieties to get a nice mixture of fruit.
1 Like
You can do that, I had many in such a close planting. It makes pruning more difficult and there is not really much reason to have multiple varieties since they are fairly similar. Except for Ken’s Red, that one is the most tasty but its hard to get to fruit. Any male you want to give only 2’ to, its a waste to let a male get any bigger since you don’t need many flowers. Put the male in the middle so it will get crowded on both sides.
That’s a great idea Scott. Do you just keep trimming the male back to limit the size? Have you tried Anna and Isaah? Any thoughts on growth habits and flavor?
How useful is vertical distance for a kiwi? Would the higher branches not shade the lower branches too much? The normal spacing recommendations I’ve seen are something like 15’ apart with a 5’ T trellis. That’s 75 sq feet of area for each vine, not counting any overhang on the sides. From my limited personal experience and the few mature vines I’ve seen elsewhere, I have no trouble believing that one vine can produce very well over that much area. I would guess one could plant fewer vines in the same space and prune them really aggressively to make them all fit, but I wouldn’t guess that would translate into any more fruit, and it would seem like more work.
I think I may have misunderstood the original question about vertical growing. There is little vertical dimension to kiwis, they grow very densely and you end up with about 2’ of vertical area total, anything below that is too shaded out given how vigorous kiwis are. So, you can’t grow one variety below another as the lower one will get no light. I was referring to 2’ spacing between plants in a row, letting each plant dominate their little area of the row.
The only reason to plant more varieties is too get more variety, but they are not all that different so its no big deal. One thing I did was to start with a close spacing and remove ones that did not work out, leaving more space for the ones left.
@Mickster, I prune back my males when they are done flowering and I also prune them back when dormant. I am primarily growing fuzzy kiwis and don’t have many opinions on the hardy ones. Ken’s Red is the best tasting to me, the green ones can taste too much like green beans. Michigan (some number I forget) I didn’t like, Geneva (some number I forget) was decent but not great. Anna is good, in a few weeks I will know more as my first fruits in quite a few years are ripening now. I had chopped it down to make room for others but changed my mind and let it grow back.
I have a 3 yr old Anna. It’s grown 7 ft vertically and 10 ft horizontally. It’s very vigorous. Oddly the male plant grew very slowly and then died.