Kiwi plant varieties : Since kiwi is a dioecious plant, it bears pistillate and staminate flowers separately. Commercially grown important pistillate and staminate cultivars are:
Abbott : This is an early flowering and early maturing cultivar. The oblong, medium sized, fruits are covered with dense hairs. They are very sweet in taste with lower ascorbic acid content and medium titratable acidity.
Allison : Fruits resemble those of Abbott, except that these are slightly broader in proportion to its length. The petals of its flowers are overlapping and crimped along with margins. It is an early ripening, heavy bearer and sweet in taste. Ascorbic acid and titratable acidity are on the lower side. This variety is most suited for Himachal Pradesh.
Bruno : This cultivar requires comparatively less chilling period. The fruits are tapering in shape towards the stem end. They are longest among all the cultivars. The fruits is dark brown having very dense, short and bristly hair, highest in ascorbic acid and titratable acidity. The bearing is very heavy.
Hayward : Most popular cultivar or the world, Hayward is comparatively shy bearer with a tendency of biennial bearing. The fruit is broad and flat, being much wider in relation to length. It is superior in flavour with high sugar and ascorbic acid content. It requires comparatively more chilling hours.
Monty : It is a late flowering cultivar but fruit maturity is not late. The fruits are oblong, resembling those of Abbot and Allison. Being a highly prolific bearer cultivar, sometimes it needs hand thinning for obtaining good sized fruits. The fruit is somewhat wider towards blossom end with higher acidity and medium sugar content.
Tomuri : It is a good pollenizer for Hayward and Monty, the late flowering kiwis. Flowers appear usually in groups of 5.
Allison : It is also used for pollenizing different cultivars.
Although kiwi plants prefer warmer, sunnier positions in general, you will find that some kiwi plant
Those with limited space will find our self fertile kiwi plants hugely practical too! Our kiwi fruit plants are supplied as pot grown plants, and as climbers requiring support, can be grown in the same fashion as vines.
Kiwi varieties within our listings can actually tolerate extremely low temperatures, and so are suited to the often unpredictable British climate.
The Kiwi plant’s fruit – also known as Chinese Gooseberries – were first discovered growing in southern China. But in the last century many new cultivars have been produced and subsequently acclimatised to growing conditions in Europe, and right here in the UK. Although growing under glass prevents any risk of damage to delicate plant blossom in Spring, many varieties of kiwi plant will grow happily in a warm, sunny aspect in a domestic garden, favouring well-drained soils, but disliking acidic soil conditions.
As a climber, your Kiwi plant will require support as it grows, much in the same way as a grape vine is grown. Some of our Kiwi plant varieties can reach around eight metres in length, although this can be reduced with adequate and appropriate pruning.
We have endeavoured to provide a selection of Kiwi plants that offer the most delicious tasting kiwifruits, and as such you will find that our listings include both self sterile and self fertile kiwi plants for sale. With our self sterile varieties, a male flowering plant is required to pollinate a complementary female flowering plant variety in order to produce fruit, with roughly one male Kiwi plant required for up to seven female kiwi plants. But for those with less room to spare, our self fertile varieties provide a practical space-saving solution as each single plants is able to self pollinate and produce fruits.