Does anyone on here have experience with Akebia/Chocolate Vine? If so, do you think it will fruit in Zone 5 where I live? I hear it can be difficult to get it to bear fruit outside of its native zones…it is also not self-fertile, so you need 2 plants, and it sounds like you may need to hand pollinate. And it probably would need to be in full sun.
Anyone know much about this? Any tips or tricks?
Here in zone 6 kansas i have not been impressed but i wanted to be. Search results for 'Akebia' - Growing Fruit
I was very interested in akebia a while back. I’ve read up on impressions from this forum, other forums and weirdfruitexplorer on YouTube. Everyone seems to say the same thing, it’s very cool/alien looking but the taste is bland. But yes, from what I’ve read online it should easily fruit in zone 5.
I think I remember it is sensitive to late cold snaps, which is common here. I put in several types for cross-pollination for a customers privacy screen. Came up each spring only to get slammed by a late frost and look ragged, changed to a different plant after several years. Also zone 6…
I have one, but not another so it’s never been pollinated to set fruit. The vine so far has been well behaved and twines through a tall ‘Queen Elizabeth’ rose I have. It blooms it’s little chocolatey-purple flowers every year and they are cute, but despite nurseries typically advertising them for their chocolate scent I find the scent too mild to be noteworthy.