Hello! 3 years ago I planted male and female kiwi plants in my yard - they were from the nursery, about about 3' tall. They are in the ground, 6 ish feet apart, and on the east side of our house. The male vine has gone crazy, it scaled the cable trellis and then some. The problem is that every spring, the female kiwi looks lovely and starts to sprout new growth, and has even flowered, but then quickly begins to die. The leaves turn brown from the outside in, and the fall off. What could be causing the female, who is being treated just like her male, be dying back every summer? Should I replace her? Thanks in advance, Marnus.
I had a similar problem last year with my males. My new male (replaced when a raccoon took a 6" chunk out of the original 8ft vine) started growing in the spring and then suddenly it began to wilt and the leaves turned brown, and it was only about 4ft from the female which was not affected. It wilted so rapidly you could almost see it happening (I actually took pictures and a leaf down to the garden center and when I returned about an hour later the entire plant had wilted). As I had had this plant for only about 4 weeks it was replaced but the same thing happened to the replacement, as well as it's replacement. The garden center finally told me there must be some sort of parasite/virus or ?? inside the vine that was causing the flow of sap to be cut off (not sure how much of that I believed) which would cause the plant to eventually die. As all their plants came from the same source I took a store credit and found another nursery. The new male that I bought was then planted on the other side of the female in new soil (I removed the soil and replaced it because when I told my story to the second nursery I was told there could be parasites or viruses in the soil). So far both new males (I got a second when I realized the first replacement was a late bloomer and the female, which by now is over 20ft long, was an early bloomer) have been doing fine but to date no one could tell me exactly what the problem was. If you do decide to replace (which is probably the best course of action if you want fruit) I would recommend replacing the soil just in case there is something in it that is affecting your female - maybe it is weaker than the male?
thank you!! As much as I dislike the whole "female being weaker" idea, (wink, wink) the plant really does look like it is fighting a disease. yuck. To replace the soil that is in the ground, do you just dig it out about a foot down and replace with soil from the nursery? I so appreciate your help! I've been watching her die year after year hoping that *this* will be the year she grows. I'm ready for a clean break. Thank you, Marnus.
In my case it was 3 males being weak, or being infected by something the first replacement had....obviously my female was big enough and healthy enough to fight it off. I would dig out at least a 18x18x18" area, or larger, depending upon the size of the replacement plant and replace it with a good quality soil from a nursery. I don't know what you have available but I like to use "black earth" which is an outdoor potting soil - not top soil, which can be "chunky" and have a lot of sand or mulch in it. Good luck, and make sure you get the same type of kiwi or you might have to replace it when you find out they are blooming at different times :)
