skyjs,how do the arctic perform for you? I see alot of posters on here from zone8 and higher giving up on them because they just don't seem to survive for them(too much heat/sun maybe?) Capoman,the pics I posted earlier are them just budding out.If you look closely you can see the little flower balls forming.See the link below for a picture I took last year and you can see what they look like mid summer.As far as soil PH...well I have never taken my soil to get tested.I can say that I have wild blueberries on my property and have named high bush varieties which do well(Although I do give more love to my high bush berries and give them peat moss and fertilizer for acid loving plants). But the funny thing is, is that the kiwi in the pics is growing in 6 to 8 inches of pure well rotted horse manure.When I built our new deck a few years ago, I made a 4'x8' box frame out of 2"x 8" hemlock ,dug out all the native soil and started hauling trailer loads of manure from my neighbors farm.Filled the box up and plopped the little kiwis in.They grow a lot more vigorously than any of the other kolomikta on my property and just about as vigorous as the argutas.As I stated in an earlier post,I have no dieback on them even though I "over fertilize them".At the same time I took some of that manure and just top dressed the soil around a few argutas to see what would happen,and man they grew ,and grew and grew and didn't stop until frost nuked them in the fall.It seemed like all the super growth they put on didn't know when to harden off so most of it died back anyway(about 8-10 feet)!It was a very good lesson for me. Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg091538118923.html

I potted them in a 'terra cotta' colored containers and mulched about 2 inches deep and will keep them in filtered sun/partial shade. Used a quality potting mix with slow release fertilizer. Containers have good drainage holes so over-watering should not be an issue and they will get watered when all the other plants get a drink. If they start to show stress, I may plant in the ground but there is a chance that I would need to dig them back up and move them next Spring. Wondering how stressful that would be on the plants vs. babying them in the containers and hoping for the best outcome. During the winter, I will need to store the containers/Kiwi plants in our unheated garage and will throw a handful of snow on them once a month for moisture. This will allow the plants some protections from our brutual winter but also give them the required chill time and allow the plants to go dormant.

I have a Silas Woods that I bought from the real treehouse nursery in Pine Island (not the PI nursery). They are the original source for the Sillas Woods sapodilla. In fact the picture of the tree shown on the Russian nursery site is the actual tree that is the source of budwood at the real treehouse used to graft this sapodilla. The tree shown in the picture from what I was told is over 15yrs old and it measures approximately 8 feet high. I paid $30 for a two gallon size pot. The plant was only 1.5 feet high and it had flowers on it. It managed to produce one sapodilla that I just ate a few days ago. The taste was very sweet, creamy, with absolutely no grit. It tasted like a pear with brown sugar on it. The skin is very thing and you can actually eat it with the fruit. The fruit itself looked like a mini football. It measured 3.5" long and about 1.5" wide. The plant is now full of new blooms again. It has branched out and its now about 3 feet high. I moved it to a 3 gallon pot about a few weeks ago. If you are looking for a tree that is a heavy producer of quality fruit and stays small this is the one.

Lisa, Sorry that I am not sure at all, I really hope that it's not the case. But people from Montreal Botanical Garden told me so. Obviously I am very disappointed if I can't have any pods. If there are many trees in one area, the cross polination is very likely by insects flying around, they obviously don't just rely on one flower to feed themselves. I have been trying to be a smart insect for two years, but no success so far. It's quite disappointing that after a flush of flowers, then all brown up and fell off.