I was wondering if anyone has experience growing the ken's red in "zone 5" usually the temp in winter gets down to -26 celcius the odd winter gets down to -30 celcius, maritime influence from the ocean . We get anywhere from 120-150 frost free days with mid July - mid August running in the mid to high 20 Celcius and a few days in the low 30C range. I've done a lot of web searching and there is not much info on it. Some nursery's say zone 4 some say zone 6 with no other info like ripening times or bloom times etc. I bought one in the spring and I am wondering if it will survive the winter outside or if I should grow it in a green house. any input would be very appreciated.
Ken's Red is okay. There are beter cultivar's you could grow in your climate. It's hardy to about -25C. You'll need a pollinator. We had it in the Okanagan and it was okay. It wasn't a real heavy bearer. It survived the winter's there. There are a lot of cultivars you could try. Try some of the Actiniadia arguta cultivars (Anna) or the Actinidia kolomitka species (ie Arctic Beauty) http://sites.google.com/site/kiwifruitsalad2/home/kiwifruitsalad-page-2 Here's a good website for you. http://kiwifruit.tuinkrant.org/ Cheers Kim
Thanks for the reply, I have the more common varieties. Arguta varieties include- Anna, Dumbarton oaks, and meader male for a pollinator .Kolomikta I have krumpnopladnaya and an unknown arctic beauty male for pollination. I would like to add some other varieties to the collection but there doesn't seem to be much selection in Canada.I got the ken's red out of the US from a nursery called Greer garden's, it was the only US nursery that would ship to Canada that I could find . The cost added up quite high by the time you include shipping,phytosanitary certificate and so on,do you know of any Canadian sources for jumbo, michigan state,cordifolia,geneva, etc?
Hi glenn. Ag Canada at Agassiz BC has a collection of Kiwi Fruit but I'm not sure if it'a available. There are several people growing kiwifruit in BC that have fairly good collections. there was or is a nursery in Ontario as well Northern Kiwi Nursery 181 Niven Rd RR # 3, Niagara On The Lake, ON, CA L0S 1J0 905-468-7573 Cheers
