Maybe it’s worth asking for wood… you never know. I am not going to grow this one myself as I don’t need the extra hardiness.
Scott, I inquired about budwood for Hombre and also asked about ploidy. The bloom period suggests they are tets, but the patent on Tango and the publication about them did not address it at all. Hopefully I will get a response.
Tet male chinensis should cross with tet argutas, but most crosses seem to fail. However, there are very few available tet males to test, so if Hombre is tet and hardy, it’s worth trying. Fuzzy kiwi males easily set fruit on argutas and produce viable hybrids even with different chromosome numbers, so there is something odd going on with chinensis. Fuzzy kiwi have never been hardy for me except for one unusually cold winter. I have grown chinensis that survive down to -5F without issues. The fuzzies just don’t handle winter warm spells and consistently suffer trunk damage. It seems to be worse following mild winters, so having more consistent cold seems to make a huge difference.
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guess so. even with the same ploidy there can be other reasons that homologous pairs aren’t readily formed. Something to do with more or less the syntax of the chromosomes. Id read some of your older posts about your hybridization attempts. Have you had any success? If so, to what do you attribute it?
I wonder too about other crosses and how worthwhile they’d be. If deliciosa x arguta is intermediate in hardiness, what about crossing deliciosa x kolomikta? Michurin did some complex crosses I believe. Im not sure what’s actually become of most his material. Only ‘ Sentyabraskya ’ and Kruplodonaya seem to be in circulation and krup is quite uncommon.
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I think the problem between A. chinensis pollen and arguta females may involve some sort of incompatibility that is independent of fertilization that causes fruit to abort. Using dead arguta mentor pollen may help bypass this problem to get better fruit set, but I have not attempted it yet.
A. kolomikta is diploid and accepts pollen easily from just about any diploid Actinidia, but is very intolerant of interploid crosses. I tried crossing several kolomikta females with deliciosa (hexaploid) many years ago. I consistently got fruit set, but never any viable seed. There are hybrids from a Czech breeder between diploid A. chinensis and A. kolomikta that are fertile. I made the same cross and only got sterile males. Crossing different combinations of different genotypes will often give very different results.
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Hi all,
I’m growing Jenny in central Connecticut zone 6b. Might be the most northern grower out here in the states…
Only complaint is how small the kiwis are. Has anyone grown other larger varieties? Hayward or others? I’m considering cutting back some of the vines and grafting on some zone 7 cultivars with larger fruits…
Photos from today
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You should be able to grow Saanichton there.
How is the taste on the Jenny? Ampersand is right. Saanichton is the most hardy of the fuzzy and should ripen in time for you.
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Kelby Hi!
I recognize you don’t know or remember me but I will always remember you, as you sent me the majority of the cold hardy fig cuttings I have in ground back in 2020. Of the 20 hardy varieties I planted in ground MBvs and LDA did the best and really put on a heavy crop this year with our mild winter last year
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Is Saanichton much larger? Or are the zone 7 fuzzy kiwis all about the same smallish size?
I was really imagining a grocery store sized fuzzy kiwi when I planted these…
The flavor is good! I can’t say I’m much of a savant when it comes to kiwi flavor notes though. Tastes like
Kiwi?
Saanichton is close to grocery store size. Bigger than the Jenny pics you posted. Hayward is the grocery store one, but it ripens to late for northern people.
I have 2 Hombre and 2 Tango fuzzy Kiwi plants in the ground in the Walla Walla Valley, planted Spring '25. I planted 4 Tango but 2 didn’t establish well and failed, despite drip irrigation. We’re in zone 7b so I’m a bit anxious about winter here. We often get down into the low single digits and occasionally below zero (Farenheit). Is there any drawback to mulching fuzzy Kiwi heavily with straw once the vines drop their leaves?
I only got the plants from USDA after signing a raft of documents to become a cooperator. They were T-budded onto A. chinensis. Should be an interesting trial as we are at the same latitude as Duluth, MN but much warmer. I’m hoping the long days of summer lead to somewhat earlier ripening, if they make it to maturity. I’m glad this thread developed as I’ve never grown any Kiwi and found searching for literature was not very fruitful. As progress is made, I may post updates.
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just saw someone selling this in new jersey in what i think is zone 7. Look quite large.
had no idea fuzzy kiwis could be grown this cold or in this short of season. I wonder what theyre doing to make it happen. I messaged them to ask how they deal with cold protection, but not sure they’ll share.
Has anyone sourced any of the new USDA deliciosa kiwis (hardy to -5.8F) Tengo and Hombre or is it still too early going?
I have Tango and Hombre. I inquired with the folks at USDA a year ago. Over several months they processed me as a USDA cooperator in order to do a small trial, 4 plants each. I’m in the Walla Walla Valley on the Oregon side. It’s classified as zone 7A. It gets down to 0F often in winter, so I think they saw this site as a good test. I have experience doing this kind of work so I think that helped. I’ll give them a little protection this winter but I’m waiting for them to get some exposure to colder temps. We haven’t had a hard frost yet this Fall. I really don’t have anything to report yet. I will say these were grafted plants, T-bud on Actinidia chinensis. For me it’s just fun but I want to give them some quality feedback too. I’d enjoy getting some production out of them too, if they make it that far. I’ll try to remember to post a report on here next Spring about survival.
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I grow Jenny in ground outside in nothern Denmark. (Zone6b/7a)
It never suffers from cold. The worst it handled was -18c.
It is windprotected from west and north by my garage.
It always set a lot of fruit. They ripen now +/- a week.
Some years they spoil on the plant before they ripen, if the frost comes too early.
The problem is, that the fruit dont grow very big. 2-2.5 cm diameter at most.
I think our summer are too short and too cold.
They taste good and all, just very small
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Tango and Hombre are not A. deliciosa, but A. chinensis, var. chinensis, aka yellow kiwi. Based on the time of bud break and bloom, I’m guessing they are tetraploids, but I have no other info to back that up.
Under ideal conditions, fuzzy kiwi can be hardier than yellow kiwi and are found at higher, colder elevations in their natural habitats in China. The problem with the fuzzy kiwi is that they seem to be very intolerant of prolonged winter warm periods and don’t maintain sufficient dormancy, even with high chill requirements.
Yellow kiwi are found in milder climates, and seem to be very well adapted to maintaining dormancy during warm periods. I get a lot of fluctuating temps and prolonged winter warm spells. This is why fuzzy kiwi struggle for me, but many yellow kiwi do great here. In colder, but more consistently cold areas fuzzy kiwi seem to be much hardier.
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I was curious from the picture. I love yellow kiwi, and if I can grow them here (6b/7a line, close to Boston) that would be outstanding. Emailed USDA.
It is interesting to learn more about these new releases. I was a bit surprised when I read the descriptions in HortScience when I came across the sizes. An average of 35g (max 62g of those weighted) seems very small. Maybe because they weren’t thinned?
Out of curiousity I put the remaining Zespri branded ones on a scale and they average about 110g.
I will say that those we encounter in the grocery store were almost certainly NOT from a colder climate, so a larger size in a a widescale commercial crop is not that much of a surprise.
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