@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.
I’m not a big kiwi fan, but the deer love them, right down to the ground.
They were definitely ripe. It is more a comparison with other yellow flesh kiwis which are very yellow and the El Dorado is barely yellow in comparison.
I thought I saw some signs of a hybrid on the bark but it could just be the variety.
Re: deer, my deer have so many other tasty things that they don’t do much damage to the kiwis. Some years they figure out the fruit is tasty and eat most of it but other years they miss them.
Do Kiwis require shade? I planted one pair in the bright sun (ZONE 7A, Maryland) and the leaves are 50% brown. That is the 2nd photo…and the damage has increased the last three weeks. I planted a 2nd pair in the partial shade of an apple tree, and it looks very healthy. That is the first photo and the vines have grown completely over the trellis over the past four weeks. I see from this post that we have to wait at least 4 years for fruit. That’s ok. My fruit trees have taken from 5-8 years to produce. As long as everything stays healthy
Kolomikta fruit the year after planting, arguta take 3-6 years (Or more!) depending on site and training
Yes, arguta kiwis will suffer in hot afternoon sun.
The fuzzy kiwis seem to thrive in sun, atleast in the PNW.
I haven’t noticed any issues on that front. I mulched and watered them early on and by now (a decade later), they have massive roots and can take care of themselves. The bigger issue I have that they want to take over the world. Or at least any plant or structure in their general vicinity.
Your vines probably have not had a chance to grow a good, deep root system yet, so can get dehydrated in hot, dry sunny weather. The tips of the leaves get injured first, so that’s why the tips turned brown. If you see the leaves getting very wilted in the heat of the day, give them a good drink. Once they get older, they should be less prone to drying out. They will do best with some afternoon shade in hotter climates.
Regarding ‘Cordifolia’, mine is in a large pot still and I haven’t given it a support so it’s just a tangle that’s all flopped over. It was pretty tiny when I got it a few years ago, but flowered fine this spring. No fruit set because I lost my male, but it DID flower. Before losing my male a previous year it had done the same; it was flopped over in a small pot and it flowered, but stopped flowering the following years before it died as it was being trained to grow up a support.
My working theory with these hardy kiwis taking forever to mature to the flowering stage is that they get “trained” too well up supports which keeps them in grow mode. I really think they need to be allowed to run out of climbing space and flop over to induce faster maturity and induction of flowering.
My Hardy kiwi male and cordifolia were purchased at the same time. No flowers on either despite a lot of growth.
Thankfully I have a wonderful male Chinensis (bliss yellow) that blooms at an overlapping time with the Hardy kiwis and does a great job with pollination.
deep mulch is great for them esp. once it gets hot.
There is a lot of kiwi expertise here so hopefully someone see this post. Reading up on kiwi’s has been a bit confusing. I am in Texas 8A and the impression I get is none of the kiwis will grow and fruit here. If I am wrong could you experts guide me to what might work? I never got my hands on the AU kiwis, and from what I read by the pros here is they had issues getting it to grow in Texas. The issues here are hot summers often 100F for 2-3 months, winters that are erratic with sudden spring like weather followed by freezes as well as late freezes on average March 18 where I live. Will any kiwis work here? They would ideally be in ground. I have read of some doing Issai’s in pots which is not ideal but I could do it if nothing else would work. Am I right this is not an environment any of these will work or is there hope?
I’m in Texas 8A with about the same frost date and I’m trying them. Just have the baby plants in the ground. Not sure how to handle all that you explained but trying to handle it for a bunch of other fruit too. Biggest expense was the trellis so I’m going to try it. I’ve got the fuzzy kiwis and I’ve picked out the most cold hardy varieties.
