The genus Actinidia consists of 54 species and 21 varieties, a total of 75 taxa. At present, the main species under commercial growing are Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis and Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa, and to lesser extend Actinidia arguta and Actinidia eriantha. Other Actinidia species generally have small fruit and limited value for growing, but they may be valuable rootstocks for kiwifruit. Actinidia valvata is one of potential good rootstocks.

Actinidia valvata mainly distributes in Hunan,Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in China. Average fruit weight is around 10g. The ripe fruit has orange color and slightly hot taste. The plant has strong tolerance to high temperature, drought and wet environment conditions, and can grow normally in waterlogged soil. It is also known as “water Actinidia” in the western region of Hunan province. Use of this rootstock may overcome the problem of susceptibility of kiwifruit roots to waterlogged soil. Furthermore, such a rootstock in combination with heat tolerant kiwifruit scion cultivars developed in recent years may change the distribution of kiwifruit production areas in China; the lower altitude regions in the middle and lower reaches of theYangtze River, which are characterized by wet soil and hot summer, may become an important new kiwifruit production area.

At present, Yanoon BioTech is carrying out systematic field trials to fully evaluate the performance of Actinidia valvata as a rootstock for kiwifruit. At the same time, we are doing further improvement on this rootstock aiming at its some shortcomings.