March 08, 2007

Kiwi fruit grows on an extremely rampant, woody stemmed vine which climbs up, around, and under, strangling absolutely anything in its way, writes Zahrah Nasir


A friend in Beirut recently sent me an Internet quiz and one of the questions asked was, “Where do Chinese gooseberries come from?” After answering all of the questions, this one did not concern plants; I checked my score and was flabbergasted to see that, according to the quiz, my answer to the above question was wrong!

Whoever put the thing together was obviously not as well informed as he considered himself to be as they boldly stated that New Zealand is the country from which Chinese gooseberries, more commonly known as ‘kiwi fruit’, originate –– which just goes to show that you most certainly cannot believe everything you read on the Internet, but did serve to remind me that I meant to write about this increasingly popular fruit.

‘Actinidia deliciosa’, as this particular fruit is now officially known, was previously ‘Actinidia chinensis’ before being botanically reclassified by a Chinese horticulturalist in 1986, although the latter name was retained for a similar, smooth skinned fruit. ‘A. deliciosa’ or, to further complicate matters, ‘A. chinensis’ as it was then called, was introduced in New Zealand in the early 1900s but was not very popular with the local people who, like the Chinese, found it rather too acidic for their taste and it wasn’t until American troops, stationed in New Zealand during the Second Word War, discovered that a market was found but, whilst the fruit became quite popular the Chinese name for it ‘Yang tao’ which means ‘strawberry peach’ didn’t.

With a keen eye towards the huge American market, fruit growers in New Zealand began to call this commodity the kiwi fruit and this trade name was registered in 1974 and is now known throughout the world therefore, in order to avoid further confusion, I will now only refer to it as kiwi fruit.

Native to the Yangtze River Valley in Northern China and Zhejiang province on the eastern coast of China, the plant has been in cultivation for perhaps 500 years or so albeit on an extremely small scale with the majority of fruit picked being harvested from the wild. As previously mentioned, the Chinese didn’t like it all that much, though they did use the stems as rope, the leaves and bark in paper making, the fruit juice for treating kidney stones and a liquid obtained by boiling branches and roots in water for curing scabby dogs.

However, since New Zealand led the way, it has become very popular and is now commercially grown in a number of American states, France, South Africa, Iran, Cambodia, Vietnam, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Chile and the Philippines with experimental trials also taking place in Pakistan, neighbouring Afghanistan and possibly other countries, too.

Okay readers. You don’t want any more background information, you want me to get down to the basic nitty-gritty of “Can we grow them ourselves?” The answer is….well….. maybe. It all depends on exactly where you live and on your localised climatic conditions.

Kiwi fruit grows on an extremely rampant, woody stemmed vine which climbs up, around, over, under, into and strangles absolutely anything in its way so be warned! Very slow to start off, if the vine decides that it is happy then it suddenly races up to 30 feet and more in a surprisingly short period of time, a bit like Wisteria when I come to think about it and, although totally unrelated, perhaps prefers very similar growing conditions. Otherwise, if you can grow citrus fruits, peaches and almonds then you should be able to cultivate kiwi fruit or, at the very least, give it a try.

These vines appear to appreciate being grown at altitudes above 1,000 feet and tolerate a few degrees of frost but, don’t despair if you live at sea level and don’t see frost from one century to the next as the vines may still grow but may, or may not, bear fruit. However, they are worth growing for their attractive heart shaped leaves, these can be almost 10 inches in width and depth, plus their very pretty pale yellowish blossom which, in my opinion, somewhat resembles a slightly opened out, sideways facing ‘abutilon’.

The vines require deep, well-fed, well-drained, sandy-ish type soil but will tolerate most soils as long as they never ever get waterlogged as, whilst they take high degrees of humidity without adverse affect, this they draw the line at.

Kiwi fruit can be propagated from seed, the seed requires stratification (mix with a small amount of fine sandy soil, seal in a plastic bag and keep in the freezer for a couple of weeks before sowing) in order to achieve maximum germination. The seed should begin germinating about three weeks, a little more or a little less, after sowing. I successfully germinated lots and lots of seedlings about four years ago and they managed to get all of two inches high before the damned snails ate the lot at one go!

Cuttings can be taken from existing vines but will only succeed in rooting in highly humid conditions and, as plants are, to the best of my knowledge, totally unattainable here then growing from seed is the only viable option. I have seen seed advertised on the Internet by private sellers but I advise you to be extremely careful about this as it is far more reliable to purchase from a reputable source and one which can be verified by an authority on the subject, which is not me I hasten to add!

You must have both male and female vines in order to get fruit. One male vine is sufficient for a reasonable number, say, 10 females and, this is a downer, it may possibly take as long as nine years for seed grown kiwi vines to bear a decent crop of fruit.

The vines should be planted at a distance of approximately 15 feet apart, as I have warned you, they are rampant which is an understatement, and, if growing on a large scale, then in rows also 15 feet apart. Pruning, may well be necessary in an attempt at keeping the vines under some form of control otherwise they will grow into each other from all directions at once to create an impenetrable jungle of growth which the birds will love but the cultivator won’t.

You can, of course, grow a single vine over an archway, a trellis, pergola, porch, garage or whatever you want and, even if it doesn’t fruit, it will still be splendid.

Kiwi fruit vines need lots of nitrogen and I recommend a heavy duty feeding of liquid manure: make this up by soaking a generous amount of, preferably organic manure in a large drum, say half full of manure and then topped up with water and left to stand for a ‘smelly’ two weeks before straining off the liquid and feeding it to the vines during early spring and once more six months later in the autumn. The vines need plenty of water and should never be allowed to dry out even for a moment.

The fruit is generally ripe during the winter months by the way and you can happily harvest it as soon as the birds begin to take a sample here and there. The fruit, probably quite hard at this stage, will continue to ripen after picking especially if individually wrapped in newspaper and stored at room temperature and, once they are ready then you can eat them raw, in fruit salads, with ice cream, make them in to juice or any other recipe you happen to fancy.

If you do decide to grow or are already experimenting with it in Pakistan then I would love to know the details so that I can circulate the knowledge to others. Thanks!

Please send your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com Answers to selected questions will appear in a future issue of ‘The Review’.

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