If you visit Martyn's blog you will have read about the frost damage on the plot last Wednesday night.
Our kiwi had her leaves badly scorched. I don't know whether this will have put paid to any opening flowers or not as it is hard to tell whether the flower buds have been affected.
The same thing happened to the kiwi last year too and she recovered to flower but last year the buds were later appearing. At least we know that the plant will produce new leaves and recover.
You never know it could be a blessing in disguise as our reluctant male may decide to flower and catch up with her. Then they can get together and who knows what may happen.
In the garden the miniature kiwi Issai has been unaffected by the frost. The allotment is more open and tends to suffer from frost more than the garden.
I read a little more about Issai and found some people refer to this type of plant as a kiwi berry as the fruits are smaller and smooth skinned. The fruit is said to be sweeter too. I wonder if we will get any fruits this year?
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It is hard to predict each year how summer and winter is going to be. But I hope you have many fruit this year. It was a good year for plum but not peach this year in our region.
ReplyDeleteAll being well our plums should do well this year Diana.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe we'll still get frosts after the weather we experienced in April, but I'm still being careful about what I'm planting out at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI have germinated quite a number of kiwi.... the tallest now is at 6 inches. They had frosty reception in your weather, and I wonder how they would react to excessive heat over here....
ReplyDeleteWe had a temperature of about half a degree above zero on Wednesday night, so just got away with it...
ReplyDeleteI was worried about my tomatoes, but they don't seem to have come to any harm.
Such a shame - but we rarely get away here in E Yorks without a May frost or two.
ReplyDeleteI think that is what lulled some gardeners into a false sense of secuity Jo and got them planting out too early.
ReplyDeleteWe need to swap some of our conditions Bangchik - a bit cooler for you and more consistent warmth for us. The kiwi leaves are furry so maybe they retain water in dry conditions.
You were lucky Mark we tend to hope that by the end of May we won't get any more keen frosts but it can happen later.
We generally have may frosts too VH - hopefully the kiwi will recover it did last year - we were tempted to cover it but it is huge and even if we had it may not have helped as our plot neighbour covered his potatoes with fleece and they stil were burned.
So many people have been caught out with their early spuds this year. I'm sorry I switched from Epicure this year as they are pretty good at shrugging off a bit of frost damage.
ReplyDeleteIt was not a pretty site inside my mini greenhouse the day after that frost - threw away loads of tomatoes, chillies and cucumbers :>(
ReplyDeleteMany people have also been caught out into thinking it was Ok to plant out tender plants too Mal.
ReplyDeleteSomeone - I think Jo asked earlier what had happened to the sweetcorn planted early by another plot holder on our site. I looked yesterday and it hasn't grown at all and has very thin pale leaves.
What bad luck Rob - I hope enough managed to survive for planting out or you have seed to resow - they may catch up again.
I really hope you get plenty of fruit...my kiwi died a long time ago and I have sometimes thought about replacing it but I'm not sure. Have you had any success at all with any of the fruit?? Where did you purchase your trees from and to what size are they predicted to grow??
ReplyDeleteMost kiwis need two plants to produce fruit Tanya so we haven't managed any yet as the male is shy! Our plants take a similar amount of space as a vigorous blackberry and spreads about 3 - 4 metres along a fence and we have chopped bits off.
ReplyDeleteOur Issai plant is new so I'm not sure if it will fruit this year or how big it will grow. We have popped it in a large pot rather than open ground. At least it doesn't need a friend.