Issai: flavour and growing

What do you want from your garden?

Small, smooth kiwis can be eaten straight away like grapes. Red Ken's Red adds extra colour.

Flavour and use

Kiwi-like sweetness and acidity; eat the smooth skin too.

Choose a suitable spot

Vigorous climber on sturdy support; sunny, sheltered and well drained.

From flower to fruit

Issai is zelfvruchtbaar. Ken's Red is vrouwelijk; passende mannelijke Weiki gebruiken. Weiki wordt ook als vrouwelijke plant verkocht: geslacht controleren.

How to give the plant a place

Kiwibes op pergola: Kies een passend vrucht/bestuiverpaar. Plaats stevige steun. Bind jonge takken uit. Snoei om de plant bereikbaar te houden.

Issai langs tuinafscheiding: Controleer stevigheid van de afscheiding. Plant op warme beschutte plek. Leid stam en zijtakken langs draden. Volg bloei en proefrijpheid.

Care throughout the season

Train and prune; young growth remains vulnerable to late frost.

Recognise the right time to pick

Pick when truly ready to eat; do not adopt a colour rule from fuzzy kiwi.

Follow your own harvest

Bestuivende Weiki-mannetje afzonderlijk opslaan zonder fruitoogstclaim.

Turn your space into a garden for experimenting

Design a sturdy climbing structure first. Kiwi and hardy kiwi produce vigorous growth; a thin cane is not a permanent framework. Train a trunk upwards and spread the selected framework branches along the support. Tie with loose, soft loops and check for constriction. Also leave a route clear for picking fruit and pruning the plant.

Pollination starts with the label. Record whether your plant is male, female or self-fertile and check that flowering periods match. A male plant is a useful pollinator but does not produce fruit itself. Where a name is used for both male and female selections, the sex must remain explicit. The same name on two pots alone does not prove the combination is suitable.

Distinguish kiwi from kiwi berry when tasting. Kiwi berries have small fruits with smooth, edible skin; an ordinary kiwi is picked and eaten differently. Give the plant time to build a framework and record actual flowering and ripening. The app can link the species to your garden, but a fixed number of days from planting does not reliably predict the first harvest from these perennial climbers.

Which flavour would you like to discover?

Issai: Self-fertile; small smooth fruit.

Ken's Red: Female; reddish fruit.

Weiki (mannelijk): Bestuiver; geen eigen fruit.