AU Golden Kiwi update

General Fruit Growing
21

The mate for Golden Dragon (AU meteor?) is loaded with flowers. But Golden Dragon itself has no flowers.
Unfortunately the Golden Sunshine that I also got appears to have died over winter.

22

You should save pollen from Meteor and give it to Kiwibob. He can use it on his melanandra female (which we now think is diploid) and kolomiktas. Message me if you need a protocol for preserving pollen.

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23

I am certainly excited that it will pollinate the kolomiktas which interestingly havent bloomed here yet! Maybe they are in too much shade.

I will certainly save the pollen.

24

Where please are you finding these? I have not been able to track down anywhere that is selling the AU kiwis. Please and thank you!!!

25

The GrowAUkiwi website closed down and Beck’s Turf no longer sells them. Have not heard of any others showing up to replace them.

26

It looks like Petals from the Past is now carrying them, but is out of stock.

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27

Marta at https://reallygoodplants.com
is trialing 2 golden kiwi, but all her items are now out of stock.

Image 1 × SCV golden kiwi Female scion, 4-6 inches out of stock
Image 1 × SCV golden kiwi Male scion, 4-6 inches

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28

I corresponded with Dr James Spiers of Auburn University and he suggest we contact Agristarts to encourage them to speed up production. We would need someone like @39thparallel , @TurkeyCreekTrees or @EDLO to facilitate an order of 72 x 4 units however.

image
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29

Sort of on topic…

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30

Thanks for the info! I’m happy to write to Agristart.

Also maybe Petals From the Past would facilitate an order. When I’ve reached to them they say they have trouble sourcing stock.

31

Kiwi is relatively easy to root from cuttings.

32

I’d purchase some if they carried it

33

There is almost no way to get cuttings of these cultivars and as @ampersand pointed out it would be good to support the developer A

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34

Half a million dollars per hectare is a steep licensing rate per the article posted by @ampersand… I wonder how much they will charge per plant. They are the best tasting kiwis I’ve ever had, and I do like kiwis.

35

How Hardy are they? Are they Trademarked / Patented? If it’s a good variety to grow, there should be lots of cuttings available to share among hobbyist in a few years. Kiwi is almost as easy as grape to propagate by cuttings. Personally, I lost interest in Hardy Kiwi. They are Hardy yes but, ALWAYS get hit by late frost here.

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36

I was referring to auburn ones but yes the sungolds are great. Could always try seeds from them I guess

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37

I’ve grown seedlings from Sungold and so has KiwiBob (kiwi breeder in Seattle). We’ve found that they’re using fuzzy kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa) as the male pollenator so the resulting seedlings have all appeared to be hybrid and almost certainly of mismatched chromosome count due to differing ploidy of the male and female parents.

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38

Two cultivars and mates released by Auburn University of Alabama. They were release through a now defunct Gold Kiwi Group. We got to together and ordered several grafted vines, a couple of years ago and they largely all failed. They are Actinidia chinensis and late blooming.

Licensing deal moves AU-patented kiwifruit into marketplace / Auburn University College of Agriculture

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39

This may be a silly question, but… Have you had any success with fruit?

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40

I did not continue growing on the kiwigold seedlings after determining they were fuzzy kiwi hybrids.

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