Date of Award

Fall 2025

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Agricultural Sciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Iago Hale

Second Advisor

Rebecca Sideman

Third Advisor

Joshua Vander Weide

Abstract

The unique attributes of kiwiberry (Actinidia arguta (Siebold et Zucc.) Planch ex. Miq) make it a promising high-value fruit crop for the Northeastern United States, although not widely grown in the region. As discussed in Chapter 1, it is likely that some of the barriers to kiwiberry diffusion in the Northeast include basic research gaps (e.g. crop physiology, management, and enterprise analysis), and a lack of farmer-to-farmer communication channels. To address some of these barriers, this thesis reports the results of a Northeast commercial kiwiberry growers survey to provide a portrait of current regional kiwiberry production, and experiments to determine the chill requirement of female kiwiberry cv. “Geneva 3”, and the effects of exogenous plant growth hormone application, specifically, gibberellic acid and ethephon, on the date of spring kiwiberry budbreak as a potential strategy to reduce spring frost risk. Fourteen Northeast commercial kiwiberry producers provided information about their kiwiberry operations, including sites, varieties, age of planting, pests, productivity, marketing, costs, and so on. Both direct-to-consumer and wholesale marketing strategies were commonly reported, and average reported prices ranged from $6.25 per pound wholesale to processors to $12.00 per pound at farmer’s markets and through mail order. Although the majority of respondents recommended kiwiberry to other growers, commonly reported challenges included damage from frost and freeze events, infrastructure damage due to vine vigor, high labor requirements, and poor pollination. Interestingly, many respondents do not follow current management recommendations (e.g. as found in the online Nor’east Online Kiwiberries Production Guide) concerning pruning, irrigation, harvest indicators, and variety selection, suggesting a communication gap between current growers and the region's nascent Extension kiwiberry resources. Chapter 3 focuses on kiwiberry dormancy by quantifying ‘Geneva 3’ chill requirement using the Dynamic Model and investigating applications of PGRs to manipulate the dormancy cycle. At predetermined chill portion (CP) thresholds, cuttings were taken from ‘Geneva 3’ vines and subjected to a favorable environment for growth. Subsequent budbreak was used to calculate chill requirement. For the 'Geneva 3' vines in this study, average chill requirement was found to be 42.7± 3.4 CP. Using data from 110 Northeast weather stations from winters 2014-2024, this level of chill was found to be consistently fulfilled well before the date of last frost across the entire region. As a potential active strategy to mitigate frost risk, Chapter 3 details the effects on spring budbreak timing resulting from both midwinter applications of 0, 10, 100, and 100 ppm gibberellic acid (GA3) s and fall applications of 250 ppm ethephon at 10%, 50%, and 100% leaf fall. However, no significant differences in budbreak date were found in either experiment. Kiwiberry has potential as a novel fruit crop for the Northeastern United States, as shown by the enterprise details of successful current kiwiberry operations and the evidence for a low and consistently fulfilled chill requirement demonstrated within this thesis. Although questions remain regarding some aspects of kiwiberry crop physiology, management, and enterprise analysis, this thesis facilitates kiwiberry diffusion by generating the necessary evidence for potential adopters to make informed decisions.

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