Actinidia Arguta at Work

A dream come true, thanks to the help of the 4GreenEarth2 and her newer channel the LilFrugalGardener. She has a wealth of knowledge which she shares in her gardening videos @ http://www.youtube.com/user/LilFrugalGardener. She did a video giveaway and was kind enough to email me some kiwi seeds that she had harvested, possibly from an Issai.  I placed them in a damp napkin in the fridge for about two weeks and then germinated them in clear plastic party cups, which took about 10 days.

They were tiny seedlings so I used a spray bottle to gently water around them and let the capillary action of the soil soak moisture in towards their delicate roots.  They were kept under a desk lamp turned on most of the day and close to a window.
I used the dirtiest dirt possible for them.  It was soil from the summer potted annuals that died last fall which I mixed altogether in a giant pile in my backyard.  I know you're not suppose to do that because the risk of pests, let me tell you the soil comes alive when it warms up and is kept moist.  I've seen night crawlers, red worms, sow bugs, centipedes, millipedes, fungus gnats, ants, spiders of all kinds, and nematodes.  Yes some of those are pests.
I went with the reused soil because I like the benefits of having a bioactive and 100% free sustainable soil.  That being said LilFrugalGardener had an excellent tip to put a thick layer of sand on top of the soil to keep the gnats down, and it works great.  In the third and fifth picture you will see the cups topped with sand. 

I got the seeds at the end of October so the final two pictures are after about a month of germinating and 5 months of growth.  They have grown consistently each day, but very slowly.  They showed signs of a nitrogen deficiency as yellowing tips on the older leaves so I treated them with a couple worm compost fertilizing solutions.  After fertilizing it left the top sand with a crusted surface that dries into a cake so be careful about how much if any and what kind of fertilizer you use with a sand dressed soil.  They enjoy acidic well draining soils that are watered regularly.

So why a dream come true? A. arguta commonly called hardy kiwi belong to the same genus as Actinidia deliciosa better known as just kiwifruit. Their family(Actinidiaceae) are classified under the order Ericales which contains the family ericaceae, known for it's members blueberries and cranberries, and the family Theaceae with it's member tea. 
They differ from A. deliciosa in at least two very important aspects.  The first and most important is they are hardy to very cold regions. The second is that their skins are smooth and they are smaller, which allows a simple plop in the mouth and chew technique without any hairs getting in the way.  By throwing away the skins we are losing the insoluble fiber and mouthfeel.