It looks like we don’t have a topic for growing kiwi
I am growing many varieties of kiwi. This year it appears I am getting fruit from Ananasnaja - Hardy kiwi, Hongyang Chinensis and Auburn golden dragon Chinensis.
I have many others but no fruit yet.
I also have Meyers Cordifolia which has not produced a blossom in 4 years.
Arctic kiwis aka kolomikta do very poorly for me. The incessant winter rains have killed off 2 males. One female is holding on for dear life. Too bad because I love their flavor.
I am also growing some melanandra hybrids from
Kiwibob. No fruit yet.
My Arctic/ kolomikta kiwis were sitting stagnant for a couple of years and are putting on vigorous growth this year. I have a male and a female September Sun. No fruit yet.
See next post link to growing (Actinidia ) (started by @ramv ) https://growingfruit.org/t/growing-actinidia/23792
Looks like a commercial market is on the way for kiwi berry (Europe)
I know 70,000 kilos isn’t much, but a start.
(See pictures also of species )
We expect to produce between 70,000 and 80,000 kilos of kiwiberries this season"
The supply of local berries on the European continent will increase in the coming days with the arrival on the market of the first kiwiberries from Portugal. “Minikiwi Farm will start supplying its kiwiberries from week 31, and we will continue to do so until the second week of September,” says Ricardo Machado. “Portugal is currently one of the main producers of this fruit and we are also the first to supply kiwiberries to the European market.”
Oh I see 2022 (hahah)
Keep in mind Could also check falling fruit for tree’s in the area . (edit sorry mostly a waste for this species unless you list it)
I saw some vine in Chicago (40 mile train ride)
I never did ask the owners or go there Yet (edit no longer listed for locals)
but Morton Arboretum has some (in Lisle Il. )
I know how some people feel about that
I’d be quite happy to have some ask me , and meet fellow fruit enthusiastic 's
I’ve got two sets of vines at opposite ends of the yard. The vines at one end lost their male last year (it’s coming back from the ground and I’ve trained it up a pole). But that meant no pollination this spring, other than a couple of times I took a small branch with flowers from the male at the other end of the yard and waved it around (tapping flowers with it). I don’t know if my efforts helped, but there was some fruit set. But not a lot.
Yes they are, that handful is an assortment of kolomikta, a couple varieties I grow make a portion of the fruit as “doubles” that are extra wide. I also grow one that is quite elongated
how many years before you got fruit? mine are in the 4th year i think and this spring was the 1st time i got blooms. unfortunately i have 2 females instead of a male and female. hirts screw up. hopefully the males i grew from your cuttings dont take 4 years to bloom. theyre about 6in tall and in ground now. they are in full sun from 7am to 130 pm, then dappled shade.
I bet I have the fruitless record for Myer’s Cordifolia, 19 years and no fruit. It did die back to the ground about halfway through that 19 years. Ken’s Red is almost as bad but has given me a couple fruits at least. In fairness these plants don’t get a lot of sun, they are in a less desirable place in the yard. Anna is my main arguta, it gives me a decent crop in spite of not much sun. Hongyang is also fruiting well, but is is not so exciting in taste - only the red flesh. Soreli is still my favorite chinensis. I lost both of my AU kiwis this year. I think they may have some delayed graft incompatibility with the deliciosa rootstocks I bought them on, the rootstock kept trying to send up sprouts. I will graft them to chinensis stocks if I try them again.
@scottfsmith,
Why is Hongyang not exciting in taste? Kiwibob described the taste as pure honey. He thought I would like it. He however prefers sour (aka very very sour) fruit.
I hope Sorelli is not the Italian Golden kiwi I get sometimes at costco – probably one of the worst tasting kiwis ever. Very thick core and mealy flesh.
My AU kiwi is grafted on Deliciosa for sure – the rootstock suckered for a while and the leaves were deliciosa leaves.
I ground layered my Golden Sunshine last year that came on deliciosa rootstock. Good thing, as the rootstock had severe damage this past winter. The new roots from the layer supported the whole vine, so it must have a good root system now. I let several shoots grow below the layer(above the graft), that will be used for scion wood this winter.
