red kiwi

Survives zone 6 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Fuzzy purple-skinned, red-fleshed fruit — edible but not commercially cultivated, grown mainly as a landscape curiosity. Used almost exclusively as a breeding parent for red-fleshed kiwifruit genetics rather than for its own fruit.

Hardiness

Zone 6–9

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late Aug–Oct

Mature size

Vine 7–10 m; strong trellis. Container short-term only

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

6.5–7.0 (neutral); a loamy soil is preferred

Environment

Montane

Native range

Western Hubei, Sichuan and northern Yunnan, China; thickets around 1,800 m

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Very fast — several metres of new growth a season on an established vine

Spacing

400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Ovate-lanceolate to oblong, 6.2–13.5 cm, papery to leathery, glaucous underneath, sharply toothed margins.

Root system

Thick, fleshy and shallow, densest in the top 30–60 cm and spreading sideways rather than down. This is the plant's weak point: fleshy roots plus a very high transpiration rate make it exceptionally intolerant of waterlogging, and saturated soil is exactly what Phytophthora crown and root rot needs. Plant on a slope or a raised bed, never in a hollow.

Fruit description

Globose to oblong fruit, 2–4.5 cm, smooth skin without pores, small beaked tip — color and taste aren't documented; grown mainly as a breeding parent rather than for direct cultivation.

Propagation

Semi-ripe or softwood cuttings under mist, or grafting for named cultivars. Seed germinates readily but is close to useless for a crop: sex is not visible until the vine first flowers, several years on, so a seedling batch is a lottery of males and females.

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.