That’s good to know. I have a 2 year old male vine that I’m hoping will flower next year. It will be very interesting to see how Issai fruits are different when properly pollinated.
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Is prolific good at pollinating itself?
edible landscaping out with a hardy kiwi video. its not just about pruning.
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excellent pruning video plus a bonus cat:
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Seriously anyone finds a good use of hardy kiwis? I have 4 Anna growing and if I harvest all, I could easily get 200 lbs a year. But I have tried freezing and drying them and in the end all were thrown in the trash can.
You can only eat so much of the fresh berries and the enzymes in the berry may ruin your tongue if you eat more than a handful a day.
So I am grinding my axe and will start the chopping mode soon.
sell them on facebook marketplace. someone will gladly take them.
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Too much trouble…
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So my Issai flowered about 2 weeks ago and so did Ken’s Red.
My male hardy kiwi was not flowering.
Issai and Ken’s red are still in pots and right next to each other.
It looks like issai pollinated a few of Ken’s Red 
and almost all of itself! It’s full of tiny fruit 
Currently my pollinators are mainly bumbles and they like to buzz the flowers.
Maybe there’s hope for Issai being a pollinator to others if there’s enough bee activity
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Odd. Kiwinut has said many times on this and other threads that the pollen from isaai is not viable.
I just have aspirations of having hardy or fuzzy and read these. No experience.
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It’s also been said that Issai is a poor self pollinator as well but I’m wondering if it’s only poor due to the type of insect that’s pollinating.
This is true for blueberries because honeybees cannot pollinate as well as bumblebees for blueberries. The little buzzing thing that bumblebees sometimes do helps to loosen blueberry pollen because it’s sticky and not loose like other plants.
I don’t have many honey bees but a ton of bumbles. Maybe that makes a difference. I’ll post photos of them here in a few moments when i take my dogs out
Do they eat at you like how pineapple do?
** according to Google, yes… yes they do 
Maybe use them as a marinade/meat tenderizer?
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Issai
Ken’s Red
My male hardy with 0 flowers or blooms
You can see a few fruit on Ken’s red in the photos. I know, i desperately need to repot them. I’m waiting for someone to come help me put up their trellises so I can stick them in ground. May not be until the week of July 5th.
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Now you’re mixing up the thread!
I’ve had good luck with arctic kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta). They like partial shade and are truly cold hardy. They didn’t take long to flower for me either. The fruit is tiny so that’s the major drawback. However, these plants are survivors and will take on the worst that winter has to throw at them and come right back to life in the spring. I even had one get chewed up by a vole and it didn’t seem to care.
I tried growing hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) but they spent years and never flowered and then one winter they all died. I don’t think they can take the cold. “Hardy” is definitely misleading. A more accurate name would be “temperate” kiwi. I had a coworker who had the same disappointment- years of waiting for a flower and then didn’t survive one of the winters.
I have seen hardy kiwi fruit entered into a fruit exhibition at the Alaska State Fair, so someone has figured out how to grow them. They probably need to be in a warm spot protected from the wind to make it.
I did get some hardy kiwi for my mom in Oregon and they flowered after three years. The male died and the replacement male struggled to grow. I never heard back if it set any fruit.
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Should it be called…
Everything Kiwiberry? 
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The kolomikta kiwiberry ‘Krupnoplodnaya’ is supposed to make large fruit. This is my first year with it fruiting (planted last year), and indeed the fruit is looking very large for a kolomikta. Nearly this size of an arguta berry.
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We just have one Issai, but it was hard to get.
First I ordered some hardy kiwi plants from Ison’s two seasons ago - and they ran out before they got to my order.
Then I ordered 1 Issai from Starks, it arrived tiny and promptly died.
Now I have a very nice Issai specimen that was from Ison’s this season and it has grown and now has flowers. We shall see what happens next.
I think I will just stick with this one hardy kiwi and hope it is good at pollinating itself.
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my 1st 2 took 5 yrs. to fruit but i think the spot had pretty depleted soil. i planted 3 more russian females and they all fruited the 2nd year from rooted cuttings.
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This Krupnoplodnaya has maybe 6 berries growing. Small vine. This is the biggest berry, but the others aren’t far behind. Unsure how much bigger they will continue to get. We shall see.
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My hardy kiwis are holding fruit for the first time. This is the first year a male blossomed. they are about 4 years old here in Michigan.
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They have “Prolific” and maybe Issai at Tractor Supply and the orange and blue stores in the late Winter/Spring here.