Glenn,

Any male will probably work well enough. The male (Meader?) that is commonly sold with 'Anna' should work well, as 'Anna' is mid to late blooming like Issai.

Issai is self-pollinating, but not self-fertile. The non-viable pollen will set fruit on Issai, but not on other females. You will get more fruit and larger fruit with a male pollinator. It is not as vigorous as most pure argutas, so it is pretty easy to manage. I have a couple in 3 gallon containers that fruit well, that I keep at 3-4 ft tall, so you should not have any problems keeping it under control on your trellis.

Males can be pruned back really hard after they bloom, as much as 90% once they reach maturity, so they can be managed much more easily than most females. Most of the female varieties need to get really big to bloom, but males tend to bloom at an earlier age and smaller size.

~kiwinut

Thank you Kiwinut for the info!!!!
-Glenn

Hi Kiwinut-
Well, 10 months later, I'm now ready to get my pollinators. My local nursery has both "September Sun Artic Beauty" and "Pasha Artic Beauty Kiwi". Do you think that either of those will be a good match for my Issai? Thanks,
-Glenn

Glenn,
Did you ever plant the Arctic Beauty with the Isshai? I am looking to do just that and wonder how it worked out for you.
-Joe

Hello old friends on GardenWeb!
I haven't been on GW in quite a long time as most my yard is doing great, and I've been busy with other things. But, 8 years later, I've never gotten any Kiwi. As far as I know, I've got female Issai hardy Kiwi, and a male Meader. Both plants are quite healthy and vigorous. I have to cut the male way back to keep it from getting tangled up in other plants which are 8 feet away. I'm pretty sure one of the plants has flowered, and the other hasn't, but I can't remember for sure, and which one. (if I had to guess, I'd say it was the Assai) I could wait and pay attention this year, and waste another year, or perhaps I could just get 2 more kiwi plants from EdibleLandscaping.com. Anybody have any recommendations on 2 more kiwis that would definitely work well with each other, and might work well with my existing plants, so I'd have some chance of getting some kiwi in a couple of years? Thanks!

-Glenn

Glenn,

It's my first post! I'm in USDA zone 7a in Maryland and I've been very happy with Ken's Red. It is a LOT more vigorous than Issai, so either plan on some heavy duty pruning or make sure you have the room. The fruits are larger and, in my family's opinion, they taste better. You might also want to consider Ananasnaya aka Anna (make sure it's not the Kolomikta, but the Arguta variety) which is the most popular commercial cultivar. Since you've struggled to get fruit in spite of having waited 8 years, you might also consider Geneva. It is very vigorous too, but there are dozens of flowers on my Geneva this year and it's only 2 years old! For any non-Issai variety, that's fast. By comparison, it took 3 years for my Ken's Red to produce a couple fruits. The 4th year, I got maybe 20. The 5th year (which is this year), I counted over 1400 flowers, so I'm going to get a bumper crop! My Issai went through a similar pattern, but started on year 2 - which is not unusual for that clone. Fortunately, it's cranking up the volume. Last year, which was year 4, I had a few hundred and this year there's around 2,000 flowers or so. Of course, the Issai fruits are quite a bit smaller than the Ken's Red, so I should get more lbs out of the Ken's Red this year (I'm guessing 40 lbs or so) and A LOT more next year, since it's still a young plant.

All of these varieties are (or at least, were) available at EdibleLandscaping.

Considering everything, I'd probably decide between those three based on when I wanted the fruits. Ananasnaya ripens later, about 3 weeks after Ken's Red. Geneva is earlier; it ripens a couple weeks before Issai. For me at least, Ken's Red and Issai ripened around the same time.

Any of EdibleLandscaping's male Argutas will pollinate those.

I hope that helps answer your question. Good luck!

- kiwi_MD

glenn_russell - For a number of years I had no fruit on my anna hardy kiwi vines. Finally, I researched the correct method for pruning and determined that I was too aggressive in my late winter pruning. This year my vines have a lot of blooms so I am looking forward to a bountiful crop.

Thank you kiwi_md and charlieboring! That's just what I needed to know. Next stop: Edible Landscaping.com, and also research a bit more about kiwi pruning. Thanks again, -Glenn

Hi Glenn! I've been following this post and I'm very curious how your hardy kiwi battle is going. Did you buy more vines? I have 4 hardy kiwis planted, Issai, Anna, ken's red, and a male 74. Based on the many GW posts about hardy kiwi I've read, it seems I may have been steered in the wrong direction in planting 74 because it's an earlier bloomer than Anna and Issai. I guess we'll see! Hope you're having more luck!