Growing Kiwifruit in Minnesota

Courtesy of Bob Guthrie

“I would not live in Minnesota because you cannot grow apples there.” — Horace Greeley

Bob Guthrie – geologist, environmental scientist, and cold hardy kiwifruit advocate — references Greeley’s quote during a discussion about growing cold hardy kiwis in Minnesota. The point he intends to make: First assumptions are not always correct. In this case, the 30 successful apple varietals released by the University of Minnesota since 1920 refute Greeley’s claim. Guthrie then links Greeley’s quote to another, which is similar in nature but references kiwi vines rather than apple trees: “A rampant growing ornamental vine from Japan … has been found to be unreliable. We cannot advise planting as there are more desirable vines.” – Samuel B. Green, professor of horticulture, University of Minnesota, 1905.

A Lifetime Passion

For the past two decades Guthrie has worked to prove Green’s premise wrong. “Look at us now. We have a Honeycrisp apple. We can do the same thing with kiwifruit,” he says. His work with kiwi vines dates back to 1990, when he planted his first vines in the backyard of his rental duplex. Guthrie found the varietal he used could not survive a Minnesota winter, and upon buying a home in Roseville in 1992, started acquiring and planting additional vines that could. Since that point his kiwifruit activities have increased significantly.

At the suggestion of Jim Luby, a longtime friend and fruit-breeding professor at the University of Minnesota, Guthrie started volunteering at the University’s Horticultural Research Center in Victoria in the early 1990s (the HRC was growing one row of kiwi vines at the time). Since then, Guthrie has collaborated with Luby and other investigators on cold hardy kiwi research, expanded the HRC’s collection, helped with two grant proposals, performed countless hours of care and research, visited several commercial kiwifruit orchards, and attended international kiwifruit symposiums. Since 1996 he’s also crossed different kiwifruit species in order to develop one that can tolerate Minnesota winters and, of course, be tasty. Oh, and this is all on his own time. “My wife Jenny and three kids would likely tell you that it is a bit more than a hobby, but it does keep me out of trouble,” he says.

What is Cold Hardy?

Courtesy of Bob Guthrie

Cold hardy kiwis don’t look like the typical brown fuzzy, green-fleshed fruits you see at the grocery store (typically a varietal named Hayward, see left for comparison). They’re grape-sized and fuzz-free. Much like a grape, you can pop them in your mouth, skins and all. Cold hardy kiwis can withstand below-freezing temperatures, unlike the Hayward kiwis, which are sensitive to cold and unable to survive temperatures below 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are three cold hardy kiwi varietals that can survive the Minnesota cold: Actindia kolomikta (Arctic Beauty), A. arguta (Bower Berry), and A. polygama (Silver Vine) — though the latter two flourish only in southern parts of the state – USDA Hardiness Zone Four. A. kolomikta and A. arguta have smooth green skins, whereas A. polygama turns from green to orange upon ripening. The skin and flesh of some varieties of A. arguta can  range from green to red to purple. They also taste much sweeter than your standard kiwi – sugar contents of cold hardy kiwis are higher than the Hayward varietal. These cold hardy kiwifruits make an excellent snack or addition to a salad. They can also be dried, like raisins, or used to make a sweet wine.

Cold hardy kiwis are not new to Minnesota. They were growing here long before Guthrie or the HRC began their research. Their first recorded existence dates back to the late 1892. The plants belonged to R.J. Mendenhall (a Minnesota businessman) and his wife Abby, and grew at their home — Guilford Place, located in Minneapolis at Lake and Nicollet. Though not a horticulturist by profession, Mendenhall’s lot and surrounding nurseries were, at the time, regarded as “one of the foremost in the country.” As mentioned above, Green, the first professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota, also reported on cold hardy kiwis at the turn of the 20^thcentury. It’s likely that he was familiar with kiwi vines prior to their Minnesota introduction thanks to one of his professors at the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now University of Massachusetts), who brought seeds to the United States from Japan in 1876. After Green’s death in 1910, the statewide interest in kiwi vines diminished until the mid-1980s, eventually becoming an area of interest for investigators such as Guthrie.

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