Above, Eric Theship-Rosales stands in his kiwi orchard in Chanhassen Sunday, Aug. 23. Below, a young kiwi on the vine at Theship-Rosales’ orchard. PHOTO: Mark Trockman
If you go
When: Aug. 29 at 1 p.m.
Where: The field day tour begins at the Apple House at the University of Minnesota Horticulture Research Center, at the corner of Highway 5 and Rolling Acres Road, about two miles east of Victoria. Following a tour of the orchards there, the group will proceed to the Theship-Rosales orchard at 9201 Audubon Road in Chanhassen.
By Gail Lipe
When most Minnesotans think of kiwi, they think of the brown, fuzzy, green-flesh berries found in local grocery stores.
On Aug. 29, people will have an opportunity to rethink what a kiwi really is at a field day tour beginning at 1 p.m. at the Apple House at the University of Minnesota Horticulture Research Center.
The tour will feature two new orchards of cold hardy kiwi, one at the horticulture research center and the other at the new orchard of grower Eric Theship-Rosales, near Chanhassen.
The tour highlights a project sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Grant Program and the University of Minnesota.
The brown fuzzy kiwi seen in the grocery stores does not handle cold well enough to be grown in
Minnesota, but there are about 80 different species of actinidia, the genus that includes kiwi.
Robert Guthrie, the volunteer actinidia curator who takes care of the kiwi at the research center, said there are a variety of sizes and colors of kiwi. Many do not have a fuzzy skin, and others are grown for their foliage instead of the berries.
He said the field day tour is hopefully set at a time when people will have the opportunity to see a variety of mature berries to pick and eat.
Besides breaking the mold of how people see kiwi, the tour is set up to show off two different trellis systems used for growing the berries.
Kiwi has been grown at the horticulture research center in an orchard using a T-bar trellis system since about 1988, which is where the mature plants are located.
In 2007, work began on a pergola-type trellis at the research center on about one-third of an acre, which Guthrie said will have close to 500 plants when it is finished.
The T-bar trellis is constructed with posts that support a bar about 5 or 6 feet wide, said Theship-Rosales. Wires are stretched from post to post along the rows.
Because Theship-Rosales is growing his kiwi organically, pressure treated lumber is not allowed and he is taking a different approach. He planted fast-growing maple trees with the kiwi to provide support for the wires.
The pergola trellis is like an arbor, where the plants create a canopy.
Guthrie said the pergola at the horticulture research center has posts supporting tubular steel across about 48 feet.
Wire stretches from the tubular steel beams creating the support for the plants to form the canopy. A pergola works well on sloping land because it conforms well to the topography, he said.
Growing kiwi requires a lot of work, from trimming the plants correctly to laying irrigation, mulching and weeding, said Theship-Rosales. It also takes about three years from planting seed to harvesting fruit.
Once the plant is growing, it grows vigorously, and pruning it is more work than pruning grapes or apples.
Guthrie, who has been growing kiwi on his property in Roseville for many years, said the plant is much more productive in areas that have shade.
They are a woodland or forest fringe plant.
Genetically, the plants come from eastern Asia where they get a lot of water in the summer.
It is important to have supplemental irrigation in Minnesota, and for a good wood chip mulch to be used to keep the soil moist and cool. The bottom of the plant should be kept shaded and the top in partial sun, Guthrie said.
He also said kiwi is an "appropriate plant for the back yard grower, the hobbyist or the small marketer." A fancy trellis system isn't required. One of Guthrie's neighbors grows kiwi on a chain link fence.
As well as viewing the orchards and picking kiwi, those who attend the field day tour also will have the opportunity to discuss how a kiwi orchard is established with Theship-Rosales, Guthrie and Jim Luby from the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science.
