I don’t think the zespri group sells plants. They license you the right to grow them and they do the marketing
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Makes sense as they were trying the protect the brand. Too bad they taste real good!
Interesting. Did you have the cytology done or were their other clues as to their hybrid origins? I have a number that are getting close to blooming size.
Visual cue. The A. deliciosa parent imparted its harriness to the seedlings.
OK, thanks - that is a very obvious trait! I didn’t realize chinensis plants were smooth as I have never seen them growing. Yes, then my seedling-raised plants are hybrids too. At least I can say that the rootstock has been hardy here in PA.
Does anyone here have experience (or make an informed prediction) if such hybrids likely will experience meiotic failure and not set fruit, or might they set fruit but be sterile (no seeds)?
biased on my quick research, A. chinensis (2x and 4x) and A. chinensis var. deliciosa (6x). I dont think cross levels is to much of an issue with kiwi just their short bloom overlap times.
Oh just went down a rabbit whole with this one. Pollen | Kiwi Pollen
Golden Dragons bloom period is around March 30th
AU Golden Dragon (archive.org)
Gold Sunshine around April 20th
‘AU Golden Sunshine’ (archive.org)
Would these escape your last frost dates?
The hybrid seedlings have a tendency to leaf out a bit early and the leaves have been zapped by a late frost (but this has happened to my arguta too) but the plants are quite vigorous and recover quickly.
The first to flower for me so far was a male in bloom on May 21st, 2021, and that was safe for me.
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I have Sungold seedlings growing, and these seem to be pure chinensis, using a tet chinensis pollinizer. I had a couple of them ploidy tested and they are 4x. Growers that spray dried pollen typically use deliciosa pollen, but when they use male vines for pollen, they use tet chinensis so that bloom periods match. Even if fuzzy males are used, the 5x seedlings are usually fully fertile. I’m hoping to get a good tet male for use with the AU Golden Sunshine, that’s a bit hardier than the AU Tiger male, which is a 5x deliciosa/yellow hybrid.
Pure A. chinensis won’t be completely smooth, but it is significantly less fuzzy than A. deliciosa. A great example is actualy the store bought golden kiwi fruits. They’re not completely smooth like hardy kiwi fruit, but significantly less hairy than the fuzzy kiwi fruit.
That vine in the picture actually looks much less fuzzy than the seedlings I’ve observed. Maybe you got lucky and have straight A. chinensis.
Are you in touch with KiwiBob in Seattle? He’s been searching for additional tetraploid male A. chinensis for use in his hybridizing project between golden kiwi and hardy kiwi.
Hal is very much involved in that project, he has done a lot to help identify tet males. I am a “worker bee” on the project, growing out a bunch of crosses I made. So far I have 20 chinensis x arguta crosses that are growing, but many lack vigor so not sure how they will do long-term.
I also managed to get both AU Golden Dragon and AU Golden Sunshine plant to live … well one died but I got a spare plant from a commercial grower in the area who is also trying them. Maybe in a few years I will have some seeds for interested crossers.
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Scott, what are the bloom dates for the Golden Dragon and Golden Sunshine cultivars in your MD garden? I looked up my records and I first found fairly sizable buds on that male plant on May 1 and they had opened by May 15th for me. I am looking forward to seeing what happens with the other seedlings this year and whether I can get a female. Do you know if dried pollen viable for crosses, or can it be held in a freezer in case they bloom at different times?
I guess another issue may be whether the season is long enough for these to mature if they set fruit. That said, we’ve had some long Falls that might be promising.
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Mine have not flowered yet. One is from last year and one from the year before.
Dried pollen is viable in the fridge for several months (or longer) so if you have a too-early male you are still OK. The only problem is if the male is too late.
I am pretty sure these will be good for our season length, they are ripening almost a month earlier than the standard fuzzy kiwis. One is early, one is super early, forget which is which now though.
I have been able to get almost every fuzzy kiwi to ripen if I just store them long enough. But I may have my first exception to that this winter, I have some Bliss Yellow which are still too hard as of a few days ago. That plant will be getting top worked this spring if the fruit I have in the fridge don’t ever ripen well.
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Do you by any chance propagate the AU golden cultivars? They no longer sell them since Covid.
I was also wondering if fuzzy kiwis picked early can be ripened in a root cellar since I don’t have that much fridge space.
The AU cultivars are patented. I’m generally OK with sharing cuttings for trial if something is patented and there is no source though. You would need to graft or root them.
I think a root cellar would work to ripen fuzzy kiwis. I use a fridge because that is what I have but they would just ripen a little faster in a cellar I would guess. I just finished my last Soreli and El Dorado a couple days ago. They were past their prime but still tasty.
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I sent a message to Jay Spiers to make sure his comment to contact Agristarts wasnt just an off hand joke. this was the reply
Hi Carroll,
Got sidetracked with a conference and forgot to respond. Sorry. Good to know about your gardening forum. I’ll definitely check it out.
I’m not joking about calling/emailing Agristarts. The person to order from or communicate with is Ty Strode, Tystrode@agristarts.com ; 407-889-8055. They do not have a license for propagating these plants quite yet, but have been giving indication they will for quite some time (6 months to a year). I’m guessing they are dragging their feet partly because they do not know of the demand, and I think communicating with them would help.
There are a couple of other nurseries that I think will get licensed for propagating AU kiwi soon (it will be non-exclusive license, so any reputable nursery could be licensed), but no one has finished the process currently (so no plants available for sale…and in danger of no plants available for sale next year if we get into summer without anyone propagating). I might propagate some myself for local sales, but do not want to get involved with shipping plants. I think AgriStarts would be great at disseminating plants and getting people to try them, and us learning more about performance in various regions…so I’m hoping they get on board soon.
Hope this answers your questions and thanks for your interest. I have attached a flyer with some information, particularly for nurseries interested in licensing.
Best,
Jay
James D. Spiers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticulture
111 Funchess Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849
Mobile: 334-728-1888
Office: 334-844-3087
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@Blake Hey as a grower do you think you might want to trial the AU Golden Kiwi Series? You would have a least a few buyers from the forum here as customers for sure.
Hello,
Our climate zone is USDA 6b which is too cold for fuzzy kiwi production. If I could get cuttings I could propagate in our nursery and sell plants. But I could not grow the vines here.