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.
