Most people treat pruning kiwis much the same as they do grapes. A hard, late winter (February) pruning during dormancy. Male kiwis are especially vigorous, so a big, rampant vine could be a boy :-) Since you need the plant in bloom to be able to determine sex, heavy pruning could reduce flowering and therefore limit your ability to figure out exactly what you have. You might want to go a bit lighter this winter and then a follow-up summer pruning after you've identified the gender and can select a mate.

Here is a link that might be useful: pruning kiwis

Thanks so much gardengal48! I'm SO tempted to order a female now, just to get a jump on possible fruiting. But I'll wait in case I've got the amazon of all female kiwis. Since there are several different varieties, do you need to match the variety as well as plant the opposite gender?

Sorry, but first respondant seems inexperienced. Male and females are both notorious for rampant growth. Differentiating sexes is complicated and can only be accomplished by a magnified examination of flowers. Unfortunately that's the extent of my knowledge on sexing kiwis- I suggest you join NAFEX (google them) where several members are extremely knowledgable and can explain the contrast of male and female flowers.

Pruning a neglected kiwi is mainly about bringing it back in line. I'd wait till it flowers so you can determine sex and radically cut it back then. Maybe you should order a male and female just to be safe and to speed up the process but you could buy a potted kiwi from Edible Landscaping in mid spring after plant has bloomed. I assume we're talking about actinidia Arguta here.

Pruning Argutas for fruit is about honoring the spurs- the short knobby wood. The vegetative wood grows like water sprouts and must be pruned back several times during the growing season to keep sunlight on the spurs. Because your plant has been neglected you may have to wait for new spur-wood to form after severely cutting the plant back. When the plant blooms this spring the flowers will appear on the spur-wood that has developed on the outside of the kiwi explosion. You will probably have to remove these spurs in the process of cutting the plant back.

Kiwifruit in the dormant winter stage - females often have about four to six fruit stalks in a row left on last years fruiting canes about 50mm long and 3mm thick, males often have thin kinked 'wiskers' were the male flowers were.