How Many Years Until Red-Fleshed Kiwi Bears Fruit? A Full Guide to Growing Techniques

Red-fleshed kiwi is surely familiar to everyone; it is a rather special type of kiwi, and it is now planted in many places in our country. Red-fleshed kiwi tastes very good and has high edible value, so it is deeply loved by people. Nowadays many people want to grow it to increase their income, but before planting, do you all understand its growing techniques?

Growing Techniques for Red-Fleshed Kiwi

1. In early to mid-April, when the ground temperature reaches 15°C, it is the suitable sowing period. Soak the seeds in 47-degree water, let them cool naturally, then soak for another 24 hours, remove them and mix with 2 times their amount of wet sand, then put them in a container and bury it in a shady place. Keep the temperature at around -3°C, and check and turn them once every week. This takes 40 to 60 days.

2. Kiwi seeds are very small, so strict requirements are placed on land preparation and sowing quality. Choose loose-textured, well-drained sandy loam. With a pH of about 7, apply 5000 kg of high-quality organic fertilizer per mu, and before sowing disinfect the soil with carbofuran, dexon, and the like. Then plow deep and harrow fine, and make a seedbed 1 m wide; the bed soil should be finely broken up and leveled, or form ridges 60 cm wide at the bottom, 40 cm wide at the top, and 25 cm high.

3. Two days before sowing, irrigate once thoroughly, mix the seeds in fine sand and spread them evenly on the seedbed, with a sowing rate of 5 to 6 g per square meter. Then cover the seeds with sifted fine fertilizer soil, just enough to cover them, and then cover the bed surface with a layer of rice straw. Because the covering soil is thin, the soil surface dries easily, so pay attention to spraying water frequently to keep the soil moist.

4. Kiwi seedlings emerge 15 to 20 days after sowing, come up completely within 1 week, and the straw should be gradually removed. After the straw is removed, the newly emerged seedlings are very tender and must not be exposed to direct sunlight, so a shade frame must be built; otherwise they will be scorched to death.

5. About 50 days after emergence, the true leaves begin to expand. When 1 to 3 leaves have grown, thin the seedlings and pull up weeds at the same time. When 6 to 8 true leaves have formed, the shade frame can be gradually removed, and the seedlings can be transplanted to the nursery at a spacing of 15 cm × 30 cm. Irrigate once 2 days before lifting the seedlings so they can be moved with soil and root damage is reduced. When transplanting, lift the seedlings, transplant them, and water them all in succession.

6. Throughout the seedling stage, do well at loosening the soil, hoeing weeds, and irrigation. When the seedlings reach 30 to 40 cm in height, promptly pinch off the growing tips, and be careful to remove shoots sprouting from the base. When the seedling thickness reaches 0.6 cm, grafting can be done. When grafting, be sure to identify the variety correctly, and cut scions from superior individual plants. Kiwi can be grafted in all four seasons: in spring, about 20 days before the rootstock sprouts, generally in April; in summer, after the scions are half-lignified in June; in autumn, in early August. Seedlings raised in spring of the same year are all grafted from late August to September of that year, and the rootstock is cut before sap flow the following year. Grafting mostly uses the single-bud side-veneer graft method, and it takes two years to leave the nursery.

How Many Years Until Red-Fleshed Kiwi Bears Fruit

Under normal circumstances, red-fleshed kiwi needs 5 years to bear fruit. With proper management it can be advanced to 4 years. So-called proper management means fertilizer keeps up every year; of course, remember to apply thin fertilizer frequently, and never apply a large amount of fertilizer all at once, so as to avoid fertilizer damage that burns the plants to death.

Fertilization Principles for Red-Fleshed Kiwi

1. Red-fleshed kiwi likes fertilizer but fears burning. Kiwi's growth amount and extremely strong growth vigor determine the urgency of its demand for nutrients. Coupled with the predatory mentality in production that emphasizes yield, once kiwi lacks inorganic nutrients it shows yellowing, small leaves, stopped growth, and the like. Thus kiwi is quite sensitive to nutrients, but its fleshy root system is also very sensitive to soil salt concentration, especially under sustained high temperature and drought, creating a new set of contradictions. In view of this, production requires that fertilization of kiwi must grasp the principle of distant, scattered, and dilute, that is, the small-amount, many-times fertilization method, which can both meet nutrient demand and avoid fertilizer damage. This is what is meant by kiwi liking fertilizer but fearing burning.

2. The annual fertilizer requirement for fertilizing kiwi is: in the early stage, the demand for the two elements N and K is large, and it is best to apply them as a base fertilizer after harvesting the fruit in autumn, with 5000 kg of fertilizer per 667 square meters, and 243. mixed with 80 kg of superphosphate per 667 square meters.

3. From budding to flowering and fruiting, apply appropriate topdressing, mainly with elements such as Ca, Mg, B, Fe, and Mn. This topdressing accounts for 2/3 of the whole year. In August, mainly use quick-acting P and K fertilizers, with application amounts of N 15-20 kg per 667 square meters, P 5-7 kg per 667 square meters, and K 6-8 kg per 667 square meters. This topdressing accounts for 1/3 of the whole year.

Common Diseases of Red-Fleshed Kiwi and Their Control

1. Fruit ripe rot. Begin bagging young fruit one week after flower drop to avoid infecting the young fruit. From two weeks after flower drop to the fruit enlargement period (May to August), spray the canopy with 50% carbendazim 800 times solution or 1:0.5:200 Bordeaux mixture, or 80% thiophanate wettable powder 1000 times solution 2 to 3 times, with a spraying interval of about 20 days. Clear away pruned kiwi branches and dead branches and fallen leaves to reduce places where pathogens can parasitize.

2. Root rot. When establishing the orchard, choose soil with good drainage. In the rainy season, do a good job of clearing ditches and draining water. Do not plant too deep, and do not apply uncomposted fertilizer. In March and mid-to-late June, drench the roots with 0.5 kg of zineb plus 200 kg of water. When diseased plants are found, dig away the soil at the root crown, carefully scrape off the diseased parts and a small amount of healthy parts, disinfect with 0.1% mercuric chloride, then coat with Bordeaux paste. After half a month, replace with new soil and cover it. If the scraped wound surface is large, coat it with grafting wax for protection, and apply additional decomposed liquid manure to restore tree vigor.

When growing red-fleshed kiwi, you must choose a good time, then prepare the land, and then sow at the right time. Management after planting is also very important, especially the work in fertilization and disease control, which must be done well. Only by doing these well can you ensure that red-fleshed kiwi grows better.