What and where to get kiwi plants?

My family is in love with the golden kiwis from the groceries. I am in Virginia near DC zone 7A. I saved some of the seeds to try and grow out this spring. I am going to buy some plugs from FruitWoodNursery but I don’t see any golden ones. Where did you guys buy them? Which varieties do you recommend?

Also do you know which one will do well in my area? I am looking at Cordifolia, Ken’s Red, Dumbarton Oak (hardy Kiwi), Early Bird, Saanichton, Vincent and Blake (Fuzzy Kiwi). Are any of these not worth trying?

If you do a forum search you will find a bunch of good threads on kiwi both fuzzy and hardy. You are pretty close to Edible Landscaping, they have a good kiwi selection.

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I second Edible Landscaping. Cool nursery to visit.

There is a bit of a gap now in terms of yellow kiwis available for sale. The AU ones should be back on the market soon given that Agristarts is supposed to be propagating them. It is not a bad idea to grow them from seed. I did this twice but had the very bad luck of all males both times.

Note they should grow and produce fine in Virginia. I get a crop almost every year.

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In eastern Virginia, most kiwis do well due to the moderate climate and marine influence. For me, fuzzy kiwis have never done that well, although they do get hardier over time. They really don’t tolerate the fluctuating temps like the yellow kiwis do, but can be very hardy when fully dormant. Trying to grow any kiwis in frost pockets is going to be difficult. Slightly higher ground with good air drainage can make a huge difference.

I would suggest planting seedlings from the store bought fruit. Over the next year or two, there should be lots of these becoming available for grafting, from Sun Gold seedlings. I know of someone who has lots of them fruiting now, and I have some as well that are not blooming yet, that are confirmed as tets. Agristarts should have some eventually, but I’m not sure that they will have any decent males for Golden Sunshine. The AU Golden Tiger is not very hardy at all. The Sun Gold seedling tet males should be much better. The yellow kiwis are very difficult to root from dormant cuttings, but really easy to graft.

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This is very encouraging. I will grow out as many as I can then. Thank you.

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