Hardy Kiwi

[wildseed57]

I'm not able to get seeds and plant material from the USDA anymore, but I still use their website to look at various seed and plant material, They have a lot of cuttings available of a good many very nice Hardy Kiwi species, I got sent some hardy kiwi fruit a while back and I can say that it is way underrated. The fruit was very sweet with a nice pineapple, strawberry watermelon flavor when ripe, Ken's Red and a Artic beauty type called Hero are just two that make large sweet fuzz free fruit. If you are looking for a vine that will get big and produce lots a very tasty fruit the Hardy kiwi is one you should look at. They do require a very strong support, but they are pretty much disease and pest free. You do need to get a male plant which would take care of four female plants. The very sweet and tasty fruit is about the same size as a large grape with some getting as big as a apricot or small plum. I tried to start some from seed that I got from the fruit and from some seeds I got from Baker's Creek heirloom seeds, but I did something wrong and didn't one to come up, the tiny black seeds are the same size as Amaranth seeds which makes them hard to work with. I think That if you sprinkle the seeds on top of the soil and keep them warm and moist you should get some sprouts the seeds have about 40% germination rate even when fresh. They seem to be effected easily by mildew and damp off while very young. In my book they need to be looked at more closely as a food source. Most of the Fuzzless hardy types will take up to -25F. and some like Artic Beauty will take -40F The one draw back from growing from seeds, is that its a hit or miss on male to female ratio, but if you have room for 10 to 20 vines till you can weed the extra males out, the only way to tell the difference is to wait till they bloom which from seeds might be 4 years. A better was and faster is to get cuttings.
George W.

[castanea]

I visited Burnt Creek Nursery in Washington two years ago and they have a small orchard of many different varieties of hardy kiwis. We walked around sampling all of them and they were all very tasty with different shapes, sizes and colors. Here are the varieties they are selling this year:

www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=25&parent=23

Roger Meyer also has scion wood available from many varieties:

Roger & Shirley Meyer
16531 Mt. Shelly Circle, Fountain Valley, CA 92708
VOICE: 714-839-0796
E-MAIL: [e-mail]

[Leenstar]

We just moved into a new house last year. I finally have a yard of my own. I am very interested in creating an edible landscape and have been eyeing these as an addition to my list of plants. I think my daughter would love them.

I had been planning to get transplants from a nursery. I think your notes about the length of time to fruit from seed have encouraged me to go that direction instead of from seed.

Any ideas or insight regarding the degree of shade kiwi's can take? Any problem putting them close to other plants, ie any allopathic qualities anyone knows that they possess? From what I have read they prefer full sun. Am I correct? Does anyone have any information to the contrary?

While I have a yard it isn't huge, especially the areas with full sun. I am trying to take as much of the sunny yard for my vegetable garden. I am also afraid I need rank some of my other desires (raspberries, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, maybe some dwarf apples espeliered).

Something that could take a little shade would be great.

[atash]

Any ideas or insight regarding the degree of shade kiwi's can take? Any problem putting them close to other plants, ie any allopathic qualities anyone knows that they possess? From what I have read they prefer full sun. Am I correct? Does anyone have any information to the contrary?

Kolomitkas are sensitive to severe heat and/or too-intense sun. As a result, a few hours of shade in early afternoon might be a good idea. Even in my climate, they look a little tired during the summer, but mine are exposed to the full intensity of the sun. I think the ideal situation is to let them have their feet in partial shade but let them grow up into however much sun they want. However they are modest in vigor, unlike some of their rampant kin. Mine have not covered their fairly modest arbor yet.

Other species are more heat-loving and sun-loving. In fact some are subtropical.

Some people have had trouble with Kolomitkas breaking dormancy too early. It is not a problem in my part of the world because seasons tend to transition here relatively gradually and smoothly, but if you have warm spells interrupted by hard freezes that could be a problem. In habitat, the seasons change decisively when the gigantic warm fronts hit in spring.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Any ideas or insight regarding the degree of shade kiwi's can take? Any problem putting them close to other plants, ie any allopathic qualities anyone knows that they possess? From what I have read they prefer full sun. Am I correct? Does anyone have any information to the contrary?

I'm going to say that kiwis in general will probably do well anywhere a grapevine would do well. In other words they like to have their roots in the shade, but do like some sunshine on their leaves once they grow bigger and branch out. We planted our hardy kiwi in the shade, but they do get a little bit of sunshine everyday. We ordered 4 total of Artic beauty and another one (male and female) matching from a magazine two or three years ago.

Two died though, so i have no idea if we have 1 male and one female, or two of the same gender. Last year the Golden kiwi i sprouted from seed came up from the roots after the top had died in the winter. Hopefully it will come back this next spring/summer. The hardy kiwis almost don't grow at all. The golden kiwi when it grows it GROWS, and has huge fuzzy leaves. I like my golden one better.

