The fruit is smaller, slightly sweeter, and has smooth edible skin.
Has anyone ever had them???? The fruit or the plant/tree?
Northern kiwi?
I read here recently ( told you the library would to more questions not less!) that there is a kiwi that is hardy to my zone
The fruit is smaller, slightly sweeter, and has smooth edible skin.
Has anyone ever had them???? The fruit or the plant/tree?
The fruit is smaller, slightly sweeter, and has smooth edible skin.
Has anyone ever had them???? The fruit or the plant/tree?
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applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30540
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
Edible Landscaping has been selling hardy kiwis for years, and I've been eyeing them up for a long time. Despite their many selections, they only have one that is listed as hardy to Z4. This maybe limitation due to their location in Va. As the plants would be adapted to much warmer winters. The Z5 cultivars grown by nurseries further north maybe adapted to survive colder winters.
They ship great quality plants and provides excellent email support for any questions before and after purchase. Their website is eat-it.com
They ship great quality plants and provides excellent email support for any questions before and after purchase. Their website is eat-it.com
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microcollie
- Green Thumb
- Posts: 319
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:17 pm
- Location: Western MA
I have kiwis growing in an unused corner of the property. The vines have been in the ground now for about 6 years and are 30ish feet tall. They're not doing so well this year (probably the heat/draught thing). Last year I got maybe 10 fruits, about the size of large concord grapes. They're not fuzzy like the supermarket types...the skin is edible. They're good, but nothing to write home about.
I had to dig waaaay back through my files to find the cultivar names. The female is Actinidia arguta "Ananasnaya" (never guess it was from Siberia, huh?) and the male, needed for fruit production is a. a. "Meadow Male". Both are fine here in my zone 4 and are even in a fairly unprotected spot.
All in all, they're huge, fairly unattractive vines, growing up trees out in my field. I have to stick a ladder in the back of the truck and drive out when I want to check for fruit. For this reason, I tend to ignore them quite a bit (they'e also too far from a water source to even think about watering) It could be that the wildlife here in the Berkshires has been enjoying them behind my back.
There is a hardy vine called (and I'm grabbing this from memory, so forgive me if it's not quite right) Actinidia kolomicta "arctic beauty" that's a beautiful vine, with pink and cream variegations on the leaves. Not sure if it would work as a more attractive option. And the variegation only occurs on the male vines.
All that being said, If you're in it for fruit production only, I wouldn't give them a glowing review. But the vines were cheap, seemed like a good idea at the time (any chance to eat "local" is a plus in my book), and have given purpose to a couple dead trees out in the field.
By the way, I bought mine at a now-defunct nursery in Vermont, but am pretty sure that you could find a source online if you're going to move forward. I know that my local nurseries sell the arctic beauty as an ornamental, but have never seen females there.
I had to dig waaaay back through my files to find the cultivar names. The female is Actinidia arguta "Ananasnaya" (never guess it was from Siberia, huh?) and the male, needed for fruit production is a. a. "Meadow Male". Both are fine here in my zone 4 and are even in a fairly unprotected spot.
All in all, they're huge, fairly unattractive vines, growing up trees out in my field. I have to stick a ladder in the back of the truck and drive out when I want to check for fruit. For this reason, I tend to ignore them quite a bit (they'e also too far from a water source to even think about watering) It could be that the wildlife here in the Berkshires has been enjoying them behind my back.
There is a hardy vine called (and I'm grabbing this from memory, so forgive me if it's not quite right) Actinidia kolomicta "arctic beauty" that's a beautiful vine, with pink and cream variegations on the leaves. Not sure if it would work as a more attractive option. And the variegation only occurs on the male vines.
All that being said, If you're in it for fruit production only, I wouldn't give them a glowing review. But the vines were cheap, seemed like a good idea at the time (any chance to eat "local" is a plus in my book), and have given purpose to a couple dead trees out in the field.
By the way, I bought mine at a now-defunct nursery in Vermont, but am pretty sure that you could find a source online if you're going to move forward. I know that my local nurseries sell the arctic beauty as an ornamental, but have never seen females there.