Recommended soil pH for kiwi is said to be 6.5, with some people growing these plants in soil with pH = 5.5. Do you know the pH of your soil? Yellow leaves could be iron chlorosis, due to high soil pH.

Is it in full intense sun? If so, then it could be sunburn. It does best with some shade during hot weather.

Well, the pH is the likely culprit. While most of the leaves are just solid yellow, some do look somewhat chlorotic. I did put some lime down early in the spring but the soil is probably still too acidic.

My soil is prety acidic naturally, so it is probably going to be challenging to keep the pH high enough.

Other than applying lime, are there other methods for raising the soil pH? I know the lime takes time and I hate seeing the plant suffer.

Thanks for your input!

Jeanne

No more lime. You need to lower soil pH, not raise it. The kiwi grows best in soil with pH around 6.5, which is slightly acidic. Neutral pH is 7, and that is also the pH of pure water. If you have hard water, with lime deposits left in the teapot, the pH of your water might be 7.5. You could lower soil pH by watering with tap water that has been amended with vinegar, 6 ounces of vinegar per 4 gallons of water. It might take 6 or 8 treatments to lower soil pH enough to green up the leaves. It will take a month or two for the leaves to recover.

My soil is naturally around 4.5 - 5.0. I live in the mountains of NC and wild blueberries, azaleas and rhodies abound. They grow wild in my yard, so I don't think my pH is too high. I didn't put much lime down this spring, just enough to give it a boost, which is probably still too acid for the kiwi.

Jeanne

I can't say for certain that your kiwi suffers from iron chlorosis. However, iron chlorosis does cause leaves to turn yellow, and it is often caused by soil pH that is too high, which prevents the plant from absorbing iron through the roots. If you have wild blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons growing wild in your area, then the native soil must be on the acid side of the pH scale. You might have hard water, you might not, tap water comes from underground acquifers, usually. I have caused blueberry shrubs to suffer from yellow leaves, by watering them with our tap water, which is supplied by the city, and has a pH of 7.6. There is a lot of limestone in Wisconsin. I realize that checking pH is not practical when only one or two plants are involved. Based on what you describe, I suspect that the soil around your kiwi is on the alkaline side of the scale, maybe pH = 7.5. If you have watered the plant with tap water, that contains dissolved limestone, then the pH will have moved up in that particular spot. To know for sure if soil pH is causing the yellow leaves, the pH would have to be checked.

I may have to have the soil tested. I would like to plant another but obviously need to figure out what's wrong with this one first.

I am finding it a bit challenging to grow plants here as my soil is sandy and acidic and we get gobs of rain, about 6" a month. I put my rhubarb in a raised bed to avoid our native soil. Time will tell how that does.

I am on a well and don't have much lime or calcium in the water. I'm originally from outside of Chicago and am familiar with that. I went through gallons of CLR.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I think I'll have the soil tested this fall. I just added lime so it wouldn't be worth the $$ to have it tested right now.

Jeanne

The soil we have in Madison, Wisconsin, where I live, is high in clay, & it tends to clump up & stick to the shovel. The pH is around 7.6, and it has high levels of calcium, magnesium, and iron. Our garden plot is much easier to dig and work now, but we have been making compost from mostly shredded tree leaves, and adding this to the garden plot, for nearly 20 years. I have to lower soil pH, mainly with sulfur, in order to grow blueberries. We do OK with tomatoes, raspberries, broccoli, green beans, & swiss chard. The soil in our garden plot tests pH = 7.6.

Jeanne, my Issai did that exact same thing and then it died. I never figured out why. It was in a row with many other kiwis and none of them died. If your Issai dies I would replace it with a male/female pair including e.g. Geneva 3 (thats my favorite one, fruits early and often). If you prune the male back to next to nothing then it won't take up much space at all.

Scott

The reason I planted Issai is because it starts fruiting early and doesn't require a male. We plan on opening a fruit stand maybe next year and I was hoping it would be producing some fruit. It also isn't as aggressive of a grower.

For those with kiwi, how do you keep it in check and how do you harvest the fruit?

Jeanne

The way you keep a kiwi in place is by pruning it several times in the summer. I probably prune back 3 times every summer, removing any shoot that is sticking out more than a couple feet from the planting. I use some electric hedge trimmers and the job only take a couple minutes. In the winter I thin out the canes and prune way back, like how grapes are pruned.

I'm not sure what you are asking about harvesting, I just pick them when they are softening.

Some people have good luck with Issai, but I have also heard of several failures of it beyond mine. I think it is prone to dying when it is young. Issai doesn't require nearly as much pruning since it is not very vigorous at all.

Scott

I really don't find my Issai to produce fruit by itself, and it is probably over 12 years old. Each year I get tons of blooms and fruit set, but within a few weeks they all abort and fall off. I have a male planted now but it is not flowering yet. Issai does bloom precocious and I had some flower the 1st year after I started a couple new plants from layering, but I have read others having the same issue with no or minimal fruit and in my location Issai seems useless, and just hoping when my male matures it will hold the pollinated fruit, as if I recall it doesnÂt really pollinate itself. The only reason IÂm keeping it around is that it supposedly a little smaller plant. I hope you and others have had better luck.

It is possible to cause iron chlorosis with an application of phosphorus. But I have never seen this in our blueberry shrubs, whenever I see yellow leaves, I always find high pH, when I test the soil.

What about your kiwiberry now? After so many year of grow!

i had one a few years ago and it didn't like being in sun all day and kind of yellowed, did better when I moved it to get shade part of the day