Growing kiwis: a garden full of flavour

What do you want from your garden?

A pergola with kiwifruit is a perennial fruit space, with hairy fruits that ripen later in the season.

Flavour and use

Sweet-tart and juicy when ready to eat; hard fruit does not yet offer the same experience.

Choose a suitable spot

Sunny, warm and sheltered; a sturdy pergola or wires. Protect vulnerable young growth from late frost.

From flower to fruit

Jenny is self-fertile. Hayward is female and needs compatible male pollen, for example Tormuri.

How to give the plant a place

Edible pergola: Install a sturdy structure. Choose a self-fertile cultivar or compatible pair. Train a permanent trunk upwards. Spread and prune side growth.

Kiwi as a wall fan: Attach strong wires. Train branches into a flat fan. Tie loosely so wood can thicken. Check for late frost as buds open.

Care throughout the season

Prune and train in summer and winter; do not let vigorous growth overload the support.

Recognise the right time to pick

Plants need time to establish; late fruit and late-summer warmth determine the result.

Follow your own harvest

Record the fruiting plant and pollinator separately. Tormuri receives no fruit harvesting tasks.

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?

Jenny: Self-fertile; smaller, flavoursome fruit.

Hayward: Female; large fruit, late flowering.

Tormuri: Male pollinator; no fruit of its own.