Identification: Early Kiwi Gender Detection?

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by spafmagic, Apr 20, 2012.

  1. spafmagic

    spafmagic Member

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    Posted below, I have a couple pictures of the same two kiwi plants I've just recently started... one is taller than the rest of the plants I have, and the leaves are somewhat different. Its leaves aren't really all too fuzzy like the others.

    Could anyone tell me if the taller plant on the left is a male, or simply an anomaly as to why it's grown faster than the others?

    Kiwi pic without flash

    Kiwi pic with flash

    (( By the way... could someone tell me what the tag is for inserting images so I don't have to link them like this? ))
     
  2. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    The one one the left is not a kiwi. It's not even a vine - looks like a tree or shrub.
     
  3. saltcedar

    saltcedar Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    vitog expressed my thought exactly.
     
  4. spafmagic

    spafmagic Member

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    Then it must be some STRANGE anomaly... because I bought a kiwi from the store, dried the seeds out, and with a paper towel, water, and a little Houseplant Miracle-Gro, I activated the seeds.

    I waited until the roots got to a certain length, and put them in the pete-moss cells to grow. There is no way I mixed up any other seeds. The only other seeds I had remotely the same size as the kiwi, were basil seeds, and the one on the left is most definitely not a basil plant.

    I would like some educated guesses as to what any of you think it could be:

    -Hypothetically, if it were a different plant, what is it?
    -Knowing it came from the same seed stock, how could it develop so differently?
     
  5. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    The plant on the left is definitely not a kiwi; it looks a bit like a hawthorn, but it could be something else. It may have sprouted from seeds already in the soil that you used.
     
  6. spafmagic

    spafmagic Member

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    That's just it... The square cell it was planted in, had no seeds in it. I sifted the miracle-gro moss out myself, rooted the seeds in a container then transplanted them into the cell to grow. I put nothing else but the rooted seeds in those cells.

    Nor was there any mix up of seeds. This is strange.
     
  7. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    What was the composition of the potting soil in the containers?
     
  8. spafmagic

    spafmagic Member

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    Peat moss, compost, and fertilizer. The store bought Miracle-Gro stuff.

    But again... how can it be anything to do with the soil... when I personally placed the tiny seedling in the moss _after_ it started to root?
     
  9. saltcedar

    saltcedar Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Squirrels and birds are common givers of such "gifts".
    I'm currently pulling dozens of pecans & oaks gifted me by animals.
     
  10. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    There is no question that the one on the left is some other kind of plant, apparently a tree. All your kiwis will look like the one on the right, with the same leaf shape and red hairs etc. I know of no way to sex them at this very limited stage of development. A specialist might see some vegetative characters in much more developed plants that they think are gender specific, otherwise the matter is settled when the flowers open.
     

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