How to plant kiwis

Kiwi is one of the fruits with the highest content of vitamin C and E. It also provides other nutrients such as lutein, in addition to minerals such as copper, phosphate and magnesium. The fruit of the kiwi plant also has anti-inflammatory, soothing and digestive properties. For its part, its delicious flavor makes this berry one of the essentials in cooking recipes around the world, appearing in desserts such as ice cream and even fruit salad. Many people who have a home garden wonder how to plant kiwis to attach it to your crops.

Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you how to plant kiwis and what you should take into account.

Kiwi plant

The kiwi plant or Actinia deliciosa is a semi-woody deciduous shrubby climbing plant, native to China, and widespread throughout the world for its delicious fruit. The length of the kiwi plant can reach 9 m. Its leaves are oval petioles, curved from the base, dark green, with light green veins. This type of plant, in modern crops, is usually hermaphrodite or hermaphrodite, that is, it has female and male organs in the same flower, so some species are selfed.

Of course, there are some kiwis that are dioecious, that is, partenosexual. They need to reproduce from each other through pollen. This pollen will expel the flowers of the male plants and fertilize the flowers of the female plants, which leads to the development of these fruits. Kiwi flowers are usually very fragrant, appearing singly or in groups, up to 3 flowers. The female and male flowers of the kiwi plant have 5 to 6 yellowish-white petals.

The only way to distinguish between kiwis females and males is through the flowers. The characteristic of the flowering of the female kiwi is that the white pistils of the flower are surrounded by yellow pistils. The characteristic of the male kiwi flower is that only the tip of the petal protrudes from the yellow pistil.

How to plant kiwis

To grow kiwi, you must consider specific details and recommendations so that you can obtain a healthy crop according to your needs. These are the basics for learning how to grow kiwis:

1. Choose the right seeds, remove them from the fruit or buy them at your local nursery or in the specialized store. Remember, if you don't know if the seeds you will plant are male or female, then you run the risk of all plants growing from one genus and therefore not being fertilized or harvested. For this reason, it is recommended to buy seeds so that you know exactly how you will grow male and female plants. You can also choose to grow hermaphroditic kiwis. They all have the same planting process.
2. Kiwifruit seeds germinate and the stratification method awakens latency.
3. Take absorbent paper and stack several layers with it. Then wet it completely, but keep it from getting too weak to break.
4. Separate the layer of paper and put the kiwi seeds in it. Afterwards, continue to cover the seeds with a layer of damp paper.
5. Put the seed paper in the bowl and cover.
6. Put the seeds in the refrigerator at around 3ºC or 4ºC, and then store them for 5 weeks.
7. Remember, cEvery 3 days you should remove the bowl with the seeds and then remove it from the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Also, open the bowl at that time and remove the layer that covers the seeds to aerate them.
8. After 5 weeks, you will notice that some seeds have germinated their first roots. These will be ready to plant.
9. The seeds have germinated and the land for the last sowing is ready. Prepare the substrate for seedlings or 50% peat and 40% organic compost and vermicompost, and add 10% sand to improve drainage.
10. Drill a hole about 4mm deep into the prepared substrate. Place one seed per hole and cover with a very thin base coat up to 2mm.
11. Water a lot in the form of dew so that the seeds are not exposed to water. Make sure to moisten all of the soil, but not to collect water.

How to plant kiwis by cuttings

Another way to grow these fruits is through cuttings, for which you must use a support for kiwis. They can be made of wood or metal, the latter is recommended because they are durable. Now, to learn how to plant kiwis by cuttings, you have to follow these steps:

1. Cut back the cuttings you want to plant at the end of winter. You should make a 4- to 7-inch cut and leave some leaves. The incision should be completely straight and there should be no calluses.
2. Scrape off about an inch of the bark from the main tree or base plant and graft the kiwi cuttings onto it. For kiwi cuttings, the pattern can also be a rooting hormone.
3. Insert the exposed part of the cuttings into the rootstock or rooting hormone and make sure the bare bark of the cuttings is in full contact with the rootstock or rooting hormone.
4. Spray the bottom of each cutting with cold water and press down on the rooting hormone.
5. You must make sure that the chips are at a constant temperature between 20ºC and 24ºC. To do this, you can use heating pads for plants.
6. Every day you should spray the base of the kiwi cuttings with a spray bottle.
7. After about 50 days, the roots of the cuttings should have germinated.
8. Once the cuttings start to grow, you need to make sure there is adequate kiwi support, because this species is a climbing plant and requires guidance to grow and bear fruit in the future. To do this, you need to use durable materials to make the kiwi stand out, because the plant goes through multiple processes before the first harvest.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about how to plant a kiwi fruit and what its characteristics are.