Cold hardiness of Saanichton kiwi?

Does anyone have a feel for what the lowest temperature a Saanichton kiwi can take? One Green World lists them hardy to 0 degrees.

Do you folks give them protection in the winter or just let them be?

The reason I’m asking is it got down to 8 degrees (per the weather channel) this morning and it’s supposed to get down to 6 degrees in a couple day. Sometimes the actual temperature is a few degrees colder than that the weather channel says. My orchard is not at my home and I’m trying to decide if I should trek out there to wrap up the vines or if in’t not necessary.

I have not had problems down to 0F with any fuzzy kiwis. The main problem with them is a warm early spring period can cause them to get sap flowing, and then if you get a hard freeze the sap will freeze and the trunks will crack and you may lose the vine. So my feeling is the zone on them is more an estimate of whether there will be big temp swings in the early spring. You can also lose all the leaves in a late freeze - they are not that different from apricots in their lack of tolerance for early freezes.

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Well a little different. Kiwi lose not only the flowers but the leaves and vine from spring freezes. Around here apricot never suffer spring damage to leaves or wood, just the flowers. Kiwi freeze back everything most yrs, vine and all.

We’re on the same page about kiwi and you said it first.

Thanks Scott! Do you think wrapping the trunk in one of those electrical chords that you put around pipes to keep them from freezing could save the day if a spring freeze is coming? One of these things: https://www.homedepot.com/p/30-ft-Automatic-Electric-Heat-Cable-Kit-HC30A/100196471

If you had good timing on it I would guess it would help. But you could still lose all the big shoots on the vine you didn’t protect, and on a mature vine there would be a lot to protect. They grow back from the base if they die back, so the heater would save you a year or two.

I’m replying to your post from 3 years ago (!) … wondering about your current evaluation of Saanichton kiwi now. I’m near Anacortes, WA…so similar climate.
I grew varieties of A. arguta for 10 years. They were fruitful but way too vigorous. Tried freezing, drying, and jam but none of those storage method was very appealing. Cut them down but they still are still sprouting.
I want to give A. delicious a try - protected with a cage of Christmas lights. Your opinion?

Im late to the party as well.
Planted Saanichton-12 here(70 mi. NW of Nasville TN) back around 1996, along with Hayward and Elmwood and some argutas.
Of the ‘fuzzies’, only Hayward survived the first first winter, and it died out several years later.
Spring freezes nuked new growth on the argutas virtually every year; never got a fruit, and only saw blooms once or twice. After 10 yrs, I removed them all.

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Thank you for this information. Saved me 10 years.

Kenny you should be fine in Virginia. We don’t get the spring temperature swings like KY/TN do. I have never had a fuzzy kiwi die over winter. I did have two argutas die back to the ground, but never had that on a single fuzzy … this is out of a dozen or more of them. I did have some get bitten by late frosts, but maybe only twice in 20 years. They would re-leaf later and grow fine but minus any crop that year.

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I’m looking at Saanichton as my fuzzy kiwi choice to grow here in 9a. Raintree has it to 5 °F, which is fine for here. We don’t get much below mid teens maybe once every 10-15 years.

5°F would be all time recorded low territory.

I’m told 100-200 hrs chill so there is still an issue of early growth and a late freeze though down here that may only be one night of 29-30 degrees for a few hours.