Photo: Ralf Roletschek — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 3 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Sweet-tart, smooth-skinned berries eaten whole — genuinely popular as a fresh fruit in Russia. Grown in the West at least as much for its striking pink/white/green variegated foliage as for its fruit.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–8
- Habit
- Vine
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Late Aug–Oct
- Mature size
- Vine 4.5–6 m — distinctly less vigorous than the other kiwis, where A. arguta reaches 9 m and more; still wants a sturdy trellis
- Light
- Full sun in cool climates; in warmer zones (6–8) give morning sun/afternoon shade — hot afternoon sun scorches the variegated foliage
- Soil pH
- 5.0–6.5 (slightly acid), neutral loamy soil preferred
- Environment
- Temperate to boreal
- Native range
- China (Chongqing, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan), Japan (Hokkaido and Honshu mountains), Korea, Russian Far East (Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands); 100–1,500 m, some populations to 2,900 m
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 3–8 yrs — not precisely documented for this species
- Growth speed
- Medium, reaching around 10 m over time — roughly half as vigorous as A. arguta or A. deliciosa.
- Spacing
- 229 cm (90 in) apart — about 5.2 m² (56 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Ovate with a heart-shaped base, serrated margins, 7.5–15 cm long; develops striking white-and-pink variegation in sunny spots, especially on male plants.
- Root system
- A heart-root pattern — several primary roots branching from the crown, growing down and out.
- Fruit description
- Small, roughly oval fruit to 2.5 cm across, smooth hairless skin ripening pale-orange to greenish-yellow; sweet with unusually high vitamin C; tiny soft seeds eaten with the flesh.
- Propagation
- Stem cuttings or layering; also grown from seed, though seedlings take years to sex and flower.
- Pollination
- DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Growing tips. Male plants typically show more dramatic pink/white leaf variegation than females — worth siting for morning sun to show it off. Excess fertilizer or too much shade both dull the variegation. Wood, roots and foliage are strongly cat-attractive, arguably more so than catnip — cage young plants until established. The hardiest kiwi species, reportedly surviving to about −40°C in Siberia; bred into named cultivars in Russia by Ivan Michurin in the early 1900s for cold-climate, high-vitamin-C fruit.
Grow journal
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