Students in the Polk County High School agriculture program and construction program recently completed a joint project on the school grounds.

Last fall, students in the construction program built a wooden arbor behind the school greenhouse. In late May the students in the agriculture program planted three Kiwi vines to be trained onto the arbor.

“We believe when we work together our students can accomplish great things,” said Keith Rimer, construction teacher. “Our ag program needed a way to train their Kiwi vines and we constructed the arbor from start to finish.”

Something unique to this project is the strange fact that the Kiwi vines were cuttings from a Kiwi vine identified growing wild in Tryon. With the help of the local Cooperative Extension Center, the staff at the Mountain Horticulture Crops Research Center were able to propagate a handful of vines to be planted at the school farm. What is particularly mysterious is that Kiwi fruit are native to China.

“One of our objectives in the Polk County ag program is to teach our students all aspects of farming,” said Chauncey Barber, agriculture teacher. “We hope to harvest some Kiwi fruit in a few years from our vines the students planted near the school farm.”

–  article submitted by John Vining