Since a lot of members of this forum not only grow figs, I was wondering if some of you also grow golden kiwifruit.

Golden kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) looks a lot like green kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa), but the fruit, leaves and stems are less fuzzy. The vines grow less vigorous, which makes pruning easier.

Kiwi vines are cold hardy, but the young shoots are frost sensitive. Since the fruits grow on the new shoots, late spring frosts after bud break can ruin the entire crop. In my climate, bud break starts by the end of March. Luckily last winters have been mild and we don’t have that much frosts in April.

I have 4 Soreli vines in ground. This Italian variety was developed by the university of Udine. My oldest vine was planted in ground in 2013. It produced for the first time last year. The others are still too young. The vines are very productive. I had about 60 golden kiwis, which is not bad for a young vine. The kiwis started to ripen by the end of October, the beginning of November. Two weeks later I had to harvest them all, because the birds started pecking them.

 
 
 

Im willing to bet Kiwi Bob has them

I have some Zespri Gold (Hort16a) seedlings growing in my small greenhouse. One is a male and has bloomed for the last 4 or 5 years. I am still waiting to see if one of the others is a female so I can get some fruit. I also have just started some Zespri Sungold (Zesy002) seedlings this winter as its supposed to be be an earlier ripening one.

If you are ever interested in trading cuttings (figs or otherwise) shoot me a PM... I'd love to graft some Soreli onto mine.

Tyler

What does the inside look like and how does it compare to other varieties?

I like Tyler started some Zespri Gold (Hort16a)  seeds several years 5?  ago. I have 5 plants in 5?7 gal pots that  I store every winter  I don't think they will ever fruit at the size I keep them, but I don't have the heart to plant them out. Anyone think they have a chance in Zone 7a inground?  Anyone have a successful pruning strategy for pot growth?  I have not seen a bloom yet so I don't know sex and just trying to handle the pots with the octopus growth is challenging.

Phil mine are in ground in my unheated greenhouse here in Ontario Canada. Its not the low winter temperature that kills them because we've had some cold winters here for sure. Its the fact they want to wake up in March and when the sap starts flowing a freeze kills them at that point. So in a few weeks I'll be turning on the space heater in the GH to keep it above freezing.
Tyler

There was a member over at gardenweb I believe he was near Atlanta that grew it inground.

I too am interested to know what the inside looks like as well as how it tastes...I'm going to have to look for these :)

The inside is Gold They taste wonderful I have only found them at my International Market. Here is a stolen Pic comparing.

Tyler,

That guy near Atlanta might have been me we communicated on them at one point. I never planted inground there was a guy Logrocks?? that was growing many Kiwi near ATL might have been him. I got the impression He dropped the project I thought Chinensis was less hardy than Deliciosa  but maybe I was just fearing such. What's the low for Chinensis if the plant is fully dormant do you folks think?  Late cold when starting active growth I understand is different.  Maybe this is the year I set them free. Really not sure I want to use trellis space on them. I kind of have a woodland edge thinking of planting them near large tree bases and letting them grow up. If the turn out ok I will layer something off later so the fruit are not 30 foot up and where I can manage them.  I did that with a Deliciosa at my old place and never got fruit from it. Never even saw bloom maybe it was to shaded. It's good to hear Chinensis may not be as aggressive grower as Deliciosa

Thank you all for your comments.

kiwis can be grown in ground in my country because winters are mild and late spring frosts are rare. Our summers are cool and we have a lot of rain, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for the kiwi vines.

Tyler,

Seedlings can take a long time before they start to bloom. But you can speed things up by grafting them onto an established rootstock. Then they will only need 2 years instead of 7 years to start producing flowers and fruits. I believe this is what they do in research programs. But if you do the grafting, you might as well graft a known variety with good qualities, like Soreli. You will also need a pollinator that blooms at the same time. Normally Zespri Gold blooms very early - earlier than Soreli. Do you know when your male Zespri seedling blooms?

Meg and veggie_girl,

For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the inside. Once you cut these golden kiwis open, they just look so good. The only thing you want is to taste them :-) This year I will try to take some pictures of the inside.

Soreli kiwis have a nice yellow flesh, just like the Zespri SunGold kiwis you can buy in the grocery store. This year they also had Soreli kiwis in the store for the first time. They were imported from Italy. I bought some to compare with mine. I couldn’t find any difference in color, size or flavor.

Phil,

Soreli can withstand temperatures of -14°C when dormant: http://soreli.uniud.it/characteristics

I’m not sure if kiwis will fruit well if grown in a pot. Their root system needs to be well established first. Soreli starts fruiting typically 2 years after planting in ground. But Kiwiberries (Actinidia arguta and A. kolomikta) can easily be grown in a pot.

Phil,   logrock that was him. And there was also another member -kiwinut he grew some that produced fruit in Tennessee.

Timo, my male chinensis seedling bloomed in its 4th year but I don't have an exact date of when it blooms.. I will record that this year though for reference.

Does anyone know where in the U.S. can I get some plants of these golden kiwis to buy? I had some of this fruit last summer and it was excellent. Very sweet with a nice acidity balance...not tangy and puckering like the green ones can sometimes be.

I would like to know where to buy Golden Kiwi also. I started a kiwi trellis in my garden & this sounds like a great variety to have!

I had to share in the excitement.... after many years of my male Hort16a (zespri gold) seedling blooming without a female to pollinate one of my other seedlings in its 4th year has bloomed and is a female! Being in my small greenhouse I have to do the pollinating manually but I certainly don't mind. I'm anxious to see what kind of fruit quality it will produce. I know its hit or miss with seedlings but exciting none the less especially for something that isn't supposed to grow in Ontario Canada.

This is my male bloom....

 

And here is the long awaited female bloom :)

 
 

So beautiful!  Congratulations!  Please update us again when fruiting.  It really is a beautiful and tasty fruit (I hear).

Those flowers look great, Tyler! Keep us updated when the fruits are ripe.

Well I got my first blooms a few weeks ago several years into this. It appears to be male to me. I have 4 others but not sure I have the patience of more years to see if any female.