Kiwi Farming In Detail Farming Guide For Beginner

Hello, welcome to the new blog of website rabi crops, in this blog we are going to share our experience of kiwi farming. This is the Beginner’s guide for kiwi cultivation. You will know everything that is required for Kiwi cultivation.

Kiwi Farming In Short

Botanical Name Of Kiwi:-	Actinidia deliciosa.
origin place of kiwi is:-	China.
The largest Producer Of kiwi is:-	China.
Soil requirement:-	PH 5.5-6.5, Sandy-loam Soil.
Temperature Requirement:-	Above form -2.5 and below from 38 degree Celsius.
Rainfall Required:-	120 to 130 mm per year.
Chilling Hour:-	600 to 700 hr.
kiwi Propagation:-	Rootstock, cutting, budding, grafting.
Varieties:-	Bruno, Abbott.
Fertilizer Requirement:-	20 to 25 tons FYM, N, P, K Fertilizer According to soil testing.
Irrigation:-	sept-Oct, according to environmental condition of area.
Harvesting:-	Per vines:- 50 to 80 kg, Per Hactare:- 25 to 25 tons.
Storage:-	Room temperature:- 6 to 7 days, Zero degree:- more than 6 month.

Introduction To Kiwi Farming

Kiwi, a small sweet and tangy fruit, day by day growing demand for kiwi, ? it becomes a star for the horticulturists, farmers and entrepreneurs of this present decade.

The botanical name of kiwi is Actinidia deliciosa

The origin place of kiwi is the Yangtze River valley of south and central China.

We all know that kiwi originated in China, but New Zealand introduced commercial kiwi cultivation to the world and benefit from the economic potential of kiwi. So because of this, we know it as “China’s miracle fruit” and “Horticulture wonder of New Zealand”.

The top 10 Kiwi growing countries are China, Italy, New Zealand, Iran, Chile, Greece, France, Turkey, the United States of America, Japan.

We can easily identify the kiwi with a rusty brown colour with a hairy surface. It is so similar to spota fruit by shape and colour of the fruit.

We know Kiwi for its refreshing and delicate flavour; the aroma is also pleasing.

Kiwi is nutrient-dense fruit with a tremendous amount of Vitamin C. It is also rich in potassium, antioxidants and high dietary fibre. For pregnant women, it is very helpful because it contains folate. Kiwi is also very helpful in preventing kidney stones because it contains enormous amounts of potassium. It is also very helpful for heart health because of antioxidants in kiwi, Antioxidants reduce the free radicles present in our body and improve the blood circulation with this health of heart improves. Vitamin C is very helpful for skin health as well.

Area and Production For Kiwi Farming

In these recent years, China is the largest producer of kiwi it alone grow 50% of total production in the world, total production of kiwi in China is 2.1 million tonnes and every year it is growing by 5 to 6%.

The second-largest producer of kiwi is Italy. it produces yearly 555k tonnes per year, and growth per year in the production of kiwi in Italy is 2.6% per year.

The third-largest producer of kiwi in this world is New Zealand. It produces 437k tonnes per year and every year growth in the production is 1.1%; it produces 10% kiwi of the world share.

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Soil requirement for kiwi farming

We can grow kiwi in all different soil. Just we need to follow the condition that a sufficient amount of moisture should be present in the soil.

We will not suggest growing kiwi in heavy clay soil with very poor drainage, as it will harm the crop. We should do kiwi cultivation in the sandy-loamy soil with an outrageous amount of organic matter and good drainage.

Good PH of the soil is also very important for the proper growth and development of vines and fruit production and the PH between 5.5 to 6.5 is perceived as the best PH for the kiwi.

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Climatic Requirement For Kiwi cultivation

We all know the vines of the kiwi are very hard. It can tolerate a wide range of climatic conditions, but if we want wonderful production, we need to understand the climatic requirement of the plant.

We have seen people growing kiwi in all different ranges of the temperature from warm temperature zone to cold temperature zone.

We have observed plants can’t handle temperatures below -2.5 degrees Celsius. It is an extremely dangerous situation for the plant in this condition newly grown shoots and buds if the fruit will get damaged. So we need to protect our plants from these conditions.

As we have learnt above that cold condition is dangerous to the plant same we have to protect plants in warm conditions also, temperature above 38 degree Celsius is very critical in this condition leaf of the plant will start breaking and we can also observe sunburn in leaves and fruit of the plant if this condition will continue we can also see the wilting and death of the plant.

For the proper growth and development of the plant and fruit, rainfall between 120 to 130 cm during the entire growth period is sufficient or artificial irrigation can also manage it.

