Cold Hardy Kiwi 7a-7b: Are chinensis or deliciosa really hardy here?

4 years ago

NCSU cooperative extension says they are, but I've never heard of anyone growing them successfully in the ground near Raleigh. I've been successful with kolomita & arguta. I'm interested in growing for fruit, not just foliage.

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trianglejohn

4 years ago

If you are diligent about pruning you can control the weight of the vines. You will want your male's flowers pretty close to the females, bees don't always do a good job of pollinating kiwis (I think they are mostly wind pollinated, but bees do visit the flowers). You could train your male down the middle and keep your females along both outside edges and you'll be fine. I may sound like a broken record but ONE FEMALE VINE can produce 180 POUNDS of fruit. Now this may only start happening on about the tenth year but seriously - 180 POUNDS OF FRUIT!!!! I have two female vines. I don't even bother picking all of it because there is just too much. On a year with super high heat and no rain you won't get as much and the fruit will be tiny and on years with single digit winter cold you may lose large sections of the vine and therefore a reduction in fruit, but in a normal year you can plan on 180 POUNDS OF FRUIT!!! I have heard of gardeners grafting their male onto the female and just keeping the male vines under control.

I chose not to build a wooden trellis system because I didn't want to do all the deep digging and cementing to make it sturdy, so I used 10 foot t-posts and pounded them 3 feet into the ground. I made braces every 10 feet or so by pounding in two of them in an "X" pattern. I strung metal wire down the middle where the "X's'" meet (about 4.5 feet off the ground) and one wire down the outside edge on both sides the length of the trellis. It has worked okay but the heavy vines are starting to pull it over. So my plan is to just pound in more "X" frames, like every 5 feet and do a better job of pruning to reduce the weight.

For my hardy kiwis I just use 8' t-posts pounded into the ground 2.5 feet in a single row like a fence and string two wires, one at the top and one about 18 inches below that. These have also started to sag due to the weight of the vines but I think adding more t-posts will solve it. I use a LOT of t-posts in my garden.

You will need to figure out a way to "cure" your fuzzy crop because they aren't good for fresh eating when you pick them. They need to sit a while in order to get sweet and to soften enough to bite into them. If you want to make jam's or jellies or pie filling then they are better while kinda hard and sour, the cooking solves the problem. I harvest in November, usually after the first mild frost and store them in my basement on tables. Some of them rot but enough of them cure that I get sick of them by this time of the year. They get pretty ugly from this sort of curing, very wrinkled and shrunken but they taste wonderful and sweet. The grocery store ones are cured with precision chillers that manage the humidity and the temps. Kiwis are great long storage fruits because you can control when they soften by keeping them cool and then only bringing up to the kitchen the amount you want to eat that week. The warmth will speed up the ripening.

180 POUNDS OF FRUIT is more than a heaping wheel barrow load!

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Comments (7)

Zone 7b
4 years ago
Edible Landscaping up near Lynchburg, VA (zone 7a) has deliciosa growing, not sure about chinensis. I was there a couple of years ago in the fall and sampled Elmwood right off the vine. If you haven't been there for a visit, it's worth the drive!

I'm a bit north of Raleigh and will be planting a few arguta this spring. How have they grown for you? Which cultivars are you growing?
trianglejohn
4 years ago
I grow A. arguta 'Anna', 'Ken's Red' and a male 'Issai' for pollination. I have lost one 'Anna' vine in last year's hot dry summer. 'Ken's Red' is close to ten years old and only gives me a tiny bit of fruit, if any, so I will most likely replace it with something else. I like the surviving 'Anna'. The fruit are very tasty, abundant, and easy to harvest. I think the vine that died was miss-labeled because the fruit was much smaller and the vine weaker than the surviving 'Anna' - even though I bought them at the same time from the same place, off the same shelf.

I also grow A. deliciosa 'Vincent' which does okay. Some year's I get a massive crop. I don't thin the fruit nor do I water them enough so the fruit is often small compared to grocery store fuzzy kiwis. I have some new golden kiwi's from the University of Alabama breeding program that I will be planting out this spring. They are supposed to be zone 7 hardy and have large fruit that are a bit earlier than what I already have.

They all suffer in very hot and dry weather and I have had die back during winter cold snaps where the temps drop to single digits. I kinda don't mind because the vines are monsters that require constant pruning to keep them in the yard. If they can see a tall tree nearby they will reach for it and try and race to the top. Even when frozen back to the main trunk they have made fruit the following summer. You do have to wait at least 7 years to see good fruit production. It can take while for your males and females to sinc up blooming wise. The females will stay in bloom for a long time if not fertilized but once they get their act together the flowers will fade within a week. The flowers on the fuzzy's are very pretty so you hate to see them go quickly.

Hardy kiwi fruit usually never make it to the kitchen, they tend to get eaten while out in the yard working. Fuzzy's are a different type of fruit. They are rock hard and super sour in the fall - like early November. I like to harvest before hard freezes start or whenever I have a lot of time. I pile them up on tables in my basement and let them finish ripening over the winter. They do best in very cool temps with a fair amount of humidity. They taste really good in February and March (when nothing else is fruiting) but they look awful, usually wrinkled and shrunken.

Oh, and I'm on the south side of Raleigh, next to the beltline. zone 7b
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Zone 7b
4 years ago
trianglejohn, thanks for the information on your kiwi growing experience. Very helpful!

I have some questions regarding a kiwi trellis. I have about 30 linear feet of space and plan on building a 3 post, 5 wire t-bar trellis, which will create 2 spans of 15 feet.

I want to plant two females and one male. I'll place the females at the center of each span and place the male at the end of one those spans. The growth of the male will need to be restricted to allow the female as much space as possible. Is this a reasonable plan?

Are 4x4s strong enough for the posts? I would rather not use 4x6s due to their weight, but will if necessary.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Zone 7b
4 years ago
trianglejohn, thanks again for the helpful information on your kiwis!

I'm not the OP, so let me apologize for hijacking Joel's thread, which I believe has led to confusion as to which kiwi type I plan on growing. I'll be planting arguta this spring, Issai, Anna and a male.

After reading about your experience with fuzzi kiwis, I'm glad that I'm going with the hardy ones and guess that 4x4 posts will be sufficient. Those fuzzis are monsters! 180 pounds of fruit is insane! I've read that hardy kiwis produce up to 100 pounds of fruit, though from your description I'd guess you're getting somewhat less, which is probably a good thing.
trianglejohn
4 years ago
Hardy kiwis also benefit from storage but they don't last as long as fuzzys. With proper pruning you can get a lot of fruit off of one female vine. My guess would be that I get 2 to 3 five gallon buckets worth from one 30 foot vine. If you keep them stored somewhere cool and then bring up to the kitchen the amount you want to eat each week you can prolong the harvest. Their flavor also improves with storage but they are highly edible right off the vine.
tamelask
4 years ago
i also grow hardies. if you refrigerate them while still firm, they will sloooowly ripen just like the fuzzies. doubt they'd hold as long but you can prolong holding. they freeze and dry well.

Cold Hardy Kiwi 7a-7b: Are chinensis or deliciosa really hardy here?

trianglejohn

Comments (7)

Zone 7b

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