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Kiwi vine lovers: could this be a hardy kiwi seedling?

Dan Boone

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posted 9 years ago

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My potting mix is not sterile or seed-free. I planted some hardy kiwi seeds I got off eBay. There have been environmental challenges. (We've gotten about 7 months of rain here in the last three weeks.) Only one plant has come up in my six-cell seed tray. I've googled for "Kiwi seedling" but I am not enlightened. The images I find are similar to this, but mostly seem to have rounder leaves.

I'm trying to figure out whether this is a seedling I should transplant and treasure, or a cuckoo chick of a charlatan weed that I should terminate with extreme prejudice. Are there any kiwi experts who can help me out?

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Judith Browning

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here are some photos of my hardy kiwi's new growth....I've only grown from cuttings so don't know if seedlings would look the same. The reddish stem seems distinctive....the leaves do vary in size. The new growth is kind of leathery and becomes more so as the leaf gets bigger and a darker green.

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Dan Boone

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Thank you! I can't see red/green very well so the stem color ID is beyond me. I'm still not sure, but I potted up the plant anyway and we'll see what it looks like when it gets bigger.

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S Bengi

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Only some hardy kiwi has the red stem color. There are 3 different species of "hardy" kiwi, hardy kiwi, artic kiwi, and silver vine kiwi. and even the fuzzy one will grow to zone 7b. then there is the hybrids of them.

Place the seedling next to a fence and see if it starts vining/bining. If it does you are in luck.

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Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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S Bengi wrote:Only some hardy kiwi has the red stem color. There are 3 different species of "hardy" kiwi, hardy kiwi, artic kiwi, and silver vine kiwi. and even the fuzzy one will grow to zone 7b. then there is the hybrids of them.

Do you know which variety might have the red stems? I propagated this kiwi from cuttings from a friend's vine and have never known what it is

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S Bengi

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You probably have Actinidia purpurea, which is a species that I didn't even mention, most people just call it hardy kiwi, which is technically only Actinidia arguta. It looks like there are a few cultivars of fuzzy kiwi that is hardy to at least 0F, maybe I will try one this fall. https://www.onegreenworld.com/Fuzzy%20Kiwi/Hayward/1927/

You are going to need a male to pollinate the female kiwi, they are not self-fertile. Different species will cross pollinate except for arctic kiwi and silver vine, mostly due to a different in bloom time,

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D Nikolls

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There are quite a few species of 'hardy kiwi' around! Were your ebay seeds advertised as Actinidia Arguta, or something else?

I have a 2014 'One Green World' catalogue that lists cultivars of Actinidia Arguta(what *should* be called 'hardy kiwi', I believe), Actinidia Cordifolia, Actinidia Purpurea, Actinidia Kolomikta(Confusingly often called Arctic Beauty, but this is properly a cultivar name, I think), Actinidia Pilosuka(Pilosula Kiwi), Actinidia Polygama(Silver Vine Kiwi), and a Actinidia Purpurea x Melanandra cross.

I only have Kolomikta cultivars; an 'Arctic Beauty' female, a 'Pasha' male, and a female of an unnamed cultivar with almost entirely red leaves. I will post pictures for leaf comparison tomorrow.

Dan, can you post a picture from the side to show the stem color?

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D Nikolls

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Pictures below; the first 2 are different angle of the same Pasha male, since it looks most similar to this seedling.

Pasha1.gif

Pasha2.gif

ArcticBeauty1.gif

leila hamaya

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it does look somewhat kiwi like. sorry thats not more helpful.

but curious when did you start the seeds? i have started a bunch of kiwis from seed and they start off super tiny and grow very very slowly at first. if you just started those seed recently and its that tall i would think it could be something else?

and yeah totally theres tons of kinds of kiwis, that most people will not find commonly, but theres a lot of diverse types.

i would hold onto to it, anyway, it does look like something interesting even at this point....

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