Perennial Plant profiles

Actinidia kolomikta, Super Hardy Kiwi

Actinidia arguta, Hardy Kiwi

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them?  Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures.  By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting.  Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

Random Variegation typical of kolomikta

Genus Actinidia
Species kolomitka
Common Name super hardy kiwifruit
Form woody vine
Habit sprawling
Origin Asia (Japan, Korea, Northern China, and Russian Siberia)
Light sun to partial shade
Moisture mesic
Edible fruit

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Nutrition for Actinidia arguta Wikipedia

Genus Actinidia
Species arguta
Common Name hardy kiwifruit
Form woody vine
Habit sprawling
Origin Asia
Light Sun
Moisture Mesic
Edible fruit



Super Hardy Kiwi
Fruit eaten raw, cooked or dried for later use and is sweet. It contains up to 5 times the vitamin C of blackcurrants. The ovoid fruit is hairless and pale orange when fully ripe and is up to 25mm in diameter. It contains a number of small seeds, but these are easily eaten with the fruit. Young leaves can also be cooked. Used as a potherb or added to soups.

Hardy KiwiClimber growing to 15 m. Often sweeter than the kiwifruit, hardy kiwifruit can be eaten whole and need not be peeled.  Capable of surviving -34°C, although young shoots can be vulnerable to frost in the spring. The vines need a frost-free growing season of about 150 days, but are not damaged by late freezes, provided that temperature changes are gradual.  

Kiwi's are dioecious so for vines to bear fruit, both male and female plants must be present to enable pollination

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Actinidia kolomikta
Actinidia arguta