Wrapping plants for the winter?

[nikkie]

Have been told to wrap up my kiwi plant for the winter.What with and when til?

[Bienchen]

Try horticultural fleece (several layers) around the plant plus hessian and bubble wrap around the pot. Also if you keep the pot somewhere sheltered outside, then make sure you use pot feet or some bricks etc, so pot does not get waterlogged.

[nikkie]

pot is inside one of those plastic greenhouse things but the stem trails outside.Does the whole thing need to be wrapped or just the base?

[Bienchen]

Hi Nikkie, have consulted my specialist fruit gardening books as I'm not an expert on kiwis... it says to treat them like outdoor grown grapes, so I presume that the stem will be cut back in November/December (this means cutting back any side shoots to about an inch from the stem and any new stems grown this year should be cut back by about half. Apparently kiwi plants are quite robust. Hope this helps - have you had any fruit this year?

[nikkie]

only really has one stem, haven't done anything with it.No fruit but its quite an attractive plant (and the caterpillars didn't like it -bonus!)