Yes, it must be.
Very remarkable.
I scooped the seeds straight from a fresh Kiwi into a glass of water, and after a good shake i scooped them into the potting soil.
So the (bought) bag of soil must have been contaminated, with seeds looking exactly like kiwi seeds.
Anyhow, unless they turn out to be ugly weeds, I’ll give those sneaky intruders a permanent place 
My sungold seedling from 4 years ago is growing like crazy. So I sprouted a bunch more. Scott said his odds were not good. So I plan to keep all of them alive in pots and grow out 20 at a time. Hopefully I can get something to eat in a few years.
Is there a reliable source for Gold3 (G3) plants in the US? I’d love to have some on my backyard pergola!
It is very interesting how variable the sungold seedlings’ fuzziness are. They are definitely not as fuzzy as the green kiwi. They anywhere from a bit fuzzy to almost smooth. Also some seedlings are completely green and some has purpleish color to the young shoot. I wonder if it is anything like the bronze grape and purple grape. Where purple leaves make green kiwi and green makes golden. The pics are Mantua, Saanichton, Blake and seedlings.
Mantua:
Seedlings:
I definitely notice variation in leaf coloration and plant vigor among my Sungold seedlings, but mine are all pretty fuzzy. I only have six of them, though, all less than a year from seed:
They mostly have pink or reddish leaf margins and petioles, but that third photo shows one seedling that’s all green, and you can see the differences in vigor from the group shot.
That’s what I noticed too. That’s why I took picture of the green fuzzy Kiwi to compare. Those are definitely on a whole nother level of hairiness. I wish someone would post a pic of any golden kiwi for comparison. That one very smooth seedling is what I imagine what golden kiwi vines looks like.
@Sunny_Orchard some pictures of my current new sungolds. Previous ones died because i used wrong potting soil…
Not much fuzziness at all.
One of the 4 has more roundish leaves, the other ones occur to me like the typical chinensis breed.
As I await my Saanichton with Matua male to be shipped (little plugs), I read through this thread about growing from seed.
After reading the AU golden kiwi thread I did some searching and didn’t find anyone in the US selling it.
I’ve also read that fruiting time from seed is considerably longer than other propagation means.
So my questions are:
If I were to grow a dozen or so golden kiwi seeds (pretty sure I’ve seen them sold at Whole Paycheck, uh, Foods), could I keep them small each year by pruning until I can determine the sex of the vines? This way I could manage to keep them all manageable and portable until I found a female. So I only need to see a few flowers from each this should work?
Is grafting onto an existing vine a faster way to fruit? In that case it might be easier to find scion to graft onto part of an older green fuzzy variety?
Under optimal conditions, yellow kiwi can bloom fairly quickly. I had some males bloom just 18 months from seed. One problem is that the vines usually need to get pretty big to start blooming. After they start, you could prune them back. Your biggest problem may be insufficient chill hours. Most yellow kiwi need 700-800 hours. You may have to screen a lot of seedlings to find some with lower chill requirements.
Not worth it then.
Thanks for the reply.
Perhaps we will eventually find lower chill varieties developed and available in the US.
I love how they taste…if memory serves, they are less acidic than the typical store green Hayward (?).
Seeing some activity in this thread reminded me to go out and see how my own SunGold seedlings were doing now that we’ve had a few minor frosts with the coldest night around 30°F. Most of them show some frost damage and fall colors on the living leaves, but they seem pretty happy so far:
I planted 2 in the ground and I’m keeping the other 4 outside in their one gallon pots this winter.
I have noticed this as well. The most recent gold variety does not taste good to me. They are too round and too sour like a green kiwi. The older variety from about 10 years ago was amazing and had more of a blunted end. The closest i can find now is one of those redish varities that also seems a little gold inside. These have the same shape as i remember and taste amazing.
My gold seedling from 10 years ago died under our cold winters, but it was fun giving it a shot. Maybe i would try again if i can be certain its a tasty gold and not the modern crud. I no longer buy gold varities as they taste too similar to green. Too sour for my taste.
When growing grapes for wine the amount of vine/cordon length, and thus bunches, is limited to ensure quality fruit
Kiwi produces fruit much like grapes as far as second year wood goes and is often pruned in a somewhat similar way.
What I don’t know and can’t find spelled out is if there is a similar concern with kiwi for limiting the amount of fruiting wood on a given vine.
So for those with mature fuzzy kiwi vines, do you let your vines grow and get bigger each year, not counting the annual pruning on laterals?
Why do I ask? As I am going to grow mine on a horizontal pergola, I am wondering if one vine can eventually cover the area and still produce and ripen full sized fruit. Or should I add a second female?
My area will be 9 feet x 17 feet. Of course a small amount of that area will be for the male, but my plan is to keep it small as it only has to pollinate one female.
Thanks
Received my Saanichton Female and matua male from fruitwood nursery today.
I’m surprised the cane that was rooted is so thick. Do you root kiwi from wood older than 1 year?
I’m also surprised the cane is hollow in the center, like bamboo. Didn’t know that.
Each had a few leaves on them. Nice roots. Will grow in a pot until perhaps late next summer before planting out.
My experience with standard fuzzy kiwi vines is that they will grow to enormous sizes, if you let them and if they have the necessary space for root growth. I grow my female vine in a space about 12 ft high by 21 ft wide, and the vine requires constant pruning to keep it within that space. And this is at the back of our house in a limited area of poor soil. I have seen wild-growing kiwi vines that reach at least 50 ft up fir trees, with lots of side branches loaded with fruit.
(I think this is why they’re moving towards the invasive list in Pennsylvania)… At least hardy kiwis are on the radar. Fortunately I’ve seen no mention of Arctics.
Do you remember if this is the same brand as the ‘10 years ago’ yellows?
Yes. I believe both were/are Zespri brand. I’m not sure if the original was sungold or just labeled as golden kiwi, but the modern sungold just seems larger and more prefectly round. I really think it has changed over time.
Started my very own zespri golden kiwi seeds. Glad to see others have done the same. Here are my results so far. Largest plant is a few months old, others are maybe 1 month. 12 plants in total, hopefully I will get at least 1 female.
Growing in zone 7 NJ, indoors for the winter.
I’m somewhat surprised at how good the two small sungold seedlings look that I left unprotected (in-ground) for the freeze in January. They were fully dormant at the time and are still dormant now, but I don’t see any sign of damage to the dormant buds from a very hard 6-day freeze with a low of 14.7°F. The ground froze a few inches deep.
Do kiwis typically only show freeze damage later, such as failing to bud out even if they look alive? Or are these really able to handle that kind of cold?
Fuzzy kiwis usually are fine down to 5F or even lower. Somehow the word spread about how un-hardy they were some time ago and apparently it is still out there. In 20 years of growing fuzzies I have not lost a single plant due to lack of hardiness. Sometimes they leaf out too early and the main buds get fried, but they will come back. Also trunks may crack badly in rapid temperature swings in the winter; but that has been very rare for me.
I am eating my fuzzy kiwi harvest now, they are yummy! KwangYang is the best one this year, I’m glad I saved it. I didn’t let them ripen enough in past years. The Soreli are also yummy. For me picking just before the hard freeze around Thanksgiving, and storing in the fridge til Feb is the magic ticket.
