Growing Kiwi’s in La Mesa
Question from Jon:I hope you are recovering well from your surgery and feeling better. My mother (who is 90) has also had several joints replaced as well as heart valve. Hopefully the technology will continue to improve by the time I need something done.
I have some more questions for you. We are in the process of doing an overhaul of our landscaping. We put in a low 5′ high trellis about 7 to 8 feet long in order to separate 2 yard areas, and we would like to grow Kiwi’s on this trellis as well as other possibilities like grapes and passion fruit. I have attached a picture of our trellis so you can get an idea of the surroundings and the trellis itself. You can see my growcamp raised planter (which is now in full sun thanks to you) behind the trellis. Also, the trellis horizontals are about 12″ apart. Is that too far apart for Kiwi to grab onto to grow? We live over in La Mesa/Mount Helix on the west side of Mt. Helix. This spot gets a lot of morning light until mid day early afternoon and then is shaded by the house (from where I took the picture).
Do you have any advice on growing Kiwis and other vines that can grow on our trellis and possibly provide some fruit and nice visuals.
Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide.
Answer from Pat:
Kiwi vines (Actinidia deliciosa) are large vines, to thirty feet tall if not controlled. The fence you showed on your photograph is not large enough to provide space for sufficient growth. You would have to prune too much and this would make the vine produce growth instead of fruit. People usually provide a large, strong trellis or a pergola for kiwi. Also you need to provide at least one male pollenizer for every female kiwi vine. Place the vines 15 feet apart. For you in la Mesa I suggest you plant the most common fruiting female variety ‘Hayward’ along with ‘Chico Male’ (or it may be labeled simply ‘Male’) as pollenizer. Friends of mine who grow kiwis have six plants, four are females and two are males. They grow these in the side yard of their house on a twenty or thirty-foot-long, sturdy pergola that has peeled wooden posts set in concrete, up which the kiwi vines climb. When the vines reach the top of the posts, they are then trained over head on wires which are supported on cross beams of wood. The posts are connected at the top with beams and the cross beams are nailed to these. I suggest you attend a few meetings of the Rare Fruits Society to learn more and perhaps visit some local growers to see the space needed and best kinds of trellis for growing these climbing plants. They can also grow on fences but you would need at least a 20-foot long fence in full sun and you would give 15 feet to the female and 5 feet to the male vine (you can prune it harder.) The kiwi vines that cover my friends pergola cast considerable shade. Under the shade of the pergola they have a table and chairs. The ground is well-drained and this is what kiwi’s want. If you build a pergola, put it north of the vegetable garden, not south of it or you will have a shadow on your vegetables all winter long.
What you have shown me in the photograph is large enough for a grape vine or for a passion fruit, but not for a kiwi. I think you may be underestimating the mature size of fruiting vines.
Thanks, also, Jon, for enquiring about my recovery from surgery. It’s been excellent, and I am very happy with the results of the operation so far. Reverse shoulder replacement can be tricky but up to this point, mine turned out even better than expected and with very little pain.
Thanks Pat. I think we’ll probably go with a grape vine on the trellis since it’s too small for the Kiwi. Would you plant 1 vine or 2 grape vines?
The answer to your question partly depends on the variety of grape you choose to grow. Some are smaller than others, but most grapes will fill your whole fence. If I were you I would choose ‘Flame’ since it is easy to grow in our area and very productive. ‘Flame’ is a vigorous variety and one vine will easily fill the space you have and then some, but by keeping it on the dry side you can hold down its size. Purchase a bare root plant now in December or next month—January. Plant it in the middle of your structure in full sun, train it according to one of the accepted systems for training grapes, prune it properly, and it should produce as much as 30 pounds of fruit a year, once established. Be sure to research care, training, and pruning of grape vines since you will need to choose a method appropriate to your structure and needs and follow it carefully and consistently. Pruning handbooks often include guidelines. The UC Agricultural Extension offers booklets with training and pruning instructions. The texts of some University Extension booklets are available online.
One word of caution: Despite the fact that most local nurseries carry ‘Thompson Seedless’ and many nurserymen will tell you stories of good examples of ‘Thompson Seedless’ growing here and bearing crops, don’t make the mistake of purchasing it. ‘Thompson Seedless’ needs hotter summer temperatures to produce high quality grapes and a good yield. Some vines never produce any fruit. Whatever variety you get it will take about three years before you will start to reap good harvests.