- 34 minutes ago
Turn one store-bought kiwi into a long-term gardening project, and learn the honest way to grow kiwi plants from seed at home. This guide shows how to clean the tiny black seeds from the fruit, wash away the sugary pulp that can cause mold, and sow them lightly in a warm, moist tray for germination.
The video also explains the three truths most growers miss: kiwi vines are male or female, seed-grown plants can take years to fruit, and seedlings do not always match the parent fruit. You’ll also hear practical advice on strong trellises, winter hardiness, late spring frost, watering, feeding, pruning, and why growing several seedlings gives you the best chance of ending up with a fruiting pair.
Created for home gardeners, seed-starting beginners, and anyone searching for how to grow kiwi from seed, kiwi seed germination, and fruit vine propagation. It’s a useful watch for backyard gardening, edible garden planning, and patient growers who want a real-world kiwi growing guide with clear, practical steps.
The video also explains the three truths most growers miss: kiwi vines are male or female, seed-grown plants can take years to fruit, and seedlings do not always match the parent fruit. You’ll also hear practical advice on strong trellises, winter hardiness, late spring frost, watering, feeding, pruning, and why growing several seedlings gives you the best chance of ending up with a fruiting pair.
Created for home gardeners, seed-starting beginners, and anyone searching for how to grow kiwi from seed, kiwi seed germination, and fruit vine propagation. It’s a useful watch for backyard gardening, edible garden planning, and patient growers who want a real-world kiwi growing guide with clear, practical steps.
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00:00Slice open a kiwi, that little brown fuzzy fruit, and look at all those tiny black seeds
00:05ringed through the green, hundreds of them in the one fruit, and every one of those seeds
00:11is a whole kiwi vine waiting to grow.
00:14So from a single kiwi off the store shelf, the one you were going to eat and throw the
00:19rest away, you could grow a hedge of kiwi vines for nothing.
00:24Today I will show you how, the right way, for there is a right way and a wrong way,
00:29and most who try it fail.
00:31But I am going to be more honest with you than the folk who show you this, for there
00:36are three things about the kiwi that near everyone leaves out, three things that decide whether
00:42you ever get a single kiwi off all your growing, and if you do not know them, you will grow
00:47vines for years and never taste a fruit.
00:51So stay with me, for it is those three truths that matter most.
00:55I am Elias, and growing a plant from the seed of the fruit you ate is a fine, thrifty wonder,
01:01and the kiwi gives up its seed easy.
01:04But the kiwi has some peculiar ways that you must know before you start, so let me give
01:10you the whole of it, honest.
01:12Quick word before I go further.
01:14The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:19I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:24The book is the long version.
01:26If you want it, it is there.
01:28I will not mention it again.
01:30An old neighbor of mine grew kiwis over a great arbor by his porch, and I asked him once
01:36how he came by them, and he laughed and said he had grown a whole row of vines from the
01:41seed of a single fruit years back, and then had to wait and watch them all flower to find
01:47which were his males and which his females before he ever knew if he would get a kiwi at all.
01:54Growing kiwi teaches you patience whether you want it or not, Elias, he said, and you had
01:59best know that before you start.
02:01I never forgot it, for it is the whole honest truth of the kiwi, and I will make sure you
02:07have it.
02:07So let me hand you the way of it.
02:09First, the getting of the seed, and the whole trick here is the same as with the blueberry.
02:15You must get that seed clean and free of the pulp.
02:19Take a ripe kiwi, or even one gone soft and past eating, all the better, for a good soft
02:25ripe one gives the ripest seed.
02:28Scoop out the green flesh with all its seeds into a cup, add water, and mash and pulse it,
02:35breaking up the pulp so it lets go of the tiny seeds.
02:38Then let it settle a moment, and here is the clever part.
02:41The seeds are heavier and sink to the bottom, while the light pulp and foam float up top.
02:47So you pour off that floating pulp with the water, add fresh water, swirl and pour again,
02:54two or three washings, till all that is left in the bottom is a little heap of clean black
02:59seeds with no pulp on them.
03:02Then tip them onto a plate to dry, and they separate easy for sowing.
03:06Now here is why that washing matters so, and it is the first thing folk get wrong.
03:11The pulp of the kiwi is full of sugar, and if you sow your seed with that sweet pulp still
03:17on it, the sugar feeds the molds and fungi in the soil, and they bloom right there among
03:23your seeds and rot and kill them before they can sprout.
03:26So clean, washed seed with the sugar rinsed away gives the fungus nothing to feed on and
03:33sprouts thick and free, while pulpy seed molds and fails.
03:38Now some folks skip the washing and just lay a slice of the kiwi right on the soil to sprout
03:43the seeds in it, and it half works.
