Varieties of Kiwi

Varieties

   Since kiwi is a dioecious plant, it bears pistillate and staminate flowers separately. Commercially-grown important pistillate and staminate cultivars are:

Abbott

    This is an early-flowering and early-maturing cultivar. The oblong, medium-sized, fruits are covered with dense hairs. They are very sweet in taste with lower ascorbic acid content and medium titratable acidity.

Allison

      Fruit resembles to that of Abbott, except that it is slightly broader in proportion to its length. The petals of its flowers are overlapping and crimped along with margins. It is an early-ripening, heavy-bearer and sweet in taste. Ascorbic acid and titratable acidity are on the lower side. This variety is most suited for Himachal Pradesh.

Bruno

     This cultivar requires comparatively less chilling period. The fruits are tapering in shape towards the stem end. They are longest among all the cultivars. The fruit is dark brown having very dense, short and bristly hair, highest in ascorbic acid and titratable acidity. The bearing is very heavy.

Hayward

     Most popular cultivar of the world, Hayward is comparatively shy-bearer with a tendency of biennial bearing. The fruit is broad and flat, being much wider in relation to length. It is superior in flavour with high sugar and ascorbic acid content. It requires comparatively more chilling hours.

Monty

      It is a late-flowering cultivar but fruit maturity is not late. The fruits are oblong, resembling those of Abbott and Allison. Being a highly prolific-bearer cultivar, sometimes it needs hand thinning for obtaining good-sized fruits. The fruit is somewhat wider towards blossom-end with higher acidity and medium sugar content.

Tomuri

       It is a good pollinizer for Hayward and Monty, the late-flowering kiwis. Flowers appear usually in groups of 5.

Allison

         It is also used for pollinizing different cultivars.