On a recent 3 week visit to New Zealand I had the good fortune to be able to taste the new baby Kiwi that was mentioned in our last issue. It’s like a large gooseberry and you eat it skin and all. Very nice but the Horticultural Research Station where they are conducting trials tell me it needs 500 hours of – 7 degrees to really set a good crop. They have a product over there called “Hicane” (Hydrogen Cyanamide) which I haven’t been able to find on the market here which promotes increased bud burst in kiwifruit in areas which have insufficient winter chill and is applied 3-5 weeks before natural bud break. Ref: Sheryl Backhouse