Pruning of Kiwi

Pruning

      Knowledge of growth and fruiting habit of kiwi vine is essential for its pruning. The vine should grow 2–4m every year which may become over-crowded and unmanageable if not controlled by both summer and winter pruning. The fruits develop only on current season’s growth, arising from the buds developed in the previous year. Only basal 3–6 buds of the current season’s growth are productive. The shoots developed on older wood by heading back do not fruit normally in the first season. Good quality fruits develop on the exposed vines. A shoot dies gradually if it is pruned just beyond the fruiting bud.

      Thus pruning in kiwi should be carried out in such a way that the fruiting areas are available every year requiring the wood to be young. This is achieved by following a 3–4 year lateral replacement system which becomes a pruning cycle. In the beginning, a lateral arising from main rod is cut back in winter to provide enough space for 4–5 fruiting shoots at 4–5 bud interval between 2 such shoots. The strong uprights or the shoots arising at undesirable points are pruned in spring when they have not grown too long. This is more applicable to Hayward variety, in which the shoots of only medium vigour bear fruits. In others, vigorous shoots can be pulled back to horizontal position to convert them into fruiting wood. Thus the summer pruning constitutes in shortening back of fruiting arms, thinning out of crisscross and shading shoots. The secret of successful summer pruning is in the selection and encouragement of correct laterals to bear fruits in the next year and expose the vine to the sun.

       In dormant pruning, the fruiting lateral is cut back to 2 vegetative buds beyond the last fruit. In the second year, these vegetative buds produce the fruiting shoots which are pruned again. The arms on the lateral shoots and allowed to fruit during third or fourth year. After this, the laterals are removed from the main branch and other laterals are selected and pruned accordingly so that the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth is maintained for the continuity in fruit production.

      The fruiting laterals which have lost vigour or become over-crowded are removed to encourage the development of new laterals. Since the fruiting arm is removed after the third year it implies that about one-third of the total fruiting arms are cut away from the vine each year. These are cut back to permanent leaders. Dormant pruning must be completed by mid-February each year.