Be careful with pomegranate seedlings. They don't always produce or grow true to the mother tree. Some do produce the same or similar fruit to the mother, some flower only but never fruit. (If they are crossed with a double flowering variety that's quite interesting to grow). Most seem to never produce from studies I saw. They get caught in something called "juvenile root lock" and never mature. If they will ever mature they are supposed to do so by the 6th year, assuming that they don't die back to the ground. I would recommend fertilizing to avoid juvenile root lock, even if it's not a guarantee! Good luck. :)

I would imagine that is correct. I haven't seen any scholarly articles mentioning how readily they hybridize or seedling test results per variety, but some variation would make sense. With the low cost of a pomegranate tree usually I don't personally see much the point of seedlings for readily available varieties. But that's me and I'm also running low on space ;)

Thanks for the information! I do have a black Portuguese pomegranate seedlings that's a year and a half old by now. I agree for rare varieties, but for common ones cuttings seems far more convenient. It's interesting they remain so similar. You can expect as high as 90℅ germination rates and 60℅ survival rates in my very limited experience. Quite high. If they aren't cross pollination then it would definitely add a bit of minor genetic diversity to a home orchard.

Wrong choice of fruit tree for colder climates.  Will probably never work unless you have a greenhouse.  I live where an old pom orchard was, in El Paso, and cannot imagine them doing well (fruit production) further north then Lubbock or Albuquerque.

Dig -- Thank you.  Every time I think about growing pomegranates here, I try to remind myself that I'm fighting reality.  Some fruits I should just buy at the store.

I don't want to be a debbie-downer.  I hope there are poms that are cold hardy, and the treesofjoy.com site showed some potential.  I did find a hardy russian pom that stated it would produce in mild, protected zone 6, but that is what I already stated.  http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/Cold-Hardy-Russian-Red-Pomegranate.htm

I don't want to be a downer either, but "a man's got to know his limitations."  If anyone who isn't selling (and therefore marketing) pomegranates could document a history of growing them in Z6 (or worse), I'd probably jump on the bandwagon just as I have with figs.  Even a requirement for a modest amount of protection would be OK. 

But I wouldn't want to invest 5 years without fruit then see the plant destroyed by a random -10 F weekend.  Meanwhile, I'll focus effort on the species that will reliably produce tons of fruit with modest effort -- e.g., raspberries, peaches, and of course figs.

Alan -- On behalf of all of us, thanks.

We do the fig shuffle.  We can try a little pomegranate shuffle.

On a practical note: pomme fruit stores well (like apples). So store bought fruit should be about the same quality as home-made, unlike figs?

Of course, growing against all odds and advice is an interesting challenge in itself.

Pomegranates are far superior homegrown over store bought. They do store well but like citrus commercial growers pump them up for size & looks and pull them off as soon as they can. My navel orange tree tastes like a store bought orange right now. If I wait another month they will be excellent. 

I havent seen any varieties hardier than -9. That being said it's supposed to lend itself well to container culture and stay under 8 ft in a sizable container, or at least can be maintained that way. Look at frost dates for your area and ripening times of varieties. If the it has enough days to maturity you should be good. Logically if your frost is in October or November and it ripens in july/ August you should be able to ripen it. Not sure what forms are best for training them though, I've seen a lot of weeping ones but that takes up serious space.

Shane, discounting hardiness to do know of poms that deal well with the humidity of the southeast?

I'm looking for salavatski either plant or cuttings if anyone wants to trade for fruit scions wood ( I have about 50 kinds) or I have a few fig cuttings . Pm me.

Ison's just added 3 Russian varieties to their stock, two have been mentioned ITT. Having a 20% off sale for one week as well.

http://store.isons.com/fruit-trees/russian-pomegranates