"newsb" wrote in message
...
In article , Spider
writes

It sounds as if you were lucky. If it's put on that much growth, the
roots
must be okay. I'm not sure how long you have to wait for fruit on Kiwi,
but
the pertinent question is 'do you get flowers?' If you don't, you
certainly won't get fruit. I'm assuming here that you've got one of the
self-fertile clones? Kiwi, generally, need a male and female plant for
fruit production. If you haven't got a self-fertile one (such as
'Jenny'),
then you will need a partner for your plant.

I'm pretty sure its a self fertile plant - can't remember the name atm. To
my knowledge, it hasn't had flowers yet. I wasn't expecting any this year
due to the evils. Past year or two I didn't expect much as the plant in
its pot had been pretty much neglected over the winter. Year before last,
I thought it was dead but gave it a chance and in spring it burst forth.

I promised to look after it from this year - which is why I was planting
it out. Although close to the house, its well mulched and right next to a
major drainage channel that we put in to carry all the water that comes
off the clay of the hill. It also gets well watered and as of this year,
well fed


Fingers crossed for fruit next year then. Good luck.


Congrats on the blueberries. Do you grow them in pots, or is your soil
naturally acidic?

Bit of both - (pots and ground) but no naturally acidic soil. With the
two I planted out about 4-5 years ago, I dug a gurt big hole and filled it
with ericaceous stuff. It only gets direct rain or butt water, and they
get a lot of coniferous needles/leaves from nearby trees - and regular
ericaceous food and sequestered iron on top of standard growmore
dressings. To be honest, they don't seem to be plants that get really
upset by the soil acidity.

There are only two in the ground, but they are different varieties, one
ripening fairly early and the other being ready just before the first
starts tailing off.

The two in pots are the same age as the groud planted ones and have
performed nearly as well - they're already in biggish posts but need
repotting again



Thanks for all this information, Andy. We both love blueberries and scoff
lots of supermarket ones, but it would be great to pick crops from our own
garden. I've got two or three big pots, so I may try that first while I get
a patch cleared in the garden.


Also, this year, it was a bit of a (one sided) fight between me and at
least two female blackbirds. As the berries on the potted bushes started
to come ripe, the birds would fly onto the bush, pick a few berries and
drop them onto the ground then hop down and eat them. Then repeat the
process. For some reason, I let them keep doing it - they looked so
happy They also looked quite funny. Fully grown blackbirds aren't the
most elegant of creatures when manoeuvring through the branches (compared
to small natural tree dwellers).


:~) It's nice to know chaps are hopelessly soft-hearted, too! I would do
just the same, I know, and almost be pleased I could watch them eat my
berries. I suspect, though, we wouldn't lose so many because I have a
couple of cats. I would be horrified if the cats harmed a bird (as they
very occasionally do :~( ), but the deterrent effect if useful.


Funny, but they didn't seem to do this with the planted out bushes. The
potted plants were on the patio wall, fairly close to the house - the
planted out ones are in what I'd have thought of as a much more natural
blackbird environment. Might be that the potted ones were riper earlier
when the birds really fancied plump berries.


Yes, that is a bit odd. Perhaps you're right about the ripening, and maybe
those berries are also sweeter and have a more tender skin, having ripened
more quickly in the heat from the house wall. We may never know.

--
regards andyw

Thanks once again, Andy.
Spider