I'm pretty sure you'll be safe getting the Saanichton since chinensis and deliciosa used to be considered the same species. 'Tomouri' and 'Matua' are used commercially as universal pollinators for fuzzy kiwi fruit (like Saanichton). If you need to, you might find specific confirmation of T pollinating S by an actual grower (in BC?). More evidence in your favor is that several other species in the Actinidia genus can cross pollinate some even producing viable seed.

Thanks Logrock for the confirmation. Now I have next question: Will Tomouri male works for Ken's Red, which is the hardy kiwi? Or should I get hardy male for Ken's Red?

Have a great day!

Alpharetta, VIncent is a deliciosa. They renamed chinensis delicosa years ago and some people still use the old name.

I believe the fuzzy males will pollinate the hardy females if the bloom overlaps, but this is just from memory so I am not 100%. Kens Red is only part arguta so that may also throw a wrench into the mix. My Kens Red has yet to bloom.

Scott

I've read about people intentionally using a fuzzy male as a pollinator in a "hardy" orchard, since the fuzzys have bigger flowers with more pollen. The main thing is that the flowering times must overlap. You may just have to try it to find out for yourself since there is a lot of parroted or just plain wrong information "out there".

Maybe wait for Kiwinut to chime in since he has more experience with different species ... mine are all A.arguta

Also, to answer an earlier question, they probably won't produce fruit until at least their third growing season in the ground.

-Ron

Thanks again for every useful information. I was looking into couple reputation online nursery and found out that:

+ Fuzzy Male works for Fuzzy female only
+ Hardy Male will work for both fuzzy and hardy female. What a lucky one!!! :)

I think I will not try Fuzzy Male with hardy female since I am not sure if my kiwi plants will do overlap blooming. So for safety, I will have a pair of hardy male and hardy female

With me luck!

Thanks again.

I'm not sure where you got that information, but it is backwards. Fuzzy kiwi will pollinate hardy kiwis very well, but as mentioned above, the bloom has to overlap. Since most fuzzy kiwi males are selected to pollinate Hayward, which is very late, they are usually way too late for the hardy arguta females. Matua has been used to pollinate hardy kiwi, as it starts blooming early and has a very long bloom period. However, it would be marginal in hardiness even in Atlanta.

Hardy males usually will not pollinate fuzzy females, as the pollen tubes generally will not reach the ovaries, and the bloom periods don't overlap. The general rule is large fruited species can set fruit on small fruited species, but not the other way around. The other general rule is there are always exceptions to the rules!

Your Tomouri (very late) will probably pollinate Saanichton, but will be way too late for Ken's Red. Ken's Red blooms with early to mid-blooming argutas, so an arguta male will be needed.

Due all respect, below is example I found from Edible Lanscaping:

Fuzzy Male Kiwi: Pollinates Elmwood Fuzzy Kiwi and Saanichton female only! Will not pollinate "hardy" kiwis. Zones 5-9

And here what Raintree Nursery says:

Hardy Male arguta: The pollinizer for the Annasnaja, Jumbo and Ken's Red female. One male will pollinate up to eight females. The male doesnÂt produce fruit. It will also pollinate the Saanichton or other fuzzy female kiwis.

I ended up to buy both fuzzy and hardy male just to make sure I will get fuzzy and hardy kiwi fruit.
:)

EL does not mention which fuzzy male they sell, but if it is not Matua, then they are correct, it will not pollinate hardy kiwi. This is only because of bloom periods not overlapping, not because the pollen is incapable of working. If you save pollen from the fuzzy kiwi and hand pollinate, it works great.

Hardy kiwi pollen will sometimes work on chinensis and deliciosa, but fruit set is very poor and fruit are tiny. This is based on feedback from people I know who have tried it, and from published research. I have found the same thing with the large fruited chinensis-low set and tiny fruit. You would also need an extremely late blooming arguta, something they don't even mention, and probably don't sell. I have seen a few other examples of wrong information from Raintree, so caveat emptor.

Since you have both, should be nothing to worry about.

Thanks a bunch, KiwiNut. You are the true guru when talking about Kiwi. Appreciate your khowledge and info

Alpharetta,

Just in case you catch the kiwi bug, may I suggest (if you can), to leave room around each if the males to plant more females later so they can all be close to a compatible pollinator.

Good luck,
Ron

Hey Ron,

You are right. I am thinking about getting a kiwi collection for my backyard. In terms of fuzzy kiwi, I have two female: Vicent and Saanichton, which suppose doing well in Atlanta zone 7. What else (fuzzy one) should I get?

I found Hayward fuzzy from Raintree Nursery but it's for zone 8-9.

