Re: This months' National Gardening
>I think some of the hardy kiwis are hardy down to minus 25 or so,
>BUT...hardiness refers to whether or not the vines will survive. It does
>not refer to whether or not you will get fruit. Nan, you live in San Diego
>county, so you wouldn't know that kiwi flowers, gets zapped by frost, and
>the fruit never appears. I killed off my "hardy" kiwis out of disgust.
>It's difficult enough to get an apricot crop in southwest Idaho (zones 5 or
>6 usually), without being annually disappointed that that vine you
>hand-carried water to for much of the winter is going to be a vine barren
>of fruit. Margaret L, who will read your article, and hope you pointed
>this out to readers.
Thanks Margaret, yes, I did mean -25 degrees. I believe that the problem
you describe is the result of a "false spring" where you get warm enough
temperatures in winter that the vine thinks its spring and starts to
leaf/flower, only to be killed off in the next frost. As I understand it,
the vine should recover the next year, but that year's crop is severely
reduced if not lost altogether.
Sorry to hear you killed yours off... If you have the energy to try again,
I suggest you plant Arguta kolomikta, often sold as 'Arctic Beauty,' as it
is probably the most cold hardy and it is has beautiful leaves. You can
get it by mail order from One Green World (www.onegreenworld.com) and from
Edible Landscaping (www.eat-it.com).
Nan
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Nan Sterman Minds Over Matter
205 Cole Ranch Road
Olivenhain, CA 92024 760.634.2902 (voice)
nsterman@mindsovermatter.com 760.634.2957 (fax)
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