North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Stefan Brandle <sbrandle@css.taylor.edu>]

Disclaimer: I'm not a real botanist, don't even play a fake one in 
movies, and may need to have someone more knowledgeable set the record 
straight.  :-)

I've been running into a number of references recently (NAFEX, Internet, 
etc.) that suggest that the standard suggestion of a 1 male to 8 females 
pollination ratio for hardier actinidia (arguta and kolomikta) may be 
way low of optimal, especially for the home grower. Arguments are that 
actinidia is generally a weak insect attractor, that males are generally 
weak growers, and that wind pollination is a significant factor.

This suggests that a useful planting strategy for the home grower is to 
(1) plant a much higher male-female ratio in close proximity to each 
other, and (2) to consider the prevailing wind direction. So planting 
co-located/entwined male-female pairs should help. If a lower 
male-female ratio is used, then planting the males upwind may be useful.

A year or so ago I asked whether grafting male scions onto female vines 
would help with pollination and several knowledgeable Nafexers thought 
that it made sense, although they were cautious about how well the 
grafts would do in zone 5 weather. I haven't tried the grafting yet, but 
I'm sure I'll get around to it next spring. Anybody have experience 
trying summer budding?

On a related note, my arguta vines have a decent crop this spring. My 
two male vines flowered for the first time (5 years and perhaps some 
injudicious pruning after planting), but I also did hand pollination 
with deliciosa pollen I got from a pollen-supplier in California. My 5- 
and 4-year old daughters helped pollinate the low flowers with Q-tips, 
but got off task after several minutes and started a new form of tag 
that involves running around trying to pollinate each other with the 
Q-tips. Me: "No, I don't have much pollen and I'm not going to give you 
any more for your Q-tip unless you start putting it on the flowers, not 
each other."  :-)

-- sb