order: ericales
family: actinidiaceae
genus: actinidia
species: deliciosa
First published on 09/04/2013:
In the autumn of 2011, I buried 2 pieces of overly ripe kiwi fruits from the kitchen into the soil in a pot outside in the garden. By the following spring, many small hairy sprouts had emerged. After a year of care, they grew to be only slightly less than 10cm. Since it's been said that kiwi plants are not necessarily very winter-hardy, I decided to dig out a lucky one and keep it in the stairwell during the winter, so it doesn't get frost. By November, the kiwi seedlings had already dropped all of their leaves. After a long winter, the lucky one, being in the now warmer stairwell has finally got up from sleep. New buds are breaking into leaves. This year it's going to get lots of food and more light and water than last year. So I hope it can grow a lot more than last year.
>>Update (22/08/2013):
This year, I moved the one select kiwi plant to the southern side of the house where it's exposed to endless sunlight. There were times where it was neglected and left to dry out completely for some time. It appeared to be quite drought tolerant. As I went to spend 10 days in Italy in late spring, I had a friend take care of our garden. He somehow forgot about this and some other plants for as long as I was absent. The evening I came home, I was horrified by the sight of quite a number of withering plants. All of these plants struggled at varying degrees but eventually came back to life except a small oak. The big leaves of the kiwi plant at that time can be more or less described as crumpled paper balls, dry and dead looking. Following the resurrection, the plant grew a tad more. The hot summer sun has given it a handsome reddish tan. It's as if the veins came alive with blood flowing in them. A smartweed (persicaria) self-sowed in its pot. I thought they look quite good together, so decided to let it stay.
family: actinidiaceae
genus: actinidia
species: deliciosa
First published on 09/04/2013:
 |
| kiwi plant april 2013. |
In the autumn of 2011, I buried 2 pieces of overly ripe kiwi fruits from the kitchen into the soil in a pot outside in the garden. By the following spring, many small hairy sprouts had emerged. After a year of care, they grew to be only slightly less than 10cm. Since it's been said that kiwi plants are not necessarily very winter-hardy, I decided to dig out a lucky one and keep it in the stairwell during the winter, so it doesn't get frost. By November, the kiwi seedlings had already dropped all of their leaves. After a long winter, the lucky one, being in the now warmer stairwell has finally got up from sleep. New buds are breaking into leaves. This year it's going to get lots of food and more light and water than last year. So I hope it can grow a lot more than last year.
>>Update (22/08/2013):
 |
| suntanned kiwi plant august 2013. |
This year, I moved the one select kiwi plant to the southern side of the house where it's exposed to endless sunlight. There were times where it was neglected and left to dry out completely for some time. It appeared to be quite drought tolerant. As I went to spend 10 days in Italy in late spring, I had a friend take care of our garden. He somehow forgot about this and some other plants for as long as I was absent. The evening I came home, I was horrified by the sight of quite a number of withering plants. All of these plants struggled at varying degrees but eventually came back to life except a small oak. The big leaves of the kiwi plant at that time can be more or less described as crumpled paper balls, dry and dead looking. Following the resurrection, the plant grew a tad more. The hot summer sun has given it a handsome reddish tan. It's as if the veins came alive with blood flowing in them. A smartweed (persicaria) self-sowed in its pot. I thought they look quite good together, so decided to let it stay.
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