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Fruit & Orchards

Hardy / Arctic Kiwi?

14 years ago

Are there any kiwi varieties that bear fruit at an early age? From what I read, most fruit after 5-7 years, except maybe Issai and some (which?) Kolomikta that may fruit earlier (3-4 years) Does anyone have direct experience with those? If it makes any difference, I get around 500 chill hours with mild winters (maybe just a couple of night below freezing)

Also it seems that the Fuzzy Kiwi needs lots of water - I'm wondering if the same is true for its hardier relatives. Where I live it doesn't rain at all in the summer, although it doesn't get that hot either (usually around 75). I could give a deep watering once a month, maybe once a week, but definitely not daily.

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Comments (3)

theaceofspades
14 years ago
My two Arctic Beauty vines flowered this their third season. Dozens of tiny kiwi fruit formed and dropped off later. The one male plant did not flower yet but I am hoping next season it will. The male plant should get variegated leaf color when mature, so I'll know its a male. I set up my trellis as a foliage screen for a neighbors pool. The vines thrive with lots of mulch.
glib
14 years ago
Yes, they need a lot of water and a lot of manure. In my case: they are where my garage discharges water after a rainfall, so they get twice the normal precipitation. They have no competitors for water (only one large tree nearby, and it was cut years ago). And they get one foot of wood chips.
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Well, I don't have a lot of experience, yet. I bought three vines this spring. In fact, they are still in 7-gallon pots, waiting for their final planting location. I'm far south of you, but probably live at a higher altitude (7200 feet), so we are both zone 5. Since I am on a mountain side, I also have the usual alpine complications, cool summer temperatures (1 day over 90 F and 2 weeks of night-time temps over 60 F per summer) and a short season. With that profile, I finally dug out the information that most Hardy kiwis wouldn't ripen fruit for me. That's when I went with the Arctic kiwis. I have one female called Hero and one called Victor, and an Arctic Beauty male. They were all about 4 ft tall when a garden, roof, and car/windshield-destroying hail storm hit on July 6, so at this point I am just glad they are all still alive. Like you, I get about 12-14 inches of precipitation a year, and yes, the kiwis will want more. I'll get back to you with the nursery's name and address as soon as I find it. ;-) Catherine
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My Issai are ripening very late. My first thought is that it is either due to it being a young plant (3rd year) or that un-pollinated fruit behaves differently. Rather than ripen in August, it is just now starting to become edible. I've been picking one every 1-2 weeks since early September and until this week the brix was always under 10 (it started around 6 and tasted horrible). Yesterday I finally got one with 13, which tasted ok, but very tart, so I think I'm getting closer. They are also smaller than the ones I've gotten in the store (large grape sized in stores, medium-small grape sized from the yard), but at this point I think they are done growing. My most mature male vine only had one flower this year and it rained the day it opened, so there may have been little or no pollination (no fruit on Ken's Red or Geneva, even though they bloomed lightly).
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kiwinut
14 years ago
Most Actinidia are earlier bearing than hardy kiwi, A. arguta, and some argutas are earlier than others. Most of the "too long to bear" issues with argutas is related to late spring frost. If that is not an issue for you, then they will likely start to bloom in 2-3 years.

My kolomiktas and Issai were all quick to bloom-all bloomed the year after planting. The fuzzy kiwis have not been hardy for me, but the A. chinensis (yellow kiwis) seem to be fairly quick, 2-3 years even from seed, and one year when grafted to an established rootstock. They are very vigorous, so they get big really quickly. Even though they have a huge leaf surface area, I have found them to be very tolerant of hot dry weather without any watering. My argutas wilt under the same conditions even with lots of watering, even though they only have a fraction of the leaf surface area. I typically get 50-60 inches of rain per year, so drought tolerance and water needs are relative. With your mild summer temps, I don't expect that you would have any problems.

You can probably grow most types of kiwi if you plan to water them well. Most have low chill requirements. Some of the fuzzy kiwi like 'Hayward', are said to need about 800 chill hours, but there are many low chill varieties as well that would work for you.

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