The Grounded Orchardist

So, is it possible to grow Kiwis in the UK? The answer is a resounding YES! Like everything, variety and location is key but it’s absolutely possible.

When I started working at Le Manoir one of the major exciting things was the scope to grow other things. I love orchard work but I want to learn other things too. They had two Kiwi vines which I think have been in for about 8 years. They’re not sheltered at all, we haven’t fed or watered them and they’re grown up a trellis system to form an arch into the heritage veg garden. The trellis is far too small for the vines as it’s so vigorous but it does look lovely and certainly adds a bit of interest.

The variety is Kiwi ‘Jenny’ which is readily available to buy. They’re a lot smaller than the kiwis we’re used to over here off the shelf. There are other varieties that are possible but as I have first hand experience with ‘Jenny’ I will talk about this one.

So, Kiwi ‘Jenny’ (Actinidia deliciosa ‘Jenny’) is a self fertile variety but as always, more will help with pollination. Talking about pollination, they are insect pollinated but its a little complicated if you want to hand pollinate (which is my plan next year). I have included the link below as an in depth guide as they explain it better than I can!

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/99-pollinating-kiwifruit

It could fruit within 3 years of planting. Now I mentioned ours hasn’t been fed. I will be feeding it next year. We are certified organic where this is located in the veg garden and it will be fed with chicken manure pellets. The leaves aren’t suggesting the vine is lacking at all, but I wonder if the crop size and yield will be bigger if we feed it.

They like full sun and a light sandy soil. However, ours is doing fine on Clay. It’s happy in any pH soil. Harvest the fruits August to September. This year due to drought everything is early but I would leave them on the vine for as long as possible. Harvest before the first frost.

So when I started looking after this I had to really do my homework. There isn’t a lot of information about looking after Kiwis as they’re supposed to be living in New Zealand. So I translated the info into our climate and our time of year and tentatively made the first cut…it was very exciting and nerve wracking!

In terms of pruning, cut back to 2-4 buds and tie in vines you want to keep. Tie your main vertical vines in, then choose and tie in some side shoots horizontally because these seem to give the most fruiting spurs. Be careful as the vines are very brittle. You’ll almost end up with a lattice effect. Don’t worry if you cut the wrong bit off they’re so vigorous that they will definitely come back. They can grow up to 8 metres with a 4 metre spread so you’ll be pruning it a few times a year. Do your last prune for winter once the fruit is all harvested. Doing this last prune after or just before the first frost will ensure it slows down and looks tidy before spring. Leaving you to be able to deal with other tasks. The magical 20 percent fruit pruning rule goes out of the window with this. Most of the vines will come off but don’t you worry…it will come back! See pics below.

One thing to note is that we don’t have a long enough growing season in Britain for the Kiwis to ripen on the vine. When the first frost was forecast that evening, I harvested all of them. Even though they weren’t ready and were rock hard still. I put them in our heated polytunnel to ripen up. In a domestic setting this could be your windowsill. After a few week’s they ripened up lovely and they were genuinely the best Kiwis I have ever tasted!

It’s also worth noting they really do not like frost. This year, the first shoots started to come in and it was looking lovely. Then we got a late frost. The new shoots instantly turned brown and died back…my heart sunk a little. However, the vines were fine and kept trying to come back until it succeeded and conditions were right. So if your new growth does get hit by frost don’t worry, it will be fine.

It’s a very smelly plant, I’m not sure how to describe it. Perhaps it’s best in your garden design not to put it in a seating area but it’s worth putting it somewhere! I’ll be honest, I love that I get the chance to look after this and I even went and bought my own for at home!