Hello Everyone, I've been a long time follower of the forum, but this is my first post. Here it goes.. I have an 8 year old Kiwiberry vine which the female has been flowering for the past 3 years. The male and female are approx 15 ft apart, but some of the vines intermingle with each other. Since the vine began flowering [and it flowers in plenty] it could never hold its fruit. The petals would dry and fall off, and the budding kiwiberries would fall off soon after. Only a handful of fruit survive until ripening. I haven't pruned the vine or fertalized the soil; the soil is pourous, the vine is in direct sunlight and it climbs on the trelis on my fence. Does anyone know what the problem may be? How can I correct the problem? Thank you, Neil.
Are you certain that you have both male and female flowers? Plants are often mislabeled, but the male flowers are quite different from the female flowers. If they appear to be identical, they are the same sex, and you will get the results that you describe. The other possibility is that you don't have pollinating insects available at the right time. If that is the case, try pollinating by hand, using an artist's brush or simply breaking off a male blossom and brushing its stamens againt the female pistils. By the way, I bought a fuzzy kiwi vine that was labeled male but turned out to be female; so I had to hand pollinate using imported male blossoms for several years until a real male vine started blossoming.
Thanks for your reply vitog. I'm certain that the one is male and one is female. The male vine has larger leaves than the female and they are also a lighter green with the veins more present. The male had only 1-2 flowers compared to the female that flowered plentifully. Any idea as to what could be the prob and what's the sol'n?
The leaves are not significant; there is much variation in the leaves of different varieties of hardy kiwis. Male flowers have only stamens, while female flowers have both stamens (sterile) and pistils. If you're not sure of the differences between stamens and pistils, search the web for images. This Web site has related threads that will provide more information. Bumble bees seem to do most of the pollinating when kiwis are blooming. Have you seen any bees on the blossoms, and have you tried hand pollination?
