scratch the bark, easiest way to see if they've died or not. I would suspect that they might throw shoots from below ground if the tops have all died, but can't say for sure. I can tell you that my own kiwi's (also Actinidia Arguta, but not Issai) have not yet started putting out new growth (which is a good thing as winter has not had its last shock if history is any indication).

did you leave them exposed in their pots or did you bury the pots in either the ground or in mulch? The rule of thumb is an exposed unprotected potted plant experiences winter as though it were roughly 1-2 zones colder than the plants in the ground. For you that would mean roughly zone 3 which would likely be very damaging to the kiwi's, but they are tough and the roots might be fine.

~Chills

Thanks Chills,
I had about 30 pots all pushed together against the west side of my porch with some mulch. Since I posted this I have brought them up on my enclosed porch.. reports of some snow tonight.

Stephanie

At this point, the worst of winter is surely over, the porch isn't necessary unless the plants are coming out of dormancy. We have a fruit forum here, your questions about this particular plant will get more responses there than here in the vine forum. I, as I said previously, do not grow that particular cultivar, but there are many in the fruit forum who do.

~Chills

I have a specimen of Issai, which the French call a KIWAI. It only starts into growth again quite late in the spring, but flowers much later in spring than the kiwi, so avoids most of the late frosts. This year it set a load of fruit (it's about six feet tall now with multiple stems) but unfortunately all but one of fruits fell off early on. The remaining one came to almost nothing as it was so small.
I'm wondering if Issai is truly self-fertile, or whether the plant is still too small to support many fruit.
I hope your plant came back to life as they are very hardy coming from Siberia and the extreme north of China.