New blood for Kiwi fruit

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33520, 29 April 1974, Page 3

New blood for Kiwi fruit

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) HONG KONG, April 28. New Zealand’s rapidly growing Chinese gooseberry industry may get some “new blood’’ from China.

Dr E. G. Bollard, director of the Plant Diseases Division of the D.5.1.R., discussed Chinese

gooseberries — or “Kiwi fruit” — when a New Zealand scientific delegation visited China. He took home cuttings of plants from the Peking Botanic Gardens, and seeds from these will be used in the D.S.I.R. breeding programme. New Zealand’s Chinese gooseberry plants originated from a small sample of seed sent to Wanganui from China about the turn of the century. The Chinese gooseberry

grows wild on the hillsides in the Yangtze Valley in China, but Dr Bollard said it was not regarded as a fruit and did not appear to be cultivated there.

“This is a mighty important crop to us, and the Chinese were most impressed with what we were doing,” he said. “Looking 20 to 25 years ahead, we may have to start breeding, and there are plenty of characteristics of our plants that could be improved. What we need is new blood and new raw material.”

New Zealand’s Ambassador in Peking (Mr W. B. Harland) has asked Dr Bollard to send him some Chinese gooseberry plants for the greenhouse at the new embassy there.