The first time Iago Hale popped a cold-hardy kiwifruit in his mouth in graduate school, he was left speechless, amazed that he had never encountered the delicious fruit before. Now the researcher with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire is a hardy kiwifruit breeder working to develop the small, grape-like, sweet fruit into a new high-value crop for New England farmers.
“Hardy kiwis are well-suited to the relatively small and diverse farms that dot the New England landscape. Cultivated by hobbyists and backyard gardeners in the northeast for nearly 150 years, these species show great commercial potential in our region. Until now, however, they have lacked the necessary support of a public breeding program to develop high-performing varieties and demonstrate their economic viability to producers. We’re going to change all that,” says Hale, a plant breeder and assistant professor of specialty crop improvement at UNH’s College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.
“By establishing a long-term breeding program for hardy kiwis on experiment station land, the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station aims to support our region's producers and consumers through the development and dissemination of this novel crop,” Hale says.
Native to China, Japan, Korea and Siberia, hardy kiwis differ from their larger, fuzzier relatives in that they are hairless, have thin edible skin and are about the size of a grape. Some varieties of the perennial vining plants can be grown as far north as USDA Growing Zone 3, and a single, mature hardy kiwi plant can yield up to 100 pounds of fruit.
Hardy kiwis first were appreciated for their ornamental value, covering cottages and trellises in estate gardens throughout the region. The leaves of some varieties turn a lovey white then rosy hue in early summer, and the smell of the small, white flowers is similar to that of gardenias or Lily of the Valley. By the mid-1900s, the excellent eating quality of the berry-like fruit was starting to be appreciated as well. In the 1960s, UNH botanist Edwin Meader brought hardy kiwis he collected in Korea to his farm in Rochester after serving in the U.S. Army. One of his selections (Meader male) remains one of the most prevalent and preferred hardy kiwi cultivars offered by nurseries today.
At UNH, Hale is growing nearly the entire USDA collection of hardy kiwis, about 150 accessions, in order to characterize the collection and identify parent plants for his breeding program. This first observational vineyard was planted in 2012, and Hale will see a first harvest this fall.
“Hardy kiwis are nutritionally dense, a superfood, with extremely high levels of vitamin C, beta-carotene, anthocyanins and lutein. They are remarkably sweet and flavorful fruits that are about 25 percent sugar. And given their complex flavor profile, with hints of tropical fruits with a nice acidity, some producers even use them for winemaking,” Hale says.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 233561.