When i sprouted the golden kiwi seeds, i had to make sure to put them in the fridge for a while first. I tried one batch without stratifying them, and they never sprouted at all. The ones that had stratified i got almost 100% germination. But i had to carefully protect the biggest, because a lot of them died off easily when they were small.

[bertiefox]

I thought that most kiwis were very hardy, and the real problem with them in a cool climate is that they flower so early that the fruit or blossoms get damaged or aren't pollinated due to the lack of insects. Apart from the Actinidia arguta that I'm growing already, are there any other varieties that flower really late on (our last bad frosts here are usually in April)

[wildseed57]

I had started a regular fuzzy fruited one and was doing pretty good till o got sick and din't move it inside so the cold here got it, what killed my little seedlings that were a year old and about 6 inches tall was the fact that I set them out to soon and the leaves hadn't harden off so the leaves got burnt. I thought that they would make a come back, but they didn't I think the best way to go would be rooted cutting or unrooted I think that march might be a good time to take cuttings to get them rooted. You have to maintain a large plant much like you wound a grape vine only more so as these plants can and will take over without pruning back. I do like the fruit of both the tropical and hardy varieties and both have their places. Roger Myers is the Tom Wagner of hardy Kiwi and has done a lot of work with the species. Years back I tried to contact him to see if i could get some advice on growing them, but never heard back, He was doing a lot of interesting cross at that time and was most likely to busy with things to give any advice or cuttings for that matter.
George W.

[Leenstar]

Thanks for all the advice. I have and area on the south side of the yard but on the north side of the neighbor's fence. That might make a nice compromise for the plants. The burnt ridge link was also great with a whole miniartcile about planting and care. I think I will have to stick with nursery plants. Any preferences for certain cultivars? I figured I'd go with Arctic Beauty, especially after this Midwest winter.

[canadamike]

I transplanted 2 vines of hardy kiwi, an arguta mom and a kolomitka dad on the south side of my parents house, but they are under the shadow of a large tree in the summer but for few hours and they do very very well. There is a lot of snow in that zone 3 area, so I guess it takes care of early blooming...

The vines are about 15 years old now and still going strong, fruits aside, their lush glossy foliage is a pure beauty. They have taken over the wall in tha same fashion that cinquefoil does, but frankly they needed help and there is a system of wires that dad was more than happy to install to help them climb.

[bertiefox]

The flowers on my kiwai, Actinidia arguta are just opening, and there are flower buds all the way up the main stem. There is little insect activity even though it's very warm and sunny. Would it be a good idea to hand pollinate those that are open?

[bertiefox]

I have just eaten my first EVER kiwai, Actinidia arguta, Issai, fruit. They were delicious! Unfortunately I have only got around 25 fruit this year, but as the plant grows maybe I can look forward to a bumper harvest in future years. The taste, eating the whole fruit about the size of a large gooseberry, is like a mixture of guava and cape gooseberry, I'd say. I ate an unripe one too, which tasted like a VERY sour lemon!
I'd recommend this fruit on the basis of the good tasting ones! The plants flower much later in the season than the regular Kiwi so doesn't suffer the same problems of flowers being frosted.

[steev]

Congratulations! I have yet to eat one, but it sounds well worth the effort. Later in October, I expect to start planting my argutas out on the farm; we'll see just how hardy they are.

[bertiefox]

Despite being supposedly hardier than the kiwi, Act. chinensis, my plant has died right back this winter and is only sprouting from the base so far. Meanwhile, the kiwi nearby is sprouting away in full leaf.
I've tried every way of multiplying my Act. arguta to get something more vigorous but with little success. I managed to layer a shoot and get a stem to roots after about six months, but this is now languishing in its pot in the greenhouse showing no sign of growth. I suspect it's dead.
I tried grafting the Actinidia arguta to a branch of the kiwi, first when they were both dormant. I used a well budded scion of the arguta but that clearly hasn't taken. I also tried more recently as soon as there were signs of life on the arguta but although the sap was rising well in the kiwi, and 'bled' after the graft, the leaf buds on the arguta both withered and died.
One of the problems is that the kiwi comes into leaf about three weeks or a month before any sign of growth in the k. arguta.
My next attempt will be to get a kiwi in a pot grafted to the arguta when both are in full leaf, through an approach or rind graft. I don't know if this will work.
If anybody has carried out such a graft between the two Actinidia species I'd be grateful to hear how it might be accomplished. Alternatively, is there anything I can do to encourage my Actinidia arguta to grow more vigorously. It is planted in heavy clay, enriched with compost, but the roots are fairly restricted . It has the water table about two feet down so should not be short of water.

[rowan]

I have three A. melandra (melanandra?) that I expected would fruit for the first time next year but we had such a severe summer that one died and another is not looking well enough to survive dormancy this winter.

I grew them from seed and am so disappointed. They powered through flood and cold but couldn't stand the heat and dry this year.
If only one survives I hope that it is a female, and that they can be pollinated by another species as I am having trouble getting more seed of them. Last time I tried, most companies were out or don't post to Australia. This has reminded me to try to get seeds again.