Anyone growing and fruiting Kiwi in Florida? Anyone growing grapes?

[Filozophr]

It’s such a good fruit but I’ve never heard of anyone growing it here, I heard it’s tedious and you need male and female plants/vines? Also takes many years until maturity?I’ve also wanted to start growing grapes, any variety recommendations?

[roblack]

I'm growing a few, but think muscadine is the only one that is likely to do well in SoFL.

[TonyinCC]

I know Muscadines grow here.  I have a few recently planted. Last Summer I saw a nice productive vine of a black variety in Cape Coral on a chain link fence, so I know they can do well even this far South IF you make the right variety selection.  Not all muscadines will be productive here, if the varieties I picked don't thrive I might ask the owner of that vine for cuttings.

[roblack]

Here's some muscadine info:

https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/muscadines.html

[TonyinCC]

I know some varieties of muscadines need more chill in Winter than even North Florida gets in order to crop well. My area is probably borderline for even the lower chill varieties.  I saw a bunch of wild plants last year at the Lee county free mulch site on Pine Island and some others in Punta Gorda and Cape Coral on vacant lots. Never seen fruit on any local wild plants though. Maybe this year they will fruit after the relatively cold Winter.
 If you want to try fuzzy kiwi, Vincent and Tomuri are the pair to try in South Florida, since they only need about 100 hours of chill. There are others varieties than need up to 800 chill hours. Kiwi vines get really thick and heavy, I saw one years ago in South Carolina that was so big the owner supported it with 6x6 posts over an area the size of a baseball infield. Forget fuzzy kiwis unless you have acreage. They grow like Jack's magic beanstalk.

[Galatians522]

We tried kiwis years ago and did not get enough chill in central Florida. North Florida often gets too cold and they can freeze back.

Many grapes could grow in Florida if chill were the only factor. Disease seems to be a bigger threat especially pierces disease. However, Florida has a huge variety of native grapes (maybe the most in the world). All wild grapes come in male and female vines. Most of the vines are male and will not fruit. The most common one people see is a muscadine species vitis munsonia it produces 1/4" to 1/2" berries in small clusters that tend to be sweet and sour. The cultivated muscadine is vitis rotundifolia it is not native to south Florida. Ison (self fertile) and Supreme (female) have done well here in Central Florida. You might also try Southern Home which is a hybrid between bunch and muscadine grapes with mostly muscadine parentage. You might also check out Tari's Burgundy. I have heard good things about it. There are a couple people who are really knowledgeable about grapes, but they don't post often.

[Oolie]

I planted a bunch of stuff in Ozark Alabama, which is an hour or two north of the panhandle. I have the Vincent and Tomuri Kiwis, and Joy and Blueberry Grapes. Hopefully everything does well.

[Francis_Eric]

One native is Vitis shuttleworthii (spelling)

These will be sour , and the size of a pea

I am not familiar with that exact species , but understand the description


These are best to take about 10 pounds of grapes dillute with a gallon or 3 of water, and add sugar
I can do that with the native ones up North here .

As for Kiwi it is related to bitter sweet (in Chicago region to down south)  that is poison
(or so they say, but could divert birds from other crops) , (it diverged from actindia genus , and is in another genus)
but another species is related in Mexico (and elsewhere in asia  -- Saurauia genus
(I am sure kiwi is tropical as well but if a plant collector you could find seeds I was just looking)

[Francis_Eric]

I know some varieties of muscadines need more chill in Winter than even North Florida gets in order to crop well. My area is probably borderline for even the lower chill varieties.  I saw a bunch of wild plants last year at the Lee county free mulch site on Pine Island and some others in Punta Gorda and Cape Coral on vacant lots. Never seen fruit on any local wild plants though. Maybe this year they will fruit after the relatively cold Winter.
 If you want to try fuzzy kiwi, Vincent and Tomuri are the pair to try in South Florida, since they only need about 100 hours of chill. There are others varieties than need up to 800 chill hours. Kiwi vines get really thick and heavy, I saw one years ago in South Carolina that was so big the owner supported it with 6x6 posts over an area the size of a baseball infield. Forget fuzzy kiwis unless you have acreage. They grow like Jack's magic beanstalk.

In the tropics like Africa , and such they spray urea or pee to defoliate to force vines to go dormant

This is large scale viticulture , but you could do this by hand .

you would not want to water these during this period

There is a few things I know about it, and have saved, but as of today do not have the time to go digging for it
maybe in a couple days I will try.

you may want to contact rainn man  here or read his posts  as well.
there are also some breeder web sites (but not sure if they want much internet traffic.)

[Francis_Eric]

see this post, and maybe more from Him (as well as other members)

Also try this (it was on thread)
 "Southern Grape Growers" group on facebook -

 https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=15206.msg435418#msg435418



When I said to add sugar, and dillute the juice is still very good dilluted


Tony in cc

Neato of  the kiwi info
Might do well in New Orleans LA.