Low chill kiwifruit male

BenW starts with ...
I have a Sweetie and Waynes Kiwi from Daleys and last year they put on a good show of flowers... Unfortunately the blooms did not coincide at all with either of my 2 males.

I'd be happy to buy a 'sweetie male' from Daleys, but they seem to have been in production for a couple of years now. I was wondering if anyone would be happy to send me some scion from the sweetie male or another low chill pollinator? I probably have something to trade :)

allybanana says...
I had the same problem last year interestingly Waynes and sweetie both set some small fruit without pollination. I managed to get a sweetie male from Daleys last year. allydalton dot sculpture at Gmail dot com if you want wood. I also have a very nice tasting female that ripens at the beginning of June. I found the scions grafted easily !00% strike. I kept them in the fridge and then wrapped them in florists par film and cleft grafted them binding the join tight used a latex glove as a binding to get extra tightness and reduce bleeding.

allybanana says...
That's a good description BenW for sweetie un-pollinated fruit. Un-pollinated Waynes on the other hand set elongated fruit they ripened up okay they looked like a small kiwi gold and also tasted like one. I suspect it has a lot of A. chinensis parentage, I would guess more than sweetie. It will be interesting to see if Wayne's sets bigger fruit if pollinated. The kiwi berry Isa also set fruit they ripened late Dec to late Jan and were pretty good.

We are still eating green kiwi now. By growing a few species and their hyprids, there is a huge spread of ripening times. The more I grow them the more of a fan I become.

allybanana says...
My male sweetie is a very slow to break bud and the sweetie already has a lot of green see pics. Last year the male sweetie didnt start flowering until the female had finished I thought mabye the male was young, but it looks like this year may be another dud sorry BeNW those scions I sent you may be of minnimal use, does any one else have this problem with sweetie males?

Benw I hope you got some good forbidden fruit scions from Tommoz. Has any one got low chill kiwi scions in the fridge still that I can graft on for next year.

Or maybe someone has a gold seedling turned male that flowers very early

Many Thanks Ally

Pictures - Click to enlarge
Picture: 1	Picture: 2

BenW says...
Just reporting that grafts from both of you took nicely, though the wrapped ones took a little while to break through but then took off faster.

Ally, can you clarify whether the pieces you sent me were wrapped in Florists paraffin tape or pieces or latex glove?

Whatever it is, I'd like to try using that method for some other species :)

BenW says...
Thanks Ally! I'll track some down.

I was thinking it might also help with hard to root cuttings, to keep the wood from drying out. Worth a try anyway.

I meant to add that I had the same experience with the Waynes this year - reasonably edible without pollination, if a little small, furry and course skinned.

The Sweetie was completely loaded but the fruit were useless. I picked hundreds of mummies off on the weekend when I pruned.

Hopefully the grafts from you and tommoz will have a few flowers this season so I can sample a few properly pollinated ones :)

allybanana says...
Hi BenW Wrapping the cutting above the soil should help if they take a while to root. I stretch the parafilm thin I read it helps to allow gas exchange for breathing but keeps in water. I would be happy to receive new kiwi varieties. I have ten red seedlings from enzar red/hong yang, time will tell if they are any good. Yamani rare plants also has another kiwi species that may be a good low chill pollinator Actinidia rubricaulisas, they don't know if it is male or female but the species is very low chill and pretty, they also have male and female Actinidia arguta. I would be interested in all these three varieties but am unsure about the high freight fees from Melbourne that Yamani charges.

allybanana says...
I bought parafilm from this supplier I find it easier to use than florist paraffin for grafting as it is wider and sticks to its self better.

http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/bargain_hunter18?_trksid=p2047675.l2559.

A green female augata green male and female would be great is it the ones from Yamani.

allybanana says...
Sweetie setting good fruit the low chill seedling males I planted came good.This is a basic assessment of the flowerling sequence of kiwi plants of my place in Eden.

Early Female: Sweetie and Waynes
Early Male:RN10 and RN5 seedling males

Midseason Females:Isa and Kens Red.
Midseason Male:Low chill male from Forbidden Fruits

Late season Female:Bruno and Haywood
Late season males: Sweetie Male and my unnamed Nursury male. My four year journey searching for and developing a compatable sweetie male is mabye over if the fruits mature.

Pictures - Click to enlarge
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allybanana says...
Hi Mark Melb I am happy to send male scions.I would suggest getting the Forbidden Fruits low chill male as well I got mine from tomoz. My early male finished flowering over a week ago but Thw FF male took up were the erly male left off my high chill males are still a couple of weeks off flowering. I have rhe majority of my plants grafted on to the one big vine so rootstock is pretty consistant.