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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2021)
4A | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2021 | APPEAL TRIBUNE K1 Growing vigorous kiwi takes care and a strong trellis Proper siting, fertilizing, watering and protecting your kiwifruit from cold weather, are necessary to keep your plant in good shape. GETTY IMAGES Kym Pokorny Special to the Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK CORVALLIS – If you have a good strong trellis, are a bit of a gambler and have a love of kiwifruit, there’s no rea- son not to grow your own crop. As vigor- ous as they are, though, don’t expect to plop these vines into the ground and stand back. Kiwifruit need some attention to yield the large amount of fruit they’re capable of producing. Proper siting, fer- tilizing, watering and, most importantly, protecting from cold weather, are neces- sary to keep your plant in good shape, said Bernadine Strik, berry specialist for the Oregon State University Extension Service. There are three types of kiwifruit, Strik explained, the most common being the fuzzy kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) available at the grocery store, usually the cultivar called ‘Hayward.’ Joining the lineup are hardy kiwifruit (A. argu- ta); and kolomikta or arctic kiwifruit (A. kolomikta), which is not often grown for fruit. Instead, gardeners become enam- ored of the variegated pink leaves and use it as an ornamental vine. Hardy kiwifruit, also called kiwiber- ries because of the grape-sized fruit, are most suited for home gardens because they are best adapted to Oregon’s cli- mate, Strik said. The highly aromatic fruit has smooth, green skin – some- times with a red blush – that’s edible, making them great for snacking. They are better adapted to our region because they are very winter cold hardy and fruit will vine ripen from mid-September into mid-October. You’ll sometimes find them at farmers markets and some gro- cery stores. Fuzzy kiwifruit don’t ripen on the vine and are harvested in fall when they are “green ripe.” They can be stored in a cold area for months, which is why you’ll find fuzzy kiwifruit in grocery stores year-round. They are best grown in warmer regions like California, because vines can get winter cold injury in most areas of Oregon. Of the hardy kiwifruit, the easiest to find are ‘Ananasnaya,’ (sometimes called ‘Anna’) with jade-colored skin, bright green flesh, black seeds and a pineapple-type flavor (the name means “pineapple” in Russian) and ‘Ken’s Red,’ a New Zealand cultivar with olive green skin and darker green flesh with deep red streaks. “The young shoots and fruit of all ki- wifruit species are sensitive to frost in- jury,” Strik said. “Temperatures of 30 degrees F or less for only 30 minutes can severely damage newly emerging shoots in the late winter through spring.” To reduce the chance of damage, grow kiwi plants in warmer areas of the garden that are protected from frost, avoiding low areas or cool sites. When temperatures are forecast to drop to 32 degrees F or lower, drape the vine with a row cover before sunset and remove it when temperatures rise above freezing. Strik, who is the author of Exten- sion’s publication Growing Kiwifruit in Your Home Garden, offers additional tips: h Kiwifruit vines are either female, which produce the fruit; or male, which are vital for pollination and fruit produc- tion. Be sure to plant both unless a neighbor has the correct male (same species). See photos in the above publi- cation to tell the difference between male and female flowers. h Build a substantial arbor or T-bar trellis (photos are included in the above publication) that’s tall enough to stand under for harvest; the stronger the bet- ter since the vines can grow 15 feet wide and produce up to 100 pounds of fruit. h Plant 10 to 15 feet apart in spring in deep, well-drained soil in a sunny, pro- tected area of the garden. Don’t skimp on this advice since kiwi vines are sus- ceptible to root rot. h Water a couple of inches of water a week during the growing season. A drip system works best. h Fertilize by carefully increasing the amount each year as the vine matures (check publication for application rates). h Prune females heavily in December. If it gets later in the season, the vines will excrete large amounts of sap, which dismays gardeners. “I often get people saying, ‘My vine is bleeding to death,’” Strik said. “So, it’s best to prune early. If you are pruning late, don’t worry too much about the sap loss.” Prune males after bloom in late June. When pruning a mature vine, remove about 70 percent of the wood that grew last season. Most of the wood removed is older wood that already has fruited. For some pruning diagrams see the publication; a link to pruning modules containing videos is also listed in the publication. h In warmer regions of Oregon har- vest fuzzy kiwifruit in late October to early November when they are still hard, but the seeds are black. They can be stored in a cold (32 to 40 degrees F) area for several months. To ripen small amounts, put in a slightly vented plastic "Ananasnaya" is a hardy fuzzy kiwifruit. BERNADINE STRIK / OSU bag with apples or bananas. Harvest ki- wiberries, which do not all ripen at the same time, when they are soft to the touch. They should be eaten right away; or in order to store in the refrigerator for a few weeks, harvest fruit when they are still firm, but seeds are black (early Sep- tember). When they are too ripe, the fruit will tear at