I bought two kiwi berry plants from a local nursery about 2 years ago since my family was eating a lot of kiwis. A regular kiwi fruit plant was not cold hardy enough for my zone without extra work. Kiwi berries are sometimes called “Hardy Kiwis” because they can survive colder (Down to zone 3 in some cases) winters than the typical fuzzy kiwi fruit. The latter can survive down to zone 7, with some protection, and is what you’d find at a grocery store.
When I bought the hardy kiwi plants my USA Zone was 7b, but it has since been upped to 8a. Unfortunately, global climate change is going to affect what plants we all grow moving forward. You might say that it’s good that I’m now in a warmer zone because I can grow a wider variety of plants. However, I’m now worried that some of my fruit trees that require a longer chill time might not get enough chill hours (hours between 32°F and 45°F) to make fruit. Luckily, the increase in zone may have been premature, as we’ve had a pretty cold winter in southern Maryland. We have gotten below the 20°F minimum temperature that Zone 8a is supposed to have.
Lots of Fruit
Ok, back to the berries. My kiwi berry plants are supposed to be able to provide 100 lbs of fruit per season when they are mature (after 8 years). That is the main reason why I got them. Kiwi berry plants are a vine, so you need to grow them on a trellis (in a similar manner to a grape vine). They are dioecious, so to get kiwi berries you need at least 1 “male” and 1 “female” plant. Only the females produce the fruit and the male is just for pollination. Though, you can, of course, have multiple female plants for 1 male plant.
This is all well and good, though I’ve had a lot of trouble with my kiwi berries because the deer and the rabbits love to eat the plant. So, after two years, I haven’t had a single berry and the animals have eaten down to twigs. I’m putting up a deer and rabbit fence this year which should help a lot.
So, all in all I think kiwi berries are a good plant to have for fruit production on your homestead. But like most other fruit producing plants (and permaculture in general), you need to be aware of the fairly long time horizon before you actually get any fruit.