03:46But I will tell you plain it is the poorer way, for that slice rots into a moldy mess that
03:52kills most of the seeds, and though the few tough ones that survive it come up hardy,
03:57you lose the most of them.
03:59So wash your seed clean, it is worth the small trouble.
04:03And do not throw out that sweet pulpy water you poured off, for it is a fine thing to water
04:09onto your garden, feeding the good life in the soil with its sugars.
04:13Now the sowing is simple, for these are tiny seeds.
04:16You fill a shallow tray with a loose, airy, moisture-holding mix, well loosened so the
04:23fine roots can push through, and moisten it.
04:26Then scatter your tiny seeds over the top, and barely cover them at all.
04:30Just press them onto the damp surface, or dust the barest sprinkle over, for a tiny seed buried
04:37deep will never reach the light.
04:40Then cover the tray with a clear lid, or a bit of glass, or a clear bag to hold the
04:46moisture
04:46in, a little glass house, and set it in a warm bright spot, but out of the direct sun, for
04:52direct sun on a closed tray cooks the little seeds dead.
04:57Bright but not sunny, warm and moist and covered, and in a couple weeks the tiny seeds sprout,
05:04the littlest green things.
05:07Then you uncover them, and once they have a few true leaves, you prick out the best and
05:12pot them on, each to grow with room.
05:16Now here comes the first great truth the sellers of this dream never make plain, and it is the
05:22one that will break your heart if you do not know it, so heed me close.
05:27A kiwi vine is either a male or a female.
05:31They are separate plants.
05:33And here is the thing.
05:35Only the female bears the fruit.
05:37The male vine never makes a kiwi, not one.
05:42All it makes is flowers full of pollen.
05:46And the female cannot fruit alone either, for she needs the male's pollen carried to her
05:51flowers to set her kiwis.
05:54So to ever get fruit, you must have both, a female vine to bear, and a male vine near her
06:02to pollinate her, the two together, or you get nothing.
06:05Now here is the cruel catch when you grow from seed, that you cannot tell a male seedling
06:13from a female one, not for years, not until they finally flower and show you, three, four,
06:20five years on.
06:22So you may raise up two fine kiwi vines from seed, tend them years, and find at last they
06:30are both males or both females, and you will never get a kiwi off them however you wait.
06:37That is why if you grow from seed, you must grow not two, but a good handful, five, six,
06:44even ten, and grow them all on, so that among that many you are near sure to have at least
06:51one female and one male, and can keep a pair and be rid of the rest once they show their
06:58flowers.
06:59Grow many, not two, or you gamble your years on a coin toss.
07:05That is the first truth, and the biggest.
07:09Now the second truth, the patience, and it is a long one.
07:13A kiwi grown from seed is slow to come to fruit, far slower than most folk dream, not a year
07:21or two, but three years at the very soonest, and often five, six, seven years before a seed-grown
07:30vine flowers and bears.
07:32So this is no quick crop.
07:34It is a long, patient project of many years, a vine you plant for your later years, or your
07:42children as much as yourself.
07:44Know that going in, and you will not be disappointed.
07:48But expect a kiwi in a year or two, and you will give up heart-sick long before it ever
07:54comes.
07:55Years, not seasons, is the kiwi's measure.
08:00And the third truth, that a kiwi grown from seed does not come out just like the fruit
08:06it came from.
08:07For the seed carries a mix, so your vines will vary, and may give fruit smaller or larger
08:14or different from the store kiwi you started with.
08:17You cannot know till they fruit.
08:20So it is a lucky dip, like the peach from its pit.
08:24That is half the fun of it, and you may raise a fine vine of your own.
08:28But know it for the gamble it is.
08:32So here is the honest counsel that follows from all three truths.
08:37Growing kiwi from seed is a grand, thrifty adventure, and worth doing for the wonder and
08:44the near nothing it costs.
08:46But know it for what it is, a long gamble of years that may or may not fruit.
08:53And if what you truly want is kiwis, for certain, and sooner, then the sure way is not seed at
09:01all.
09:01It is to get a known female vine and a known male vine of a good fruiting kind, either bought
09:09as young plants of known sex or, better and cheaper, grown by grafting or rooting a cutting
09:16off vines you know to be a good female and a good male.
09:21A cutting or a graft off a known vine gives you a vine of known sex, so you are sure
09:28of your
09:29pair, and it fruits years sooner than any seedling besides.
09:34So grow from seed for the adventure, but graft or root cuttings of a known pair if you want
09:40sure kiwis and want them sooner.
09:42That is the honest way to a fruiting kiwi.
09:46Now let me tell you a few plain things about the kiwi vine itself, so you know what you
09:51are taking on.
09:52First, it is no little thing.