We can easily grow Kiwi in the area where chilling hr is between 600 to 700 hours in the whole growing season.

The high speed of the wind can also damage the fruits and newly grown stems so we have to protect a plant from this.

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propagation in kiwi growing

They can grow Kiwi by two methods by which we can grow the kiwi.

1.  Growing kiwi through rootstock.
2. Growing kiwi with asexual propagation like cutting, budding and grafting.

Growing kiwi through rootstock.

Here we are going to share names of some cultivars of kiwi who have an outstanding record for their germination rate and strong seedling vigour.

the first cultivar is Bruno:- in this cultivar fruit has dark colour skin and fruit with light green tasty flesh, it gives production up to 50 pounds per plant, the chilling hour is also less only between 50 to 250 hr in the whole growing season.

The second cultivar is Abbott:- in this cultivar fruit have medium size, with densely hairy above the skin of the fruit, the colour of the skin is brownish, the flesh of the fruit is light-green, with very good flavour.

Commercial Propagation Of Kiwi

We commercially propagated Kiwi fruit through cutting, grafting and tissue culture.

Propagation by cuttings

• Cultivators of kiwi always prefer the method of cutting because it is the fastest and easiest method of growing kiwi.
• Mainly three types of cutting are used to grow the rooted plant of kiwi hard wood cutting, semi-hardwood, softwood cutting.
• We will suggest when you are doing the cutting, keep the thickness of cutting between 0.5 to 1cm thick.

Commonly we get the question what should be the length of the cutting for growing kiwi, we will suggest to you don’t measure the length in cm notice the number of buds present, we will recommend keeping at least 4 to 5 bud in the cutting and we have observed if the length of cutting will be in between 10 to 15 cm easily we will get 4 to 5 buds in it.

The recommended time period for cutting

• We should do semi-hardwood cutting in June-July
• We should do hardwood cutting in January-February

The plant should be at-least 1-year-old for doing cutting.

After doing the proper cutting, we will suggest dipping it in root growing hormone IBA for 10 to 15 seconds, not more than this, and then we can grow it in the open field.

Cultivation of kiwi by grafting and budding methods

When we are going to cultivate kiwi on a large scale, then the grafting and budding method is used to grow.

Preparation of nursery takes time up to 1.5 years to 2 years. But after that, we can grow it easily. This method is very much efficient at a cheap price.

For this method, we have to grow nursery, and before showing the seeds in the nursery we should make alternate layering of seed and moist soil and we should keep it for 31 to 35 days at the temperature of 0 to 5 degrees Celsius. this process is done to break the dormancy of the seed.

We have to take care of the nursery, visit the nursery at proper time intervals, we should do weeding at proper time gap in the nursery and protect it from external rodents and pests.

We will also suggest growing a nursery in the greenhouse or net house to protect the young growing plants from external rodents and pests. It will also protect the young sensitive plant from direct sunlight because, in the early stage of growth, it can’t handle so much direct heat it can die.

It will take 1 year to reach the proper size of grafting, the technique that is used in kiwi cultivation is Tongue grafting and Chip budding.

We should start grafting at the end of January to the first week of March. This will give a success rate of 90 to 95%.

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Planting of kiwi:- 

• We will suggest growing from December to January.
• Land, where we are going to grow the kiwi, should be flat with a normal slope.
• Spacing between the plant depends on the variety of the plant. Varieties like Allison, Abbott, Monty plant to plant space should be between 5 metres to 6 metres and row to row space we should maintain is 4 to 5 metres.
• We will suggest checking the proper space between the plants and space between the row before planting the kiwi.
• We should maintain proper space between the plants for perfect fruit production.

Soil And Fertilizer Requirement for kiwi farming:-

• The soil on which we are growing the kiwi should be rich in organic content, if organic content in soil is less, we will suggest growing green manure crops before planting kiwi and increasing organic content in the soil.
• The fertility of the soil should be good.
• We should do kiwi farming in soil with good drainage and aeration, clay soil or heavy soil that holds water for a long time is not perfect for kiwi cultivation.

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Fertilizer Requirement

We should know this production of kiwi depends on the vegetative growth of the vines and, for the proper growth and development of the vines, it requires a proper amount of manure and fertilizer.

we will suggest doing a soil test before planting the kiwi from that you will get accurate information about the deficient fertilizer in the soil because the quantity of the fertilizer we are applying depends on the soil type, climatic condition and the age of the vines.

