Peewee Kiwis and Other Sweet Delights
(Page 2 of 6)
June/July 2004
By Lee Reich
Very tasty and earlier (about three weeks earlier) ripening varieties include "Geneva," "MSU" (Michigan State University) and "Dumbarton Oaks." All three were propagated from old ornamental vines in the United States. Among the A. kolomikta kiwifruits on the market are such varieties as "September Sun" and "Krupnopladnaya," which translates as "large fruit.'
RELATED CONTENT
Growing trees and shrubs from seed takes time, but has its own rewards...
COUNTRY SKILLS Keep A Living Christmas Tree December/January 1994 How you truly can "save a tree." ...
REPLANTING YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE December/January 1991 MOTHER'S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL This Christmas, enj...
For exercise and fun, climbing a tree is one of the best activities around....
RECIPE FOR A TREE FORT May/June 1984 "It's anything and everything I think is best/Because, when I ...
Beauty and flavor come at only a small price. These plants need some care, but don't require the pesticide sprays demanded by many common fruits. Abundant sunlight (the more the better) ensures best annual production. Give A. kolomikta, especially males (whose variegated foliage scorches in full sunlight) a bit of shade in climates where sunlight is very intense. The soil must be well drained; if not, plant the vines on broad, raised mounds.
Training and Pruning
Plants look and yield best if trained to some sort of support that is sturdy and that allows the vines adequate room to ramble. I train my vines on a trellis like commercial kiwifruit growers use, which consists of five parallel wires stretched along the top of 6-by-5-foot T-bar supports spaced 15 to 20 feet apart. At some sacrifice to fruit production, but with perhaps a gain in beauty, the vigorous vines can be coaxed up a variety of other structures such as gazebos, pergolas or even along split rail fences.
Hardy kiwifruits are a bit cold tender their first two or three years in the ground. I've wrapped my young plants with corn stalks, burlap, pipe insulation and tree wrap material to shade their developing trunks and abate the fierceness of winter cold. Remember, in the wild the trunks of hardy kiwifruit are rarely exposed to full sunlight.
The goals in training and pruning kiwifruit vines are to make a potentially tangled mass of rampant shoots manageable and easy to harvest, and to keep stems bathed in enough light to remain fruitful. Pruning also stimulates new growth, which is important because fruits are borne only toward the bases of new shoots that grow from 1-year-old canes (similar to grapes).
An established vine consists of a trunk, permanent cordons (branches) and fruiting arms. First, develop the trunk by training a vigorous shoot against a 1- to 2-inch-diameter pole, tying the vine at intervals.
When the trunk reaches just above the center wire of the trellis — during either the growing season or the dormant season — develop two permanent cordons by cutting the trunk to just below the height of the middle wire and training the two shoots that grow from the topmost buds on the severed trunk along the middle wire in opposite directions. The first dormant season after the cordons have formed, cut off all excess growth along the trunk and shorten the cordons to about 2 feet.
Page:
<< Previous 1 | 2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Next >>
