I have a similar trellis with 4X4 posts instead of telephone poles. I have 3 posts about 15 feet apart (total of 30 feet), three strands of wire. I have 3 artic kiwi plants and a grape vine on them. After pruning the kiwis are attached to the center strand and allowed to spread to the other two strands. They pretty much are full during the growing season. So my guess is that you can have two kiwi plants for 15 feet of trellis. I would plant them four feet from the poles allowing them to run in both directions. This post was edited by CharlieBoring on Mon, Apr 29, 13 at 9:58

Glenn, It's my first post! I'm in USDA zone 7a in Maryland and I've been very happy with Ken's Red. It is a LOT more vigorous than Issai, so either plan on some heavy duty pruning or make sure you have the room. The fruits are larger and, in my family's opinion, they taste better. You might also want to consider Ananasnaya aka Anna (make sure it's not the Kolomikta, but the Arguta variety) which is the most popular commercial cultivar. Since you've struggled to get fruit in spite of having waited 8 years, you might also consider Geneva. It is very vigorous too, but there are dozens of flowers on my Geneva this year and it's only 2 years old! For any non-Issai variety, that's fast. By comparison, it took 3 years for my Ken's Red to produce a couple fruits. The 4th year, I got maybe 20. The 5th year (which is this year), I counted over 1400 flowers, so I'm going to get a bumper crop! My Issai went through a similar pattern, but started on year 2 - which is not unusual for that clone. Fortunately, it's cranking up the volume. Last year, which was year 4, I had a few hundred and this year there's around 2,000 flowers or so. Of course, the Issai fruits are quite a bit smaller than the Ken's Red, so I should get more lbs out of the Ken's Red this year (I'm guessing 40 lbs or so) and A LOT more next year, since it's still a young plant. All of these varieties are (or at least, were) available at EdibleLandscaping. Considering everything, I'd probably decide between those three based on when I wanted the fruits. Ananasnaya ripens later, about 3 weeks after Ken's Red. Geneva is earlier; it ripens a couple weeks before Issai. For me at least, Ken's Red and Issai ripened around the same time. Any of EdibleLandscaping's male Argutas will pollinate those. I hope that helps answer your question. Good luck! - kiwi_MD

Don, Here's the situation with the fig seedling: I posted here on the fig forum and was told that the fruit would have either inedible male fruit (50%) or almost certainly inferior female fruit (not just so-so, but bad). People did point out a source for cheap cuttings, and getting those going has been a lot of fun. Of course the original seedling would/will have been a great decorative plant as well. I think there's something special about the plant that just "appears" and is not planned out in advance. Certainly also I'm not the first who has stared down at the fruit he is eating and wondered whether he could grow it from seed--does it matter whether the seedling is not a clone if it is a passion fruit, a fig, a kiwi...? Some matter more than others of course. I think my question gets at a few things that people in the "look what I found" or "will this seed grow" camp might be interested in knowing. Most importantly: how long until I will know if it's male or female? But also: are fruits from rootstocks (if any), seedlings, etc. tasty? If it's a night and day issue in terms of taste then that's one thing, but if it's a 50% chance it will be worth growing and eating, that's another. I guess I just don't need 100% assurance. In fact, to many of us that just makes the whole process a lot more interesting. However, the sooner I can get rid of a mistake (male plant, bad fruit) the better. As I say, with the fig I was pretty much assured it was not worth it.

My anna hardy kiwis made about a gallon of fruit this year. I have 2 female and one male. Next spring I am going to attempt to graft a female on the male so that I have one leader that is female and one that is male. My plants are supported by 3 "T-Trellises" connected by wires. Each spring I have to take off the plants from the trellis when I prune them and tighten the wires. The weight is too much for them and they slowly sag. I also have some fuzzy kiwis that are only 3 years old that are growing on my pergola shown here. By next year I hope to have them cover the pergola and maybe get fruit. Some said that the fuzzies would not grow in Northern VA, but so far, so good.