the stem end. You can enjoy them throughout the winter by freezing them and letting them partially thaw before eating About the OSU Extension Service: The Oregon State University Extension Ser- vice shares research-based knowledge with people and communities in Ore- gon’s 36 counties. OSU Extension ad- dresses issues that matter to urban and rural Oregonians. OSU Extension’s part- nerships and programs contribute to a healthy, prosperous and sustainable fu- ture for Oregon. Kinkel expresses guilt over 1998 shooting ASSOCIATED PRESS Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents be- fore going on a shooting rampage at his Oregon high school in 1998, killing two classmates and injuring 25 more, has given his first news interview, telling HuffPost he feels “tremendous, tremen- dous shame and guilt.” Kinkel, now 38, is serving a de facto life sentence at the Oregon State Correc- tional Institution. He spoke with the news site by phone for about 20 hours over 10 months. He said he felt guilty not just for what he did as a 15-year-old suffering from then-undiagnosed paranoid schizo- phrenia, but the effect his crime has had on other juvenile offenders sentenced to life terms: His case has been held up by some of his victims and by others as a reason to oppose juvenile justice reform in the state. While he has not previously given in- terviews because he did not want to fur- ther traumatize his victims, he said, he also began to feel that his silence was preventing those offenders from getting a second chance. “I have responsibility for the harm that I caused when I was 15,” Kinkel said. “But I also have responsibility for the harm that I am causing now as I’m 38 because of what I did at 15.” Kinkel described how he had been hearing voices since age 12 and how he became obsessed with knives, guns and explo- sives, believing China was going to invade the U.S. and that the govern- ment and the Walt Dis- Kinkel ney Co. had implanted a microchip in his head. When he was caught at Thurston High School in Springfield with a stolen handgun he bought from another student on May 19, 1998, “My whole world blew up,” he said. “All the feelings of safety and security — of be- ing able to take control over a threat — disappeared.” Facing expulsion, a possible felony charge and an enormous sense of shame, he said, the voices in his head made him believe he had to kill his par- ents and then return to school to “kill everybody.” He killed his parents the next day, and the day after that he opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing 16-year-old Ben Walker and 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson and injuring 25 before be- ing subdued by other students. He pleaded guilty — at the time, he did not want to accept his diagnosis and felt community pressure to resolve the case rather than plead not guilty by rea- son of insanity. He was sentenced to nearly 112 years after apologizing pro- fusely. “I feel tremendous, tremendous shame and guilt for what I did,” he told HuffPost. “I hate the violence that I’m guilty of.” Kinkel shot Betina Lynn in the back and foot. She told HuffPost the idea of him ever getting out is “literally terrify- ing.” She has permanent nerve damage, a constant reminder of what happened. “Even now, more than 23 years later, I and many other survivors are still deal- ing with the fallout,” Lynn said. “We are all serving life sentences right along- side him.” Kinkel described how he underwent mental health treatment at the youth prison where he began his sentence and recognized he harmed innocent people, including his parents, whom he loved. He also said he cried when he learned about the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, afraid that he had inspired it. Kinkel, who has obtained a college degree behind bars, continues to chal- lenge his sentence, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court. In March, his attorneys filed a petition in federal court, arguing that his plea was not vol- untary — he had been off his meds for several weeks beforehand — and that his sentence was unconstitutional. “Sentencing a juvenile to die in pris- on because they suffer from a mental illness is a violation of the Eighth Amendment,” his lawyers wrote. In 2019, as part of a national effort to re-evaluate tough-on-crime sentences for juveniles, the Oregon Legislature passed a measure to stop automatically referring 15- to 17-year-olds to adult court for certain offenses and to ensure that they weren’t sentenced to life in prison without a chance to seek parole. At the time, there were about a dozen people serving life or life-equivalent terms for crimes committed as juve- niles. But critics warned that that the mea- sure could lead to Kinkel’s release, and a month later, lawmakers passed another bill to make clear that the measure was not retroactive. “It doesn’t matter if he was 15,” Adam Walker, the brother of Kinkel’s victim Ben Walker, said in a video released at the time. “The victims don’t get second chances. Why should the offenders?” Kinkel said he watched the debate in the prison library. “It was like, there was hope,” Kinkel said. “And then the Legislature ... came back and said, ‘No, we are specifically, intentionally, purposely with every- thing that we have, going to take this away from the kids already in the sys- tem.’” He said he doesn’t often consider the possibility of ever being released: “I don’t allow myself to spend too much time thinking about that because I think that can actually bring more suf- fering.”
