they should resprout. i lost my 2 5ft. goumis and a autumn olive last winter. a few lower branches are budding out but i may cut cut them and replace with something more cold hardy. the goumis were producing great crops too. was wicked cold up here last winter.
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I’ve seen where people are still waiting on their figs to resprout. I think you’re right Steve.
My friend’s beautiful in-ground (covered for winter) ‘Marseilles Black VS’ hasn’t done anything yet while my Mom reported a week ago that hers started up again. Hers however is located between a 4’ brick steps ‘wall’ and her house and with a dryer vent directly blowing down on it. I thought it was an excellent place to plant it and it is really.
Thanks!
Dax
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I put Anna, Geneva and Meader in last year and they were slow to establish for me. It was a horribly rainy summer so I attribute much to that. All my plants are still in wake up mode right now, but my male Meader has a huge sprout coming out of the base. The others are waking up from the bottom up also. I’m not sure the tops didn’t die back on me. We had a few -20’s, but nothing drastic this winter (for us). I had tied them to a fiberglass post to get them tall enough to tie to my pergola. They don’t seem to want to climb much when they are young.
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May is nothing- last year I had a fig resprout last September after an entire year of nothing. In fact, I planted something else almost on top of it, after assuming that it wasn’t coming back, then saw a new shoot come up in late September. I believe that Hardy Chicago was the laggard… I transplanted it to a pot and it is still kicking.
I have one male vine that I let crawl up a pine tree. It wraps itself around it and shoots up pretty quickly. But even after 7 years, I’m not sure if it is producing pollen. The vines in it’s vicinity haven’t ever produced a significant crop (other than Issai). The other male vine that I have in the area (and pruned more) turned out to be a female vine, so that was no help. But, I think that a lot of the problem could be self shading. Last year I let them get away from me (easy to do with kiwi) and even Issai had almost no crop (maybe 10-15 small fruits). I cut them back hard this past winter and will try to keep on top of it. So far I think I’m already getting behind.
I have a 2nd set of hardy kiwi’s that’s I’ve actually kept on top of this year. They are younger (5th year) and I have them spaced more appropriately on a sturdier trellis. The fact that they have fruit has made it a higher priority to keep it in check. Here’s how it looks about a week or two after pruning. Right after I took this pic, I pruned off all the big growth from the top, including both the one shooting for the sky and the long horizontal new growth.
Here’s a closer pic of the fruit from this vine (“Jumbo”):
The other two varieties on that trellis (Rossana and Chico) are also carrying decent crops.
Cordofolia may have made 1-2 fruit in past years, but it also got overgrown and dropped it’s fruit last year. This year I’ve kept it pruned and its fruit has a different shape than the others. Much shorter- almost like little pumpkins.
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That’s awesome Bob! Congrats on looking forward to your harvest.
Dax
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i have A. kolomikta september and anna and a male. the male and anna have been basically surviving for 2 years but very little growth. i finally fertilized them this spring and the anna died to the ground in june. just starting sending new shoots up a few weeks ago. male is starting to grow again. planted september in may. hasn’t grown but is looking ok. this species is know as not being as vigorous as other hardy kiwi but i didnt think they would be this slow. obviously not the heavy feeders that others are either. going to just mulch and let nature do her thing from now on.
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Our reference section has a very good Kiwi guide from Oregon State University including pruning information.
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My various Arctic Beauty kiwis have a generous crop of fruit this year. How do I tell when it is ripe. In the past I would wait until they were soft, but the animals discovered them after the first year. I understand one can pick them when firm, refrigerate them, then set them out on the counter to ripen, similar to pears, but I don’t know how early one can pick them.
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did it take awhile for them to establish? how many years before you got fruit?
3 Arctic Beauty Kiwis September Sun, 2009 with first fruit on only one of them so far in 2018 (Gurneys)
Red Beauty Kiwi 2017 ( HB USA)
Arctic Beauty Victor Kiwi 2010 with first fruit 2013 (One Green World) This has the largest fruit
Arctic Beauty Emerald 2010 with first fruit 2013 (One Green World)
They are very tough plants, having survived a lot of neglect when we were gone for three years caring for my father, plus they are planted in nearly straight sand with a scoop of compost and have survived drought. I have not pruned them, letting them run along chain link fences. One Green World sent huge plants, whereas the Gurneys ones were puny and took a couple years just to get to the size of the One Green World ones.
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the anna and male were small plants from hirts. but the september sun was already 3ft. came from burnt ridge nursery with 3 runners. the 1st 2 mentioned are in 3rd leaf but barely 2ft. long. maybe i amended the soil too much before planting and stunted them. they get 7 hrs. of sun until 1pm then dappled shade.
I was checking them out yesterday and noticed that one branch of Fortyniner which is also going through the pine tree (under the male) also has fruit. Maybe the male started making a bit of pollen this year. Or maybe the part hanging from the branch was getting more sun that the rest of the vine…
Thanks- I’ll check it out. I think I may have read it a long time ago, but it’s hard to digest pruning info before you have some (often bad) experience doing it.
For hardy kiwi (mostly Issai) I’ve been waiting until October. One year, I picked and sampled one each week starting in early September. They were pretty horrid off the vine at that point. Maybe I should have picked two- one to sample straight and one to let sit on the counter for a week.
When they soft ripen on the vine, they are incredibly tasty. So far, I see a lot fewer losses in kiwi than tree fruit like peaches and pears or things that birds clean out, like blueberries and sour cherries.
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For me, the kiwis are pretty much ignored until they begin to ferment. After that the squirrels ar very interested and rather unpleasant drunks.
I’ve still not mastered the art of pruning on my Anna’s, but (quite accidentally) I have a well behaved and easily pruned Jumbo (Michigan State) that produces well for me pruned in an umbrella shape rising up a half circle made of chicken wire surrounding a downspout on my garage gutter.
Scott
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