Kiwi Graft. 4.27.19

Male Fuzzy Kiwi Graft And Possible Blooming Spur on Blake Kiwi.  4.27.19

This is fuzzy male kiwi graft is from Home Orchard Society.  The main shrub / vine is Blake Red Kiwi, a somewhat hardier version of fuzzy kiwi that is claimed to be at least partially self-fruitful, depending on whose website you beleive.  It has not bloomed yet but there appear to  be flower spurs so we will see.

Often, fruits that are partially self-fruitful will be larger or more productive if there is a male or other cultivar, depending on the species.  There isn't a lot of info out there on kiwis for the maritime Pacific Northwest, so anything I do is an experiment.

The grafted male is a green leaf variety, while the Blake has a red tinge.  Easy to tell apart.

Kiwis have a delicate stem with central pith.  The carpentry is a little challenging for making grafts, but it looks like they took.  They are whip-and-tongue, wrapped firmly and I matched the green cambium as best I could.  Also, I had a hard time telling which way was up on the grafts,  so I grafted two in one direction and two in the other direction.

This one was apparently right-side up, since it's growing so far.

I think that understock growth on this stem needs to be pruned, now, so it doesn't compete with the graft.