09:55A kiwi is a great, vigorous vine that grows long and rampant, throwing out branches many
10:01feet in a season, and it wants a strong, stout trellis or arbor or fence to climb and
10:07sprawl over, for it will smother a flimsy support and pull it down.
10:13So give it room, and a strong frame.
10:15This is a plant for a sturdy arbor, not a windowsill.
10:20Second, on the cold, the kiwi is a fair puzzle, for the vine itself, once grown and hardened,
10:27takes a good hard winter and even wants a real winter chill to fruit well, so it is not
10:34a tender tropical thing like a lemon, but its tender, young spring growth and its blossom
10:40are easily nipped by a late spring frost, so a cold snap after it leafs out in spring
10:46can cost you that year's fruit.
10:49So a grown kiwi wants a proper cold winter, but a kind, frost-free spring, and you may need
10:56to shelter the young spring growth from a late frost.
10:59And when it is young, that first year or two from seed, protect the little plant well from
11:06the hard cold, till it is grown and hardy.
11:09Now the tending of it, once you have your vines climbing their frame.
11:14Feed them well, for a great vigorous vine is a hungry thing, with good compost and old
11:21rotted manure worked in, and a drink of compost tea through the season.
11:26Water them steady, but never let them sit sopping wet, for they like a moist but well-drained
11:33soil, not a swamp.
11:35Train the long young branches over the trellis as they grow, guiding and tying them where you
11:41want them.
11:42And prune them, for a kiwi needs a good pruning each winter to keep it from a wild tangle
11:48and to keep it fruiting, cutting back the old and crowded wood so the light and air get
11:54in and fresh fruiting growth comes on.
11:58A fed, watered, trained, pruned kiwi on a strong frame will, in its years, reward you.
12:06Now let me say a small, plain word, not a who-profits sermon.
12:11For a kiwi seed is no one's scheme.
12:15But notice the whole of what this cost.
12:18A single kiwi from the store, one you bought to eat, whose hundreds of seeds you would have
12:24swallowed and never thought of, and from them a hedge of vines.
12:29Folk pay dear for kiwi at the shop all year, and dearer still for a young kiwi vine at the
12:35nursery, when the fruit itself holds seed for a whole vineyard, if you have the knowing and
12:42the great patience.
12:43There is a trade in selling the fruit and the vines both, and here the one fruit gives
12:49you all the seed you could want for nothing.
12:52So folk come to think a kiwi vine must be bought, when it rides in the very fruit they
12:58eat.
12:59That old thrift, of seeing the vineyard hidden in the fruit on your plate, is worth more
13:05than any nursery, so long as you go in knowing the truth of the years and the two sexes.
13:11So there is the honest way to grow a kiwi from store-bought fruit.
13:16Wash the seed clean of every bit of sugary pulp, for pulp breeds the mold that kills it.
13:23Sow it barely covered on a loose, airy mix, kept moist and warm and bright under a cover,
13:30but out of the sun, and prick out the best.
13:33Then know the three truths, that you must have both a male and a female vine to ever
13:39get fruit, and cannot tell which is which for years, so grow a good handful, not two.
13:46That it is three years at soonest, and often more till it fruits, a long, patient road.
13:52And that the seedlings are a lucky dip, not copies of the parent.
13:58And if you want sure kiwis sooner, graft or root cuttings of a known male and female pair,
14:05instead of gambling on seed.
14:07Grow the vine on a strong frame, feed and water and prune it, and in its years it will hang
14:14heavy with the kiwis you grew from a single fruit you nearly threw away.
14:19Now I want to hear from you.
14:21Tell me down below whether you had ever known a kiwi needs both a male and a female vine to
14:28fruit, for that one truth is what leaves most folk with vines and no fruit, and whether
14:35you will try growing them from your grocery kiwi.
14:38And tell me your county, and how cold your winters, and how late your spring frosts run.
14:44For the kiwi wants a real winter, but a gentle spring, and both decide whether it will fruit
14:51for you.
14:52I read every one.
14:54Next time, I want to show you the grafting and the rooting of a fruit vine or tree from
15:01a known good one.
15:02The sure, faster way to get the exact plant you want, of the sex and kind you want, bearing
15:10years sooner than any seed, the old craft of making the plant you want instead of the
15:16lucky dip a seed gives.
15:19The old people saw the vineyard and the orchard hidden in the fruit they ate, in the seed of
15:25the very kiwi or apple or grape on their plate, and grew their vines from what others threw
15:32away, tending them the patient years, asking nothing of any nursery.
15:37There is a quiet wisdom in that, in the long patience of it, in planting a vine whose fruit
15:44you may wait years for, for the joy of the growing and the promise of the later harvest.
15:51The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are only just starting
15:57to remember it.