Unfortunately I lost the AU Tiger male when the rootstock died. However, I have several Sungold seedlings that may begin to bloom next year, so I will have a male eventually. I had one of them ploidy tested to confirm it is 4x, so I’m assuming they all are 4x.
It had low sugar and little flavor. I did not get too many fruits and it only fruited one year so I did not take it out yet. Maybe it will be better this year… the crop will be larger this time.
I doubt Soreli is sold at Costco, it is too small to sell in the US grocery stores. The core is minimal in it. I removed El Dorado last winter mainly because it’s core was large and hard… it would have been a keeper if not for that.
Hal I wished I had also layered my AU kiwis, they were already showing problems not liking their roots the previous year.
I thought El Dorado was excellent, sweet even before full ripeness, but it is a bit small, maybe 50-70 grams. Soreli never fruited for me and it’s supposed to have large fruit. I wonder if you got them mixed up? El Dorado is diploid and would bloom early with Hongyang, while Soreli would be later. The Hongyang fruit I grew were very sweet, but ripened in mid to late October. Maybe your Hongyangs were not fully ripe? Could also be soils, climate, rootstocks, or who knows what making things different there.
Edit: Just checked the patent info on Soreli. It’s claimed to average 118 grams.
I’m going to layer my Jinnong/Golden Dragon just so that I have a duplicate. So far it is healthy and vigorous but never know what can happen in winter with cold, rodents etc.
I planted Cordifolia in 2012. I’m not sure when I first got fruit, but I know I was getting it by the time I wrote the below post in 2018, so it was 6 years or less.
Issai produces fruit almost immediately (I think some in the 1st/2nd year for me), so if early production is what you are looking for,
Mine are in a pretty decent spot- most of the shading the get is self-shading from rampant growth. They may lose a small amount of early morning and late afternoon as most places a lot of neighbors do, but get sun for most of the day. Not quite as perfect as the spots I have some jujubes in where the ground slopes away to the South & West, with a wide driveway to the East so they get all but a few minutes of sun.
Even so, Ken’s Red has taken 10 years. I also grafted Cordifolia in a less ideal (but not bad) spot in 2020. It may have had a few fruit last year, but it has quite a few this year. Much more than the less-pollinated but 10 year old vine.
I think you’ve mentioned not liking many hardy kiwi’s because of an off flavor. I’m not sure if I taste exactly the same thing, but some kiwi taste good at first, but I quickly get sick of them (even when they have high brix, which they don’t always). This includes Issai, Geneva, and Chico/Jumbo. Jury is out on Fortyniner, but mostly because it produces very few fruit from a massive tangle of vine.
Cordifolia and Rossana both seem to be very palatable, which was why I grafted more Cordifolia and trained the older one to cover almost 50 feet of trellis space (from the vine, there are 4 supports spreading out (covering about 120-140 degrees). Regrettably the male wasn’t ready to pollinate the massive vine this year.
I am pretty sure they are not mixed up, they were added in different years and grafted at very different places. They are the same size for me, probably the 50-70 gram kind of thing. Not sure why the Soreli are not larger but it could be the shade. Some years I liked El Dorado a lot and the flavor was always good, but the core some years was pretty off-putting. I think it is a deliciosa/chinensis hybrid(?), the flesh is almost more green than yellow. It does not always fully ripen for me which is another problem. Soreli always fully ripens which means I get really tasty sweet fruit every year, usually ready to eat in December/January after a couple months in the fridge.
It sounds like they might not have been. They were picked in October but I didn’t let them ripen any more off the vine. I was picking and eating other kiwis at the same time and they were less tasty than all the other ones that were at a similar level of firmness so I got a negative impression from that. I’ll give them another shot this year.
The green flesh ones can taste off sometimes. Ken’s Red never has that which is a big plus. If I could get it or Cordifolia fruiting regularly I would be very happy. Anna is relatively better than the other green ones I tried so I am keeping it as well.
It’s a pure, diploid A. chinensis as far as I know. The flesh does turn yellow when ripe, so still greenish means not fully ripe. However, I found it to be edible and pretty decent 2-3 weeks before getting completely ripe.
Several of my Hort16A seedlings had a woody core like El Dorado. It can be a deal killer for otherwise promising varieties.
