I mentioned in my last post that one of our kiwis had lots of buds but that we were hardly likely to have any fruit - even though we had originally bought a male and female variety - as only one of our two kiwis has ever flowered. I wasn't sure whether the one that was flowering was a male or female so I emailed Victoriana Nursery Gardens to ask if they could tell me how to identify which sex I had.
I had a quick response - apparently the centres of male flowers are all yellow (just stamen) and the centre of female flowers have white filaments (styles) in the centre. Fortunately I had taken a close up of the flowers last year so I can now say conclusively that our flowering kiwi is a girl.
Maybe as in the human species males develop slower than females so maybe our other kiwi will flower eventually!
As the one flowering is female then it must be the variety Hayward now she just needs a suitable mate.
We could buy a boyfriend for her but if we did he would probably take several years to reach maturity. Alternatively has anyone's got a boy kiwi and can send us some pollen so we can carry out artificial pollination? We could create the first kiwi dating agency!
One new fruit tree that is getting us really excited is our nectarine - Fantasia. We bought it last year and planted it in a large tub which is positioned by the greenhouse door. It was out all through last winter's freezing conditions and we worried that it might have died but you may remember I mentioned in an earlier post that it had flowered ... well ... we think that some of the flowers have set fruit. Unless we are totally mistaken there looks to be some teeny little nectarines developing. As a frost was predicted for lat night the tree was covered in fleece which spooked the dog when she went out late last night - I think she thought she had seen a ghost! Fingers crossed that the fruits don't just drop off! And if they don't grow off they grow a little bigger.
Bird Cam update
Things are progressing along the same line in the nest box and we have started a new web cam page for May (follow the link on the blog sidebar) - the female is still incubating and turning eggs and the male popping in and out to feed or preen her. Not expecting any new action 'til some time next week.
We have hedgehogs back too and will post some video/photos of them later. (That is when we take some).
Posts
Wow!
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting. I've never thought of growing kiwis but I have heard that some people have had success.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Martin
www.our-good-life.blogspot.com
Glad that you've managed to identify the kiwi's sex, at least you know the variety too now. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get some nectarines, that would be exciting.
ReplyDeleteWow it will be so nice to harvest fresh fruits!
ReplyDeleteI expect you can get Kiwi pollen on eBay! But you might get one or two wierdos contacting you as well...
ReplyDeleteThe kiwis on the ply have suffered frost damage of the leaves Martin. Hoping the Issai in a pot in the garden manages to be pollinated.
ReplyDeleteNectarines would be fantastic Jo -Appropriate name Fantasia!
We harvest quite a few fresh fruits Diana and they are really worth the effort.
Thta reminds me of when I created a Twitter account Mark - I had a very strange welcome message from someone I had never heard of so I couldn't delete my account fast enough"
Oooh nectarines would be lovely wouldn't they! I'm definatly getting somthing exciting like this for next year! :)
ReplyDeleteyay!!! girls are best as you know ;) there is hope, one day, oh - babies (to eat) lol
ReplyDeletebest wishes for your nectarine and the dog's nerves if it's going to be frosty lots, poor thing xx
P and M just hope that we get some nectarines we can eat. It is more shelter in the garden than on the plot where frost affects things more.
ReplyDeleteTivvy (the dog) isn't really our dog but stays with us some of the time. It puzzled us as to what she was barking at - from a safe distance!
Love the idea of a kiwi dating service! Can't help I'm afraid, not growing anything quite that exotic. Yet...
ReplyDeleteI have my hopes focused on the Issai in a pot Janet. Some describe them as kiwi berries as the have small smooth skinned fruit.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at the Kiwi dating agency, I have posted your thread on my twitter page, so maybe you can get a reply?
ReplyDeleteI was going to get an Issai this year, but have put it off as we are moving house, I'd be interested to know how you get on if you manage to find some pollen.
At least Issai should be able to produce fruit by itself, Josie but I don't know whether to expect any fruit this year as for my other kiwi - all is not well see next post.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we can freeze pollen from male flowers to keep for future use? Probably not!