I've read around about rooting dormant kiwi cuttings, and one site recommended using Dip & Grow. After purchasing it, I noticed the warnings about toxicity, and their warning not to use it on edibles.
Anybody have any experience rooting kiwi cuttings (these are hardy kiwis) and want to share what they did?
I did notice that they are starting to come out of dormancy. I see a little green there, which is much better than last year, when I got nothing at all!
I think I just stuck mine in the same soil I’d been starting fig cuttings in… no rooting hormone. As I’d been taught by a past friend (the fig queen of our area), ‘stick them in at an angle, that way the entire length will receive about the same warmth.’ Don’t ‘poke them’ straight down. Again, no hormone required – and it’s worked on grapes as well as figs and (hardy) kiwi.
I actually placed one hardy kiwi cutting where I intended it to be and it took off – now I’m in the process of dealing with that ‘taking off’ – it wants more room! But it fruited for the first time last fall – delicious! It’s neighbor, and ‘mother’ is nearly along side, about 3 years older.
When you do them right, they look like they're upside down. The pictures are small, but they look right to me. Scraping the bottom isn't what helps. The bottom is already open to making roots. The sides that will go into the ground need to be scraped, and then roots can come out of the sides. It seems that you are putting them in very little soil, so they could get dried out very easily,and they die easily from too little water. They don't like to be moved and are very sensitive to the level that they are planted at.
John S
PDX OR
…they look too shallow to me, too… When I plant a cutting (always outside) I insert more underground than I leave above. As it was once explained to me, 'the buds, when underground, become root-nodes,' so the more the merrier! I’ve also assumed, with more cutting underground, there’s more of a nutrient store - thus far less chance of the tops drying and dying before some feeder roots form.
As far as scraping… I’d go very easy on that. I’ve ‘roughed up’ the underground portion of my cuttings, such as grape, fig and (hardy) kiwi some, but don’t remove ‘too’ much of their bark. It’s their protection from infection. With serialized soil, less of a problem; directly into native soil, more so.
So… I’d insert two-thirds of a cutting at twice that angle into your garden (or some protected area) for the season, leaving only two buds protruding from the soil … about the opposite of what’s shown… They should be ready to transplant about a year from now.
How does this look. I set out four approximately nine inch cuttings, two Anna female and two male. I cut them only lightly at the base. I put them in at a much sharper angle than the indoor cuttings.
The location isn't fantastic, near a Doug fir and part shade. But I have read that hardy kiwis can produce in shade, and I am willing to try it and see how it works.
I plan to train the kiwi up the stake for now, and put in a trellis soon. I plan to only keep half of the four. I put them in the location I think they'll go.
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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