Cold Hardy Kiwi

The kiwi we are most familiar with is native to china and won t tolerate temperatures lower than 10 degrees.

Cold hardy kiwi. Our cold hardy strain is a big improvement over the fuzzy brown skinned kiwi. Hardy kiwi is of interest due to its flavor relatively smooth and edible skin out of hand eating size about the size of a large grape and. Hardy kiwi actinidia arguta and actinidia kolomikta is the cold hardy cousin of the vine that produces the familiar kiwi fruit sold at grocery stores. The fruit is referred to as siberian gooseberry siberian kiwi hardy kiwifruit kiwi berry arctic kiwi baby kiwi dessert kiwi grape kiwi northern kiwi or cocktail kiwi and are edible berry or grape sized fruit similar to kiwifruit in taste and appearance but are green brownish or purple with smooth skin sometimes with a red blush.

This rare kiwi is a much sweeter tasting fruit. Fruits average about 3 4 1 1 2 in diameter. They are also heat and drought tolerant and will grow in southern areas with hot and dry summers. They ll thrive up north with temperatures well below freezing along with heavy snow and ice storms.

Fuzzy kiwi which we can purchase readily from our grocery stores cannot be grown in pennsylvania because of its cold tenderness and long growing season. Anna hardy kiwis are often referred to as hardy kiwis because they have an incredibly high tolerance for cold weather. The latter is the species actinidia deliciosa and is hardy only to usda plant hardiness zone 8. The hardy or arctic kiwi are very cold tolerant and can withstand temperatures as low as 25 degrees fahrenheit.

Issai is self fruitful and produces smaller kiwis than other hardy types. Garretson said that a late spring cold spell can damage some tender new growth but hardy kiwi grows so quickly it can compensate for the loss. Hardy kiwi is much more cold tolerant and can be grown in zones 3 4 or 5 and up to 8 or 9 depending on the variety. Kolomitka is very cold hardy.

It only needs around 130 frost free days to ripen. Hardy arctic kiwi plants need around 150 frost free days for their fruits to mature and ripen. Grows much further north than the regular kiwi. Fruit will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 months.

Kiwi for cold climates while the larger oval fuzzy kiwi fruit we find in grocery stores is generally hardy to zones 7 and higher northern gardeners can grow smaller hardy zone 4 kiwi fruit. Actinidia kolomikta actinidia kolomikta as mentioned is the most cold hardy and can tolerate lows down to 40 degrees f. 40 c although the plant may not bear fruit following a very cold winter. However the kiwi plants can be successfully grown in containers and can be brought indoors by growers in colder areas.

A relative of this kiwi though the hardy kiwi belonging to the species actinidia arguta and actinidia kolomikta is much more cold hardy than the plant of the commercially available fruit. Hardy kiwi can be grown as far north as zone 6. Tastes somewhat like a tangy combination of strawberries and pineapple. It is sometimes called arctic beauty kiwifruit.