North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>]

Alan,

I had a conversation with a local berry grower that also does kiwis a couple 
of years back.  He indicated it can take years for the local pollinators to 
discover and get used to kiwi.  He didn't have a reason, just said that it 
took them years after flowering before their vines started to get good 
production and that it was an issue with pollinators not hitting the kiwi.

Perhaps others here can help.  Kiwi is new to the area, only been seeing it 
grown in the last 10 years or so.

My Issai flowered a lot this year after skipping two years, so I'm hoping for 
a small crop this year.

John



--- On Wed, 6/8/11, Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
Subject: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 5:08 PM

So much in the kiwi literature expounds on the necessity of nearby male
plants for reliable cropping, but I can't help but wonder if this isn't a
misunderstanding of the pollination issues with this fruit.


I have plenty of male argutas in the mix but watching closely the last
couple of years I notice that my various native pollinators are not very
interested in cold hardy kiwis (actinidia arguta).


The funny thing is that it's supposed to be pears that the buzzers avoid but
those blossoms are well tended in my orchard and others I manage.


I don't know if it's because there are more attractive flowers during  kiwis
bloom time or what- certainly the multi-flora roses are drawing huge crowds
as did the blackberry blossoms. I can't really eliminate the competition to
find out (although I'm at constant warfare with the multiflora)  but almost
everything else is getting some action.  The kiwis seem to be the
wallflowers that no one wants to dance with.


Of course, my heroic carpenter bees make a little effort, maybe in the
spirit of keeping the plain girl at the dance from being depressed, but I
suspect this will be another year of very light fruit set. It has been many
years since there's been a bumper crop.


I can prune the plants for tremendous floral display (and they are pretty
and very aromatic flowers, especially on the Rosanna that hangs over the
entrance of my house) and I can make the flowers easy to find, by pruning
away interfering shoots, but I can't make the bees come.   The good news is
that I’m not crazy about kiwis anyway and their main function is to hide
things on my property I don’t want to see.
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I hadn't considered this before.  It's certainly something worthy of
observation.  I have comfrey planted near all my various kiwi plantings &
the comfrey is always loaded with bumblebees.  I have yet to get heavy fruit
set but I always figured it was because I wasn't pruning them.

Also isn't wind pollination also viable?

~mIEKAL

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 9:52 PM, John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Alan,
>
> I had a conversation with a local berry grower that also does kiwis a
> couple of years back.  He indicated it can take years for the local
> pollinators to discover and get used to kiwi.  He didn't have a reason, just
> said that it took them years after flowering before their vines started to
> get good production and that it was an issue with pollinators not hitting
> the kiwi.
>
> Perhaps others here can help.  Kiwi is new to the area, only been seeing it
> grown in the last 10 years or so.
>
> My Issai flowered a lot this year after skipping two years, so I'm hoping
> for a small crop this year.
>
> John
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 6/8/11, Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
> Subject: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 5:08 PM
>
> So much in the kiwi literature expounds on the necessity of nearby male
> plants for reliable cropping, but I can't help but wonder if this isn't a
> misunderstanding of the pollination issues with this fruit.
>
>
> I have plenty of male argutas in the mix but watching closely the last
> couple of years I notice that my various native pollinators are not very
> interested in cold hardy kiwis (actinidia arguta).
>
>
> The funny thing is that it's supposed to be pears that the buzzers avoid
> but
> those blossoms are well tended in my orchard and others I manage.
>
>
> I don't know if it's because there are more attractive flowers during
> kiwis
> bloom time or what- certainly the multi-flora roses are drawing huge crowds
> as did the blackberry blossoms. I can't really eliminate the competition to
> find out (although I'm at constant warfare with the multiflora)  but almost
> everything else is getting some action.  The kiwis seem to be the
> wallflowers that no one wants to dance with.
>
>
> Of course, my heroic carpenter bees make a little effort, maybe in the
> spirit of keeping the plain girl at the dance from being depressed, but I
> suspect this will be another year of very light fruit set. It has been many
> years since there's been a bumper crop.
>
>
> I can prune the plants for tremendous floral display (and they are pretty
> and very aromatic flowers, especially on the Rosanna that hangs over the
> entrance of my house) and I can make the flowers easy to find, by pruning
> away interfering shoots, but I can't make the bees come.   The good news is
> that I�m not crazy about kiwis anyway and their main function is to hide
> things on my property I don�t want to see.
>