Fuzzy Kiwi Plants for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide

Planting and Care

by Mary Van Keuren | Gardener (30+ Years Experience) – last update on March 17, 2022

Planting instructions

Site your fuzzy kiwi plant in a spot that gets good sun and has fertile, well-draining soil. You’ll have best results if your soil has a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. Add sulfur if it is higher than this range.
If you are planting in the hopes of harvesting fruit, you will need at least one male plant for every eight female plants. Space plants 15 feet apart. Dig a hole that’s slightly deeper than the root ball and twice as wide. Unpot the plant, and tease out encircling roots, which can girdle the tree and slowly kill it. Add some well-rotted manure or compost to the hole, then place the vine in the hole so that the top of the root ball is level with the ground. Fill in around the root ball with soil, tamping down as you go to eliminate air pockets. Water thoroughly.

Watering and nutrients

When newly planted, water your fuzzy kiwi several times a week or whenever the soil seems dry. Once established, you can cut back on supplemental watering, but monitor the vines carefully: if you see signs of drooping leaves or you’re experiencing dry conditions, give your vines a good watering. Fertilize throughout the growing season with a balanced, slow-release product as indicated by package directions. If you see leaves turning pale green or yellow, try a fertilizer with a higher ratio of nitrogen.

Pollination

Fuzzy kiwi vines are dioecious, meaning that male and female reproductive parts are on different vines. If you want to harvest fruit, therefore, you’ll need to purchase at least one male and one female vine and plant them near each other. The flowers are pollinated by insects, and the more pollen the insect leaves on the flowers, the larger the fruit will be.

Pruning

Fuzzy kiwi vines need regular pruning to produce the best fruit. You will need to train your vines up a trellis or other structure, pruning out all except a strong single trunk, with regularly spaced branches leading off of it. The best time to prune male vines is just after they bloom, while female vines are best pruned in the late winter, before bud break. You should also remove suckers around the base of the trunk, as well as diseased or broken branches, whenever you see them.

Pests and diseases

Few insect pests bother fuzzy kiwi plants. Possible diseases include phytophthora root rot, which is more pronounced in heavy soils and is best dealt with by planting your vine in soil that drains well. You may also see signs of verticillium wilt, a fungal disease that will eventually kill your vine — there is no cure for this disease. Avoid planting your fuzzy kiwi plant in a spot where berry plants or members of the nightshade family (such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants) have grown in the past.

Harvesting

It can be difficult to determine when kiwi fruit is ripe, and most experts recommend that you leave the fuzzy fruit on the vine until just before your first hard frost. They will continue to ripen after being picked and should be stored in a chilled location away from other ripening fruit, such as in a garage or cold basement.

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