It may be necessary to thin the fruit load about 2 weeks after flowering, especially on young or weak vines. Selective thinning to remove oddly shaped and damaged fruit is a good idea. A mature female kiwifruit may produce over two hundred pounds of fruit. To keep from being inundated with kiwifruit, prune adequately and plant sparingly. Pergola trellises allow the vines to form a solid canopy about 8 feet off the ground, with the fruit hanging on the bottom.
Pergolas have posts the same size and set in the same way as t-bar trellises.
Wires are run on top of them down the rows of posts. Additional wires are spaced 18 to 25 inches apart, perpendicular to the crossbars. This makes a grid of wire on which to train the kiwifruit vines. They should be tipped about 6 inches farther out than the last wire. Plants will almost meet in the middle of the rows.