The kiwi of commerce in the US, is Actinidia deliciosa, which is grown on vines. They are grown commercially in my part of CA and there is a 40 acre planting of them less than 10 miles from my home. I have purchased vines of one male and 2 different females (including the most important US commercial variety , Hayward) and have planted them in my garden this year. Here is a good article on kiwifruit: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/kiwifruit.html This article is from an excellent website produced by the California Rare Fruit Growers Association. They have excellent articles on a large number of different interesting temperate, tropical and subtropical rare fruits.

I would love to have some of your Chocolate Persimmon seeds. I don't have any of the seeds on your list but I have black walnut, bee balm Seeds, Clemson Spineless Okra Seed, Blue Miniature Corn Seeds, Connecticut Field Pumpkin Seeds. Please let me know if we can make a trade. Thank You.

I'm sorry to hear pod your frost damage so I want to encourage you to keep nurturing them and give them a good growing year because the DO get much stronger. Here's my 2 cents about this year's spring growth near Atlanta. We have had a perfect (but extra warm) spring following one of the wettest fall and winters on record. So for not only kiwis but all other frost sensitive fruiting plants this could be a bumper season. I have 12 female varieties and 3 male varieties (all are actinidia arguta = hardy kiwi) and they all pretty much leafed out at exactly the same time. The older plants (with more stored up energy I presume) grew faster but they all initially burst open within a day or two of each other. They are all growing in one "block" of about 40 x 70 feet, and like kiwinut (but couple hundred miles south)we did have a sudden change this spring from cool wet to "summer". In the above picture notice last year's woody growth contrasted with the super elongated current growth (light green and pink) There may be a later budding variety (or species) out there but just thought I'd tell you what I'm seeing here in GA. I think the trigger is some combination of air and soil temp and maybe amount of sunlight. Others have written that kiwi plants may wake up later if planted on the north side of a low fence or building or a north or west slope since it is cooler there. Heavy, light colored mulch like wood chips would also keep the soil cooler longer. To shed light on your second observation: Universities and enthusiasts have been collecting and experimenting with hardy kiwis for many years. NCGR in Corvallis, OR (for example) has many contributed selections with some overlap. I speculate that for some reason a few varieties (like Anna, Ken's Red, Meyer's Cordifolia, Dumbarton Oaks, and others mentioned) became more publicized so a nursery or two decided to start propagating and selling those few. This added even more to their popularity due to their availability. You may have noticed that the descriptions look like they are just copied from one nursery to next. (The same goes for heirloom tomatoes). I hope (nay... intend) to enrich the kiwi taste vocabulary this fall. This is the first year my males have flower buds (not opened yet). ... so if they truly are males, I anticipate a taste test of at least 6 different fruiting varieties. The above picture is (from left to right) "Cornell", "Meader", and "Davis" (127-40) male flower buds. Hopefully the bees will do their job, the weather will cooperate and we will have out long awaited kiwi feast in September or October. Sorry for being so wordy here, but this is my favorite subject lately. -Ron

Alexander, I would take a "go with the flow" attitude about the kiwi training. It may decide to shoot up a whole new shoot from the base (kiwis love to do that) and you can make that one direction and use one of the others for the other direction. I often grow multiple shoots from the base, the later shoots grow straighter than the first ones so you get a straighter trunk that way as well. That thick guy will also make several long shoots so you could use two on it for the two directions. Scott