Kiwi, also called charming gooseberry or charming actinidia, was bred by New Zealand breeders and named after the bird, which is the emblem of New Zealand. The plant is a vine, the length of which reaches 10 m. The fruits have a characteristic sweet and sour taste and delicate green flesh. Very quickly, scientists realized how beneficial kiwis are to the body. They contain more vitamins C than lemon, there are other useful substances. Therefore, soon this culture began to be grown in Western Europe.
Liana needs high humidity and a subtropical climate. For this reason, it is completely unclear how to grow kiwi at home. Breeders are engaged in the cultivation of frost-resistant varieties, many of them feel good in a temperate climate zone.
To satisfy the daily need for ascorbic acid, a person just needs to eat only two fruits. Of course, fruits can be bought at any supermarket or grocery store, but it’s much more interesting to learn how to grow kiwi at home in order to enjoy them, picking them, without leaving home.
The plant propagates by root offspring, seeds and cuttings. In grafted seedlings, fruits appear already in the fourth year, but full-fledged fruiting occurs only in the seventh year of life. Vines grown from seeds grow longer, but a long wait usually pays off. Many gardeners are interested in how to grow kiwi at home and whether any of this will work. The result will certainly be, but you need to be patient and provide an exotic plant with acceptable care.
To begin with, it is worth taking the ripe fruits, taking out the seeds from them, washing them from the pulp, stratifying and mixing with moistened sand. All this is placed in a container with a lid and put in the refrigerator for two weeks. Before growing kiwi at home, you need to prepare containers with soil. Good drainage and nutritious soil should be put in the drawers. Since the seeds are very small, they need to be sown with sand and sprinkled with a layer of about 3 mm. Many gardeners do not understand how to grow kiwi from a stone, because it is almost a jeweler's work. Of course, this is difficult, but possible.
The box must be covered with glass, which should be removed and wiped periodically. The soil should not dry out, so it must be regularly watered. Shoots appear quickly when the sprouts rise to 8 cm, they are planted in separate pots. At the same time, it is necessary to provide abundant lighting, feed it with organic and mineral fertilizers twice a month.
How to grow kiwi at home seems complicated and incomprehensible only at first glance. If you try to sow the seeds yourself, then the procedure will seem simple and entertaining, because young vines are so interesting to care for. Every year, adult specimens need to be trimmed, removing old or weak branches. The shoots are cut in the spring, when the kiwi is still in a sleeping state and the kidneys have not woken up.