I was wondering if there were any hardy kiwi experts out there who might be able to ID a kiwi cultivar by its fruit.
I purchased this particular vine a few years ago and this year (finally!) it produced flowers which actually resulted in a couple fruit. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be a male (mislabeled from the nursery).
Most fruit were scorched by the heat, disfigured by stinkbugs, or eaten by critters, so I only have a photo of one that was picked a bit early, ripened indoors, and was a bit shriveled (I’m working on learning how to tell when they’re ripe, but my sample size has been small!).
Thanks @gibberellin and @Gkight – this is really helpful to get your experience. I’ve of course done some searching online for photos, though I think a lot of pictures of kiwi cultivars online are generic stock images and not actually indicative of what the specific cultivar’s fruit look like.
Its too late for Dumbarton Oaks in zone 8. It’s supposed to be ready about a month before Anna, which would male it ripe around mod Sept here in zone 5. I have one but Its not ripening much yet so Im not that familiar.
Chang bai has a really pronounced heart shape- yours look more like a squatty sphere. Id guess something like ‘Meader’ Where did you get it?
@hobilus – thank you, that’s a great data point. I just found a couple more fruit on the vine now that the leaves are turning yellow and the fruit stand out more; these are still quite firm, so my guess is they’re not quite ripe yet. And yes, I would indeed describe these as pumpkin-shaped or maybe a squat apple.
I purchased them from Whitman Farms. Lucile from WF lists Cordifolia on her website – they do look like some of those pictured by Bob Vance that gibberellin kindly linked. Though I noticed a couple websites say that Cordifolia ripens early? So maybe not so much?
