Looking for gold kiwi plants

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by pmurphy, Aug 7, 2013.

  1. B.C.

    B.C. New Member

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    Ramblingrotors I don't understand your blanket question. Do you mean propagate from Gold kiwi or any kiwi?
    This year I have propagated kiwis from seeds, from cuttings and from ground layering with 100% successful rate for the limited number of experiments.The cited well-known methods are not limited to kiwis and can be used for most plants. I am including photos to illustrate. The pictures are all date stampted.

    Pictures 1-3 Actinidia arguta kiwis from cuttings.
    Pictures 4-6 Issia kiwi from ground layering.
    Pictures 7-8 Hayward kiwi from seeds.

    The newly created plants are fragile. They need to be protected from the elements for the first couple few years until they are established.

    You can find many more references from Youtube:

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kiwi+clone
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 28, 2021
  2. SoCal2warm

    SoCal2warm Active Member

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    I grew some from seeds from a supermarket fruit. They were very easy to grow. I began growing them indoors first under artificial light, and then planted them outside in the summer. They were very fast growing indoors, and have now acclimated to outside conditions, having already gone through a winter. Of course, when you grow them from seeds, you better grow several plants because you can't be sure whether they are males or females yet. If you grow three of them, the chances that they will all be the same gender is only 25%.
     
  3. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Based on its fruit characters the cultivar that soon became dominant on the produce market in western Washington State would appear to be derived from crossing of Actinidia chinensis and A. deliciosa. Which probably means seedlings raised from purchased fruits may have fruits that vary even more than those produced by seedlings of the pure species might.

    The History of Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2022
  4. SoCal2warm

    SoCal2warm Active Member

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    Yes, you are probably right. Though that might not be an entirely bad thing. There's a small possibility that the offspring might be better.
     
  5. caythuyduong

    caythuyduong New Member

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    Hi pmurphy, I purchased a kiwi tree from a lady on Vancouver island ($60?) she said it’s been about 4 years but I now figured out that I need a male and female. Are there any tips you can suggest at this point/stage?
     
  6. pmurphy

    pmurphy Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    In most cases*, yes you do need male and female - 1 male for up to 8 females - to get fruit. It might be difficult but not impossible to obtain what you need.

    Do you know what variety you purchased?
    Do you know if you have male or female?

    If you do not know whether its male or female then you will have to wait until the vine flowers to determine this; male plants will produce pollen females won't. There are several vendors that now carry gold kiwi (if this is what you are looking for) - Phoenix Perennials in Richmond would be your best bet but you may have to wait until spring for new stock.
    My vines began flowering in 2019 at about 6 years of age and started producing fruit in 2020 so you may have to be patient.

    *the exception will be the self pollinating issai kiwi but even these produce much better if you have multiples.
     
  7. Creatrix

    Creatrix Active Member

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    Ah! I should have been more patient I am guessing: I planted a Issai kiwi and waited and waited and waited and finally in year five they produced very few fruits (maybe four or five) that were approx. 2" in diameter: then the heat started in the valley over June/July/August (very little rain during that time) and I ended up pulling the plant: my reasoning was it was taking too much resource (municipal water) to justify the size and amount of fruit. I suspect I should have planted the vine in a more sheltered spot and given it another year.
     
  8. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    As mentioned in comment # 41, I bought a Yellow Queen kiwi vine in 2021 and planted it in September of that year; it has grown well since then and flowered and fruited this year. The vine had 11 blossoms, and fruit developed on 7 of those. I hand-pollinated it from a male fuzzy kiwi of unknown variety that started to bloom about a week after the Yellow Queen started to bloom. In late October the fruits started to feel slightly soft, and I picked 6 of them on Nov 4 to ripen in the kitchen. I tried one today and can report that it was delicious: very sweet but with enough tartness to provide a good balance of flavour. The berries are smaller (45 grams) than the fuzzy kiwis right next to it, but I expect that next year they will be larger than that. They are ripening at a good time: after the last grapes and before the fuzzy kiwis.

    The Yellow Queen vines seem to be quite hardy; they survived the last 3 winter cold spells without any protection. However, they are growing right against the south side of our house with good sun exposure. They might not do as well in a less favourable setting. It's too bad that Phoenix Perennials doesn't seem to carry them now, but they might come in next spring.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2024
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  9. sean86114

    sean86114 Member

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    I got around 80 fruits this year thanks to @pmurphy and @vitog for their male flowers for pollination.
     

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  10. SoCal2warm

    SoCal2warm Active Member

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    It should be noted that the Gold kiwi variety has a little less cold hardiness than the standard kiwi variety, maybe by about one USDA climate zone level. If a normal (green) kiwi can survive down to climate zone 7, then the Gold variety might only make it to zone 8.

    The Gold variety definitely can survive winters in climate zone 8a, in the Pacific Northwest. How well the fruits might be able to ripen is a different matter. The Pacific Northwest region does have a shorter annual length of warmth, especially around Vancouver Island. Kiwi fruits do not need very warm temperatures to be able to ripen, but the temperatures in the Pacific Northwest can be too low for much of the year, so the growing season for many things like kiwi fruits can be short, perhaps not long enough for optimal ripening. Fortunately the Gold variety has fruit attributes that put it further away from the "unripe" territory, it seems, at least judging by the fruit quality from supermarket fruits.

    Those fruits do look just a little more on the unripe side, but still totally edible.
    It's what I would expect trying to grow kiwi fruits in that climate.

    With a longer duration of heat, those fruits would be a little more plump, maybe very slightly bigger, and would show no sign of green coloration along the inside under the skin.
    I can also tell by looking at the edible flesh that the fruit was grown in climate that was cooler than optimal.

    The fruit still looks good enough for anyone considering wanting to grow it. Just be aware the fruit quality may not be at its very prime.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2024
  11. pmurphy

    pmurphy Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    Once established the vines produce well with a growing season that lasts into late Fall. For the past 10 years my vines have consistently provide me with fruit that will ripen on the vine into early November, although I tend to harvest most of the fruit early to prevent the local "critters" from feasting.
    It should be noted that this year, due to the weird early spring weather, the growing season was almost a month late. My kiwis did not start flowering until almost mid-June when they would normally be flowering in May.
     
  12. Kellen james

    Kellen james New Member

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    I have 5 male kiwi vines. A couple of chinensis varieties i knew were males. A couple of vincent "females" that were not female and a sole male golden kiwi that survived from seed. My golden dragon and sunshine died at the graft during the coldest winter in the last hundred years a few years back before I got any fruit off them.

    I would still like to grow some actual fruit, though. Anyone have an idea where I can get some golden kiwi in the states? Or some golden kiwi sticks that I could try to graft onto my existing vines?
     
  13. vitog

    vitog Contributor 10 Years

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    There is no legal way to send any cuttings to the US from Canada, but there are many sources in the US. Check the GrowingFruit.org website for lots of current information.
     
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