2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Today you will not surprise anyone with pears and cherries in your garden. And if you want to have unusual fruit and berry representatives of the flora among your pets, take a closer look at actinidia. In terms of its taste, it is able to compete with such old-timers of private household farms, such as grapes or gooseberries. And in appearance, actinidia is no less exotic than kiwi or momordica
Amazing actinidia
Some types of actinidia, such as kolomikt, are very profitable to plant on your site. They are hardy and rich in nutrients. In particular, in terms of the content of vitamin C, the mentioned species surpasses the black currant revered by many for the same qualities. To strengthen the immune system, it is enough to eat only one berry a day, while the berry itself has an average weight of no more than 3 g. But you should not abuse it - this is fraught with the appearance of a rash on the skin.
Actinidia arguta is less winter-hardy compared to the colomikt species. However, it has its own charms: it has larger berries - about 7 g - and the harvest is better preserved during transportation. In addition, it is distinguished by a later ripening period of the crop. If kolomikta has a pineapple flavor, then in the miniature "apples" of the argut there are also banana notes.
Features of growing actinidia
Actinidia is a dioecious plant. Therefore, for fruiting, you need to grow several plants: for example, 2 vines with male flowers and 5 with female flowers. When reproduction is performed not by cuttings, but by sowing seeds, it will be difficult to guess the separation of the sexes, so you need to plant at least 7 seedlings nearby in order to get both fruiting vines and pollinators.
When breeding actinidia in your area, you should be careful if you keep cats. For some reason known only to them, vines are extremely attractive to these animals. While actinidia is small, cats gnaw its shoots with pleasure. But this interest becomes less, the more the plant grows in size. Therefore, at first, it will be appropriate to protect the plantings with metal nets.
Planting actinidia
Actinidia is a vine climbing on an accessible support. These can be trees, trellises, homemade ladders specially built for this. She lacks tendrils, like grapes, or tenacious suckers. Instead, actinidia "uses" its strong long shoots, which tend upward and twist their support.
To provide your vine with such support, it is enough to build a trellis with a height of approximately 1.5 m. This is enough for 3-4 m long shoots to feel comfortable and bear fruit. The actinidia is planted along the structure at a distance of about 1.5 m from each other. The garter of vines is performed from the first year of planting.
Actinidia care
Liana is demanding on lighting. You can see that in the shade it develops poorly, but in the open sun it can die. The best option for her would be partial shade. It is better to build trellises for the plant against the wall of the building in the northeast direction. When propagated by seeds, seedling boxes with seedlings are also protected from direct sunlight.
Actinidia is very sensitive to soil moisture. Its root system is located in the surface layers of the earth, and it requires a sufficient amount of moisture. In this regard, it is not recommended to grow actinidia next to other trees, since it will not be able to compete with them for water. In addition, care must be taken to prevent natural drying out of the land. It is necessary to regularly moisten the site and take measures to preserve soil moisture.
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