Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Growing kiwis from seed

I decided to grow some kiwis. According to my online research, kiwis grow on vines, kind of like grapes, and there are male and female kiwis. You need at least one male vine to fertilize all the female vines.

Online I found 2 techniques on growing kiwis from seed. (In a later blog I will show how to get seeds from kiwis) One method is to place the seeds in the fridge for 4 months to stratify them, then plant them in some peat moss. The other method is the same except the seeds don't need to be placed in the fridge. Two weeks ago my boyfriend, Trevor, and I decided to try both methods. We got 2 kiwis. The seeds from one kiwi went into the fridge while the others were planted in a miniature seed tray greenhouse. We made sure the greenhouse soil was always moist and we sprayed it once a week with fungicide. (The greenhouse is very warm and moist, perfect conditions for fungus to grow)

Today I decided to give the kiwis their weekly fungicide spray and was amazed at how many kiwi seeds had already germinated. None of them have leaves yet, all still have their seeds attached but hopefully by this time next week there will be a tray full of kiwi sprouts.



2 comments:

  1. i am growing kiwi seeds from a kiwi fruit as well and i didnt do the fridge technique, can i ask, how long is it until there's a noticible change in the soil where you can see some kiwi sprouting???

    ReplyDelete
  2. I noticed the kiwi seeds growing within 2 weeks after I planted them.

    ReplyDelete