We suggest you use 20 to 25 tons/ha of farmyard manure {fym} as the basal dose in kiwi farming.

In the chemical fertilizer, we will suggest using a mixture of nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer and potassium fertilizer in which nitrogen percentage should be 15% and total mixture fertilizer that we should use each year is 0.5 kg only.

When the age of the plant is 8 years or over 8 years, we will recommend using 70 to 80 kg of farmyard manure at the root zone, 750 to 800-gram nitrogen fertilizer 500 to 550-gram phosphorus fertilizer and 1150 to 1200 grams of potassium to be used because in this period fertilizer requirement increases.

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Irrigation in kiwi farming

• Kiwi vines require irrigation during September–October.
• We will suggest irrigating kiwi with Sprinkler irrigation or drip irrigation.
• As the vines of the kiwi are susceptible to water, hence well drainage of water in kiwi farming is the priority.
• We have observed On average, 2000 cubic meters/hector is the significant water requirement for kiwi farming.
• When the kiwi plant is in the young stage, it requires more irrigation. We will suggest irrigating in the interval of 2 to 3 days.
• we will suggest checking moisture content in the root zone before irrigating the kiwi.

Land preparation

 We should plant vines of the kiwi in rows and we should take care that every plant of kiwi must receive an ample amount of sunlight.

Hence, we will suggest growing kiwi plants in the north-south alignment of the plantation is ideal.

We require doing manuring before planting.

We will suggest January is a suitable time for the plantation of kiwi fruits.

The seedlings/seeds are being put into pits of 30-40 cm deep with top dressing with the proper amount of farmyard manure.

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Proper management of canopy is very important in kiwi farming for satisfactory growth and development of plants and fruits.

Pruning Process In kiwi farming

Kiwi vines need regular pruning for the proper growth and development of vines.

We will suggest not to do the Pruning process in the very first year of cropping only straight growth of the kiwi main stem should give priority.  

We will suggest doing pruning in the cold season. It is very important to do because it will improve light distribution among the canopy, lower leaves of the plant.

We have observed by doing regular Pruning in kiwi farms improves the fruit setting, by doing Pruning transportation will be toward young fresh shoots and it will grow more.

A complimentary summer pruning in the kiwi field can add better yield, as this will also reduce competition among the growing young shoots.

Pollination Requirement in kiwi farming

We should know that kiwi is a dioecious plant (the type of plant in which both males and female flowers are not present at the same plant) so pollination is very important in kiwi for fruit formation.

• During planting the kiwi plant, we should plant male plants in the row after every nine plants.
• The wind and insects complete the process of pollination. It plays a very important role in the production of kiwi.
• We have observed an increase in the production of kiwi after introducing honeybee in kiwi farming.
• We will also suggest doing hand pollination also for a good size of kiwi and production of the kiwi will also increase.

Harvesting of kiwi

After the complete process of kiwi cultivation, now it is time to harvest the kiwi fruit.

It is very tough to identify that kiwi are ready to harvest because the colour of the skin, size of the fruit and colour of the flesh don’t change after maturity. It remains the same as it is.

• We can easily remove the skin of the fruit after maturity. This is also a way of identification.
• We can also check the maturity of the fruit by checking the TSS of the fruit. It should be 6.20B TSS at the time of harvesting.
• The common question we get is how to do harvesting of kiwi?
• we will suggest doing harvesting manually by hand just by twisting the fruit genteelly.
• During harvesting, remember to pluck the fruit without a stalk.
• Yield 50 to 110 kg per vines, 25 to 25 tons per ha.

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Grading and Packing of kiwi

Grading:-

According to the international standard of the kiwi grading, we should divide it into three types:

Grade A Of kiwi:- Fruit weight should be above 100 grams.

Grade B Of the kiwi:– Fruit weight should be between 70 grams to 100 grams.

Grade C Of the kiwi:- it is the lowest grade of the kiwi weight will be less than 70 grams.

Packing of kiwi:-

we will suggest packing kiwi genteelly, don’t press it, don’t drop it on a hard surface.

Pack the kiwi in the tray. We can use plastic trays or cardboard trays depending on availability.

Arrange 30 to 33 fruit of 100 grams each in a tray.

Storage Of Kiwi

We can store Kiwi fruit for a long time at a normal temperature. We can store it for 6 to 7 weeks at a normal temperature.

When we store kiwi in the refrigerator for a long time till 7 to 9 months at temperature, we should maintain zero degrees Celsius and relative humidity at 90% during storage.   

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we have collected all this information with our own experience of Kiwi Farming and also studied from icar website and Wikipedia website.

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