Actinidias

[johno]

If anybody ends up with seeds to spare... I'm interested! I' not sure if the big fuzzy ones would survive our winters (zone 6b), last winter we just dipped below zero a time or two, but usually our lowest temps are a few nights in single digits. I'm very interested in trying to grow hardy or super hardy kiwis from seed, though.

[steev]

The kiwis I've killed on the farm have all been chinensis; I've never known it to drop below 12F there. I speculate that with frost insulation after they go dormant, I might be able to coax them along until they grow enough to withstand the cold. That's my plan for palm trees, too, which I want lining my driveway; it's a very old California thing.

[raymondo]

I grew some kiwis from seed I collected from a Golden Kiwi (cultivar name). No idea of the pollen parent of course. They are five years old now, still in pots, and one of them flowered last spring. It is male. I'm hoping they will all flower this year. I also bought a couple of A. arguta, two local cultivars. I'm looking forward to having a trellis of mixed kiwis, both standard and hardy.

[steev]

The two different argutas that survived last years delivery disaster are starting to take off; I must pot them up; I'm thinking of setting them out late August.

This winter's cuttings are doing well, mostly; soon I need to separate and pot them up.

[bertiefox]

My Actinidia arguta 'Issai', or 'Kiwai' is finally succeeding this year. Last year the fruit got no bigger than a pea and then all fell off without ripening.
The fruit higher up the stem, as in this picture, seem to be doing better than those low down on older wood.
I am keeping the open bottomed 'pot' in which they are planted well watered but they seem to like the warm weather we have had this summer so far.
I have no idea when they will be ripe, but I would guess late August?
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[steev]

From last winter's cuttings, I have a Dumbarton Oaks and a Chang Bai; both took off when hot weather came. We got an inch of rain yesterday (unheard of in June here), so they're so soggy I think the soil would all fall off if I tipped them out; guess I'll pot them up next week.

[steev]

I potted up those two argutas yesterday; they seem fine. Today I started potting up this Winter's cuttings: Jumbo; Meader's PK, and Chang Bai Giant. That leaves ~6 varieties to go. I'm glad I've got multiples, for the most part, so planting them out on the farm isn't an all-or-nothing deal.

[steev]

Potted up Belfast Bay and Cherry Bomb today; Cherry Bomb may be a whiner, 90% failure to root.

[steev]

Finished potting up: Dumbarton Oaks, West, Nahodka, and Krupnaplodnaya. Got to dig out the papers; I think the last two are kolomikta; I Have a sneaking suspicion none of the male cuttings took.

From the way they looked when I tipped these Actinidias out for potting up, I could suppose they tend to live on whatever reserves they have quite a while, before rooting, so they sprout and even bloom (if male) without developing roots. Then if the reserves run out, they croak unless rooting is happening, in which case, they take off.

I think pomegranates behave somewhat like that, too.

[bertiefox]

First, I'm harvesting the first ever fruit of my Issai, Actinidia arguta, and they taste fabulous! Worth waiting for. Second, I see several people refer to improved crops with cross pollination. As Actinidia deliciosa flowers weeks earlier than A.arguta, what sort of Actinidia would make a suitable pollinator for Issai? I see A. Kolomikta is mentioned, but does this flower late like Issai?

[atash]

Just noticed recent posts on this thread which I haven't noticed earlier.

Johno and others who want to grow Kiwis in climates colder than about USDA 8 or so, try the hardier species, but be aware that they don't like wide temperature swings in the spring. Someone on another board flamed me for contradicting him that they are impossible to grow in North America--and they are quite common in this corner of North America--but his point was that he keeps losing the buds to frosts after warm spells.

They are from Asia where gigantic frontal systems build up over the continent, pushing huge volumes of warm or cold air so that once the cold or warm fronts hit, the seasons change very decisively.

Compared to the Fuzzy Kiwi, A. arguta and A. kolomitka have smaller, sweeter fruit, and I think have higher vitamin C levels too.

A. kolomitka is the pretty one, with attractively colored leaves in Spring. Some people grow them just for the foliage but I want the fruit too so I have both a male and a female. It is a small and not very vigorous vine, unlike the huge but less coldhardy Fuzzy Kiwi. There is a big house on the end of our block, that looks more like an apartment building than a house (apparently trying to use up every last legal bit of yard, they built it boxy like an apartment, plus multistory). On the south-facing wall they have a gigantic Fuzzy Kiwi vine.

Poor planning for getting fruit as nearly all of it is quite out of reach! Works better if you train it to grow just overhead, within easy reach, on a low pergola.

Hardy Kiwis (A. arguta) and especially Arctic Beauty Kiwis (A. kolomitka) are not on such a big scale. Smaller in all parts, including fruit and flowers.

Beware that Arctic Beauties not fond of high heat. Some people let them grow in the shade then reach up to the sun, to keep the roots cool.

[MikeH]

May 4, 2011 20:21:21 GMT -5 steev said:

I've been lifting my cutting pots to check, and am starting to see a little root growth out the drain holes; I've not yet got the nerve to dump any out for potting up, fearing the roots are yet too delicate. All the top growth looks vigorous, which can't be said of several of my quince varieties, those cuttings are clearly dead parrots. All my pomegranates seem chugging along as slowly as they will, but steadily. Hopefully they'll be up-pottable next Spring.

What quince varieties are you growing?

[rowan]

I was looking forward to my red kiwis (A. melandra) to flower and fruit this year but we had such a severe summer that one of my three died and the others arn't looking too good so it might be another year before they do, of course now that I only have two left it is a good chance that they are both the same sex

Got some more seeds so I will put them in and wait another three or four years to get them fruiting. While I was at it I also bought some kolomitka and other seeds. I don't know where I am going to put them all. Ahhh, the price of seed addiction.

[raymondo]

Rowan, where did you source the various Actinidia species seeds?

[khoomeizhi]

of the seed i got from bountiful gardens, supposedly hardy kiwi, i only had one make it past seedling size...definitely looks like a fuzzy.