hardy kiwi propagation
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Welcome to the forum @RobertWilliams! It appears that you may have intended that post to be a search instead? Here’s a thread that you might find useful:
They are quite easy. Stool layering works great. Dormant hardwood cuttings can even be rooted in water if you make sure to change the water regularly
Thanks for the response, and information. I tried rooting with summer cutting years ago when I first planted hardy kiwis - totally without success even though I thought I had followed all the directions careful. Since I was already well into my 70’s at the time, I decided that if I wanted anymore hardy kiwis I would be better off buying some if I hoped to get any sizeable amount of berries off of them within my lifetime. So my last experiment which I posted earlier today was totally an experiment and not a practical decision; in fact, if they are still doing well this fall I think I will be giving them away when I sell my hardy kiwi berries at the farmers market in October.
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love to hear more about it. i like all my bearing varieties- Kens Red, MSU, Annanasnaya. All are very different, which I like. i have had ones that seem more generically similar. Perhaps they were a single variety i had lots of places. Not that they were bad, mind you, but middling in size and flavor, IMO. How does LiLi stack up. Where dod you acquire it and whats its provenance?
Lili is a seedling grown by kiwi enthusiast Bob Glanzman. He obtained 7 seeds from a Nafex Explorer in 1985. The seeds were from a single fruit at an orchard in North east China near North Korea border.
The seeds were mainly collected because the fruit was unusually large for a Hardy smooth skinned kiwi and had red tinged flesh. Only one seed eventually made it. The rest either died or were male.
So far the only person who has a mature vine is Bob. I was able to taste it along with around a dozen other varieties last year. I made detailed tasting notes which I haven’t posted yet.
It was the second sweetest ( Brix 23) after Meyers Cordifolia - brix 28. It was also my favorite for taste. It also had the largest fruit with red tinged interior.
Bob offered cuttings to numerous others who didn’t take them. So he gave me all his cuttings which I am now rooting.
They also graft easily to fuzzy kiwi and grow vigorously.
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I would be very interested in one of those if you end up with extras!
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ditto
also interested in yr tasting notes, @ramv
I have cordifolia here. it IS a good one. more on thr bubble gum end of things flavor wise
Very interesting! How is the acidity?
I’ve recognized I really like fruits that have a good balance between sweetness and acidity and plan to plant some hardy kiwis next spring. Starting to jot down which varieties I should consider.
I’ve never met a Hardy kiwi I did not like.
They all have excellent acid-sweet balance PROVIDED they are picked just right. If picked too
late they can have off flavors. If picked early they can be grassy — especially Anna.
When I get to it, I’ll post some of the correspondence that Bob had with the actual seed collector who has since passed on. This is from an earlier era when people wrote detailed letters. It is unlike any other hardy kiwi grown here.
I also have some Melanandra/Arguta crosses that taste like Concorde grape with a pronounced wine/astringent finish. Some people like these even more. I spread these around the community this season since my vines are getting going.
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I tried rooting some Lili cuttings from Bob 2-3 years ago. I had one make it, but I lost track of it when I lost a few labels. Does it look like this? Leaves are smaller than my other argutas, and lighter green.
Upper leaves with more sun are long and pointed.
Here are my lili grafts. They look quite large leafed and vigorous. It may be a fertilization or climate thing.
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Wow I’d be interested in all of your interesting kiwis if you ever get some cuttings
Definitely not the same. I think my unlabeled vine must be a Prolific I had planned to use for grafting. I must have lost Lili. I can graft it with Lili next spring.
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Please extend this conversation a bit about kiwi cultivation. I have the impression they can be managed somewhat like grapes on a trellis though I have also seen free-standing kiwi vines. Why am I asking? I started a bunch of seed this spring and now have about 500 seedlings growing. I want to set out about 200 of them to do some selection work.
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@ramv please add me to the list for Lili, I’m interested in either cuttings or a plant. Thanks!
For folks interested in detailed information on hardy kiwi cultivation, University of NH Durham has an extensive trial and breeding program underway(they would likely be interested in Lili too!). A couple acres under trellis and online grower resources
http://www.unh.edu/halelab/kiwiberry/
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ambitious as usual. evaluation is going to be trickier than on many woody species since they take so long to cone into bearing. i havent toyed with seedlings much (i have a couple) but seems most dont get fruit for 5-7 years on clonal cultivars. i suppose grafting to mature vines might be a good route if you had access to some. Of course thats apt to be a confusing tangled mess so pick your poison. im sure you’ll figure out something sensible.
i have a particular interest in growing kiwis as standards. ive seen firsthand that they can grow up a sturdy pole and be left to sprawl. as long as they have some room around them, they seem happy enough to grow this way. i have 3 vines growing on a t-trellis of sorts, and another 1/2 dozen or so argutas im attempting to grow as standards. they are fiddly to establish though…
I’m now into my 12th year growing hardy kiwis, and thought I had learned some of the basics of actually growing them. But this year I was totally stumped when a significant number of my berries started looking bad (see attached photo). Turns out, learned this was berries suffering from sunburn. Appears the low rainfall this year here in Washington is at least partially responsible for this, making me think I should have increased the amount/time of watering I gave them (like in previous years). Plants looked fine, just the berries suffered. However, with climate change this may well become a common problem. Hopefully, some practical solution will be discovered.
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