silver vine / cat kiwi

Photo: Shu Suehiro — CC BY 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

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

Silver vine — genuinely the most cat-attractive plant studied, eliciting a response in roughly 70–80% of domestic cats (vs. ~67% for catnip), including many cats catnip doesn't affect; sold commercially as dried 'matatabi' sticks/powder for cat enrichment. The compounds responsible (actinidine, dihydroactinidiolide and others) are chemically distinct from catnip's nepetalactone. Fruit is genuinely edible but not very palatable raw — traditionally pickled in salt or miso, fried, or made into jam and liquor once ripe; unripe fruit is used for pickles. High in vitamin C.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late Aug–Oct

Mature size

Vine 5–6 m, sometimes to 10 m; strong trellis. Container short-term only

Light

Full sun to partial

Soil pH

5.0–6.5 (slightly acid)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Southern Russian Far East, China, Korea, Japan, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands

Status

Ornamental

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs — faster than most Actinidia

Growth speed

Fast and vigorous — quickly covers walls, arbors and trellises, climbing to about 6 m.

Spacing

350 cm (138 in) apart — about 12 m² (132 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Tapered (not heart-shaped) at the base, elongated dark-green leaves around 15 cm long, often with silvery-white tips or patches.

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

Fairly large, ovoid fruit to 3 cm, orange and hairless when ripe; not very palatable raw (traditionally eaten salted), though some cultivars are better-flavored; very high vitamin C.

Propagation

Seed (~3 months cold stratification; most seedlings turn out male) or cuttings (softwood in spring, semi-ripe in July–Aug, or hardwood in Oct–Nov).

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.