After four growing seasons, my fuzzy kiwis are flowering in central Connecticut. Now to see how “self fertile” this vine really is, and if it can ripen fruits before our first frost this season.
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I’ll be following your progress. Does your Jenny have perfect flowers (both functional male and female structures in one flower) or imperfect flowers (flowers with either functional male or functional female structures)?
Male flower on left, female on right:
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It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but what I can see looks like male blooms.
My understanding of ‘Jenny’, is that it’s female and sets parthenocarpic fruit like ‘Issai’, but does not produce viable pollen.
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I planted one this year. She seems to be perked up and happy in her spot, but I can’t say I’ve noticed growth yet. I seem to recall a similar lazy first season with my hardies, and the new hardies I added are following a similar trend.
Interesting blooms. They look mostly male, but there are small styles present. I have never seen Jenny blooms, but I searched for images online and most looked like that. Some fruiting males have flowers like that, so I’m wondering if Jenny could be a fruiting male, or just has short styles. It will be interesting to see how the fruit develops.
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How do we feel about ripening time? Actinidia arguta is flowering right about now and fruits in late September/mid October… but those are much smaller fruits. So I’m wondering if these will ever reach full size and ripen before our first hard frost. (Which these days often comes in November)
I did a little digging around and just found a publication where molecular markers were used for sex determination in kiwifruit. The author’s referred to ‘Jenny’ as an “inconstant male”, which was included as a control, and when tested, the markers indicated it is genetically male. Based on this evidence, I think it’s likely that ‘Jenny’ does produce viable pollen, and could be used as a pollenizer for other females with an overlapping bloom period. Definitely needs to be tested.
The paper did not mention any references specifically for ‘Jenny’, but I’ll see if I can find more info.
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kiwinut:
I opened that link - the discussion was way over my head!
As way of explanation, you mentioned that Jenny, an inconstant male, could be used as a pollenizer. What about Solo, which I have and is marketed as not needing a pollenizer? Does Solo being an ‘inconstant female’ put it in a different category?
“The SyGl marker products (ca. 90 bp (SyGl genic intron/exon) and ca. 310 bp (SyGI 3’ promoter region)) were also present in all of the male samples but not in the female samples (Figure 4). For both of the markers (SmY and SyGl), the results in the two hermaphrodite cultivars were different. In the cultivar Jenny (inconstant male), the products of the markers were the same as in the male cultivars, while in the Solo cultivar (inconstant female), the products were absent”
Very interesting! I’m sorry to say but I’m more confused than when I originally posed the question… as an inconsistent male, do several ‘Jenny’ plants planted together have the capability to cross pollinate one another and produce fruit? I stupidly have six plants all in the same area trellised. They were 75% off at a Lowe’s bargin bin during the summer of 2020. 
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Solo doesn’t appear to have the Friendly Boy gene, so it probably does not produce viable pollen. However, Jenny should be able to pollenize it, which may produce bigger fruit.
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If the Jenny flowers can self pollenize, it doesn’t matter how much they cross pollenize between different vines.
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Sorry I should have clarified my question better, does the research article stipulate that Jenny can pollenize itself? Basically do you expect that the fruits will set.
Yes, that is what it suggests. Inconstant males will produce viable pollen, and have small ovaries that can set fruit. The simplest test would be to grow it in isolation with a different female fuzzy kiwi and see if fruit sets. A Jenny grown by itself should also have seeds if it is really self-fertile.
Very very cool. And thank you so much for the deep dive! Do you study kiwis in a university setting?
Jenni is described as having seeds by several commercial vendors, so that suggests that it is self-fertile rather than parthenocarpic (which would be seedless).
Hi @Incarnata, did the Jenny end up fruiting for you? I hope so, as I’d love to hear how they taste this winter!
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I’ve been meaning to update this thread! Unfortunately, no fruits. Can’t say why. Perhaps next year 
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Sorry to hear that. Hopefully it just needs another year to establish. Thanks for the reply!
A year later there are indeed fruits. It’s definitely self fertile.
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