As an impulse buy in Tesco a few years ago I bought a solitary kiwi plant.
It has thived in my greenhouse but this year I was hoping for some fruit.
Why I didn't realise at the time I don't know but kiwi plants are dioecious
and I don't know whether mine is male or female and guess I won't until it
flowers. That is unless anyone who has experience of growing them could
help me identify the variety. Tesco tell me that they sold them in pairs at
the time. I wonder if anyone in the group bought a pair and can help with
the id?

In article ,
"Justin Thyme" writes:
| As an impulse buy in Tesco a few years ago I bought a solitary kiwi plant.
| It has thived in my greenhouse but this year I was hoping for some fruit.
| Why I didn't realise at the time I don't know but kiwi plants are dioecious
| and I don't know whether mine is male or female and guess I won't until it
| flowers. That is unless anyone who has experience of growing them could
| help me identify the variety. Tesco tell me that they sold them in pairs at
| the time. I wonder if anyone in the group bought a pair and can help with
| the id?

Unless you know its name or it flowers, you won't be able to tell.
I don't even know the mechanisms by which sex is determined in dioecious
plants, so a DNA mapping might not help! Stewart, David, or anyone else,
do YOU have a clue?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Justin Thyme" wrote in message
...
As an impulse buy in Tesco a few years ago I bought a solitary kiwi plant.
It has thived in my greenhouse but this year I was hoping for some fruit.
Why I didn't realise at the time I don't know but kiwi plants are
dioecious and I don't know whether mine is male or female and guess I
won't until it flowers. That is unless anyone who has experience of
growing them could help me identify the variety. Tesco tell me that they
sold them in pairs at the time. I wonder if anyone in the group bought a
pair and can help with the id?

There is a self fertile variety but it sounds like you do not have that one.
Once you know which sex you have plant something of the opposite sex right
next to it and let the vines get intimate. Meanwhile just enjoy those exotic
leaves and stems:-)

Unless you know its name or it flowers, you won't be able to tell.
I don't even know the mechanisms by which sex is determined in dioecious
plants, so a DNA mapping might not help! Stewart, David, or anyone else,
do YOU have a clue?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks Nick

Article in Science Week indicates that, as you mention, even DNA mapping may
not help. Not that I would want to go to such lengths!

'Many animals and most dioecious plant species, such as Silene latifolia,
have a visibly distinctive X/Y sex chromosome pair. The mammalian Y is
smaller than the X, whereas the S. latifolia Y chromosome is larger than its
X. Many dioecious plants, however, including papaya and kiwi fruit [3], have
no such chromosome heteromorphism; in these species, the sex-determining
genes seem to map to small regions of one normal-looking chromosome'

Just hoping it flowers soon then!