Self fertile kiwi plants

[Primrose]

I suddenly have a bare space of west facing fence to fill and was wondering about growing a self fertile Kiwi plant to have something productive from it as well.

Has any body ever grown them? The fruit on the self fertile varieties seem to be very small - about the size of gooseberries I imagine and I wonder if they are over hyped. How long is it before they start becoming productive? And how sweet are they?

[Stonecoloured]

I looked into this last year. There are reports of them growing rampant! There are reports of people getting none - 3 fruit every year! & I've only found 1 report that said they had clusters of kiwis. A lot of reports say that they DO NOT like to be moved - at all - so once you have planted them, don't move as otherwise they will sulk!

Currently have 2 x issai kiwi (inside) as they seemed to be the most "reliable" (although NONE that I researched actually seemed to have glowing reports. Going to plant them out in spring.

With regards to the fruit - they are gooseberry size, have a very thin (and mostly smooth) skin, with some fuzz. They taste amazing! Sometimes Tesco and Sainsbury have them in the exotic fruit aisle as "cocktail kiwi"... Hope this helps

[Primrose]

Thanks for that insight. I wondered about how productive they actually were but haven't come across anybody who's had actual experience of growing them and if it takes ten years before they start fruiting in any quantity, I may be pushing up the daisies ! I'm also wondering whether they are climbers in the sense that they will need tying into trellis or wires,or whether the stems are strong enough to be free standing.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've grown one in a pot for a few years now and rarely get more than three or four fruits despite it having lots of flowers and bees loving it. It is Jenny which is supposed to be self fertile. I bought an Issai two years ago and grew it in a very sheltered corner but it didn't survive the winter. I might get a male to cross pollinate the Jenny, but am wondering whether it is worth bothering when I can buy them on the few occasions that I want to eat one.

The fruits are like large gooseberries and taste very nice, and the plant has strong twining stems so is self supporting given something to twine round. They fruit on new growth so you can keep them in check by cutting them back in autumn.