Hello again everyone, I have completed my repotting and would like to share a couple pictures. Here's a pic of the roots; as you can see the spiraling of the roots had this guy very pot bound (I was shocked to see so few roots overall however): Here's the finished plant: So I removed the plant from it's old pot and got to chopsticking. The dirt removed easily and was definitely very powdery (seemed like pretty much 100% peat moss and very fine). After working all of the old substrate out I washed the roots gently to remove anything trapped. Then I trimmed the roots, and applied a thin coat of rooting hormone to the cut root ends. I mixed a 25/75 orchid mix/ OilDri substrate, put a thin layer of this in the pot, made a little mound of substrate at the center (after finishing I wish I would have made it a bit higher in the center), and then proceeded to add the rest and work it around well. Then I gently submerged the pot in water for 10-15 minutes, then let it drain. As you can see in the final pic I have a weight on the opposite side that the plant is leaning. While it wasn't going to fall on it's own, I decided that since I didn't anchor the plant I'll just keep a bit of weight on this side for a couple weeks until I'm confident new roots have formed to firmly hold the plant. I hadn't originally planned to have the plant tilted, but the combination of that and my pruning has it a bit less balanced than I would like. In the future I would have anchored the roots, but live and learn. :) Thanks again everyone for your help and advice, and I'll report back to this post in a couple of weeks, hopefully with good results and 3 new plants to be trained as actual bonsai from the cuttings!

Hi vjeko My kiwi are hardy, and I'm still learning too. But it looks to me like you did a fine job pruning those traditional non hardy kiwi already. Now it's time to sit back and let them grow. On mine fruit are produced only on branches that were new growth the prior year. If you prune more now you will mess with future crops. Once growth starts if any branch gets too long for your support setup that is when you should prune to shorten as needed. That will then make the plant start sending side branches from that shortened branch which will be the fruit bearers the following year. Mine are so old that I basically chop off 1 large trunk each spring at approx 2 ft height to promote new branching. Those new branches are what will fruit following year so to increase crop I remove what seems like any excessively close branches, plus I cut off end of those new branches to promote side branches whenever they seem long enuf. This gives the plant lots of other growth to feed it while using just one branch per year to produce fruit for me. I know you want to do it right and you want fruit asap. Honestly, it will grow and you will learn year by year. Mine were planted before I knew much about internet so I had to figure it out by myself. I still struggle to pick at correct time as if you wait til they soften you've waited too long. Pick when look full size and let soften on the counter or the soft fruit will fall, bruise, and be less tasty. HTH Pam in cinti

It will be interesting to see what kind of fruit they produce (larger size of fuzzy with hardiness of issai would be awesome!!) We moved last summer and the location I put my issai's proved to be not a good one. It turned out to be a very wet area and this spring they were not looking to good. I potted the plants to relocate them later (not thinking they would survive) but they slowly came back and new shoots emerged from the base. I have about 20 flower buds just blooming right now but unfortunately no male currently blooming. On a side note, my Arctic Beauty male (also planted in the wet zone) suffered major rot at the base and the bark peeled right off. I noticed the previous years growth still looked okay so I clipped several 8" pieces of those branches and stuck them in a pot after dipping them in rooting hormone and covered with plastic. They all broke out in bud and started growing new vines and actually bloomed flowers all without any roots forming whatsoever on the cuttings!! I've added to my collection now with Meader(f) and Dumbarton's Oaks(f) to go along with my Anna and Issai. Have you had any experience with the 'A. Jumbo' variety???

MHG, I've read that hardy kiwi are from northern China and Japan. I'm not sure, but I think the climate would be a lot like ours in the north east. JD, I'm definitely not an expert- just getting started with them. I was able to propagate some from cuttings last June (I've read dormant cuttings don't work well). Now, a year and a half later, they look about like what you would get from a nursery. Rather than starting from cuttings, I'd suggest getting some nursery plants- Rolling River Nursery is a great source. Later, let me know if you want some scionwood to graft some more varieties. Scott, I've had lots of bad ones, but none were ripe enough. From the nursery descriptions, they were all supposed to ripen earlier than mid-October. Some of them I've been sampling 1-2 per week since the start of September. When did you pick yours? If you picked them earlier, even a wrinkled surface may not have been enough to make them taste good. You've got me looking forward to Ken's Red, though it is taking it's time. How much different are the kiwi you grow from the ones in the store? I like the hardy kiwi a lot better than the store-bought fuzzies, even before considering that I don't need to peel them. But, if home-grown fuzzies are great, I should at least give them a try. Here's a pic of what they look like when I eat them. I think the wrinkles is what made some people hesitant to try them...Most of these were 21-23 brix, with one at 24 and one of the smallest ones at 14 (not sure what happened with it). Note- none of these are the biggest- I've already finished most of them :)