Thanks
Alpharetta

Hello All,

I am back to this thread. My wife asks me to grow golden kiwi, which she saw in the Korean Supper H market. I think this is fuzzy kiwi, has less hair and has golden flesh. Can you guide me what name of golden kiwis and where I could buy the vines to grow. I look into few online nursery (One Green World, Raintree, Edible Lanscape, Rolling River, ...) but they don't mention about golden kiwi.

I am in Atlanta, zone 7. Will any golden kiwi is good for my area?

Thanks
Have a great weekend
Alpharetta

The newest kiwi varieties use to be patented. The most known golden varieties (Actinidia chinensis); Hort16a (Zespri Gold), Jintao (Kiwigold, Jingold), Hongyang (yellow and red inside), Soreli, Sanuki Gold... usually are new varieties developed in the last 10 or 15 years and all are patented, mostly reserved only for professionals. In some cases, like Soreli and Hongyang, you can buy plants for your non-commercial orchard, but as far as I know they are not available in USA so far.

Anyway, there are other non protected older golden varieties out there. They are not so good as above mentioned but they seem to be nice varieties.

They were sold by Roger Meyers in California, I don't know if he is in business actually.

Thanks Alex for the info.

Dear all experts!!!

I have few questions:

I am in Atlanta zone 7, will Hort16a grow well in my area? If not, any other golden kiwi will do?

If I grow from the seed, is there anyway I could recognize male or female plant? I don't have much space to try several of them on try/error, so I really need just a female plant.

Any of you (Scott, Kiwinut, Alex, ...) willing to share with me a female seedling or cutting? I will do whatever you tell me to get it done.

Thanks a lot and happy growing Kiwi!

Alpharetta

I bought some golden kiwi seed on ebay 2 weeks ago. and guess what? yesterday I got a notice from LosAngeles Customer saying that I violate the regulation. The seeds I bought was from Malaysia, so they destroy the seeds and just send me the empty envelop.

I went to Korean gloccery store this evening, and I saw Zepree golden kiwi. Yeeeaaa! Very expensive 56 cents per fruit. I got two of them and will experiment with their seeds.

Alpharetta, you got your seeds just like I did: buy fruit from the store. You get a lot of seeds for 56 cents, and no shipping charges! I don't recall if they needed cold stratification before being planted. I also bought a few chinensis seeds from tradewinds seeds; they don't seem to be selling them now however.

BTW it was nice to meet you on your recent visit to Baltimore.

Scott

Yo Scott!

Yes, it was indeed a pleasant to meet you and sight seeing your garden. I have just sent few picture to you via email. Thanks for the Red kiwi cuttings. I did the rooting on Friday. They are looking good now even it's too soon to tell at this moment.

Cheers
Alpharetta

andreeas,

You can grow kiwi from cuttings if your neighbors vines are successful just have a go at rooting them during growing season.

I'm curious about your citrus set up. Do you build a temp greenhouse and remove it when winter is over? Would love to see pics....

Hey Melikeeatplants. I know i can root them. I had really good success with my hardy kiwi where i just stuck a bunch of them ( different varieties in different pots ) and ran some drip irrigation to the pots and most of them rooted. I was just wondering if tomuri is a good choice for saanichton and if it will be hardy enough for Atlanta zone 7. But i already purchased sime saanichton and vincent females and some matua male.

I already have in the ground some fuzzy i purchased about 3 years ago when i knew nothing about Kiwis. They were advetised as hardy and in fact are fuzzy , They were sold as male and female and even that i cant trust , i cant wait to see them flower. And since i dont know what are they. I will graft into them some Hayward scions from my friend in the spring.

The citrus , yes i build a 14x16 ft thermal pane glass greenhouse with a solex roof. But you dont have to go that far. Just some double layer polyethilene will do just fine.

I did heat the greenhouse for maybe 2 or 3 weeks only to keep the temp over 32f.

You got my email up on my other post you can contact me and come to see it anytime

I actually don't want to hijack this thread anymore and don't want to email you because this is valuable information and having it on the forum for all to see would help others learn. I created another thread (see link) maybe you can explain what you do exactly each year to protect them and add a few pictures. They look great!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4242118/winter-protection-for-sub-tropical-plants-in-temperate-zones

Hi all,

i would like to buy some gold fuzzy kiwi in central Europe, and looking for reliable source of plant material. Maybe Sorelli, Golden delight, Jintao, Hongyang...Any idea or link? I am wondering about cold hardiness of these fuzzy kiwi - will survive temperatures down to 0 F? Sometimes it drops so low in winter here... No experience with fuzzy kiwi here, but hardy kiwis (A. agruta) do well.