If you want to propagate kiwis yourself, you usually do it through cuttings or planters. The kiwis available in specialist stores are refined, i.e. H. created from the connection of two plant parts - a base with a scion.
How to propagate kiwis through grafting?
To refine kiwis, seeding, copulating or grafting can be used. Inoculation occurs at the end of summer, copulation at the end of winter, and grafting in spring. The combination of rootstock and scion enables the desired kiwi variety to be propagated.
When grafting, a new tree with the desired properties is created from two original plants. The goal is to obtain a pure descendant of the desired variety. The rootstock and the scion should come from the same plant species or a related species. There are several ways to refine the kiwi bushes:
- Occulate
- Copulate
- grafting
Occulating at the end of summer
In August, when the bark can be easily removed, a bud (the so-called eye) is cut out of one kiwi plant and inserted into the kiwi plant to be grafted. The cut should be made with a sharp cutting knife (€12.00 on Amazon). The bud is cut out together with a piece of bark. The eye grows in size within a relatively short period of one to two weeks.
Copulating at the end of winter
To copulate, you need a scion that is about as strong as the branch with which it will later be connected. The scions are cut from the bush of the desired variety between December and January and stored in a cool, moist and dark place. At the end of February, you connect the two diagonally cut branches together by pressing the cut surfaces together, wrapping the area with raffia and sealing it with tree wax.
Grafting in spring
In April-May you can graft the obtained scions onto the previously cut rootstock. To do this, cut into the bark of the base, put the scion behind the bark and connect the area. In this way, rice obtained from the female kiwi can be grafted onto the kiwi plant grown from seeds, the gender of which is unknown.
Tips & Tricks
More than half of the home-grown seedlings are male. Often even plants purchased as female turn out to be male.
