Well, I guess you should watch where you deposit yard waste. I trimmed some pomegranates last year and threw some small cuttings into the mulch. They dried out and looked perfectly dead. Composting on site, I thought. Wrong!

Now that spring has sprung, I am discovering the undead pomegranates emerging. It's amusing. Just wish I knew what varieties I am seeing. For now, I guess they'll be Lazarus UNK.

WHERE ARE THE PIX????

!!!

:(((

Sorry. If I had PhotoShop, I surely would have shown some kind of "Walking Dead"-botanical hybrid. As it stands, not much to see, except little sprigs of pomegranate poking out of the mulch.

That is really interesting. I am just getting into poms and am wondering which varieties you think are sweetest and worth growing? Can you get cuttings from UCD like figs?

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

I cannot say which varieties are best yet. None of mine have fruited. And yes, UCD/USDA has pomegrantes scion available.

Let me just say this.  I have 4 in-ground poms.  Poms are NOT figs.  They stain like crazy, are not super sweet, and are hard to eat!  JMHO!  :-))

They love the climate of the Mediterranean, and grow well.  I break mine open under water, let the seeds float, and scoop them up with a fine grained strainer.  I use them in salads, but wow!  Too much d*****%*(&mn!  trouble for juicing or wine making.

Come and dig em up!  You can have mine for free!  Please replace with Negretta and all other figs I want ;-))  I'm serious! 

Suzi

USDA at Davis has a lot of Pomegranates available, and I have several in process right now from them.  Which one are sweetest and which ones are best are not the same to me as I like the sweet and tart blend. One I tried last year that was all sweet no tart was Myatadzhy, and was the favorite of the gentleman I was purchasing several cultivars from,  and he seemed to like them sweet. I picked up a Myatadzhy and the fruit I tasted from his plant was relatively soft-seeded as well which makes me doubt it will be cold hardy for me. I have yet to taste fruit from many cultivar as most my plants are young, so my opinion might change change, but that was the one I have sampled so far with least tartness. I happen to like the tartness to a degree, and prefer a blend of sweet and tart. 

Figaro, that was fantastic, thank you so much for sharing the link. I now have a list :)

Suzi, if I didn't live thousands of miles away I would take you up on the offer! We do "green smoothies" AKA whole food juice every morning and pomegranates are fantastic in them. The problem is, they are $2.00 a piece if not more. Because of the cost we are growing more and more of our own ingredients.

Thank you strudeldog, another one on my gotta have list. I like a little bit of tart but not too much.

Any suggestions on different types of fruit would be welcome as well.

I'm still eating pomegranate syrup I made last year. They take a little work, but are worth it. I have two trees that I started from UCD cuttings (Ink and Koinekasyriskii). The Parfianka that I got didn't make it. Wear old clothes when you seed them and do it outside.

I am super jealous of those who can grow poms. I love them. A very special treat for me.

Remember Nicole, I was born and raised there.....all you gotta do is move :)

Hey Scott, care to share the recipe?

I often joke with the husband that he should take a job in California so I can grow a more awesome orchard.
"Just think of all the figs I could grow!"

I wasn't joking, I was ready to donate body parts to get out of there.

My eldest uncle in Iran recently told me when pomegranate doesn't leaf out or do anything for an entire season due to some calamity or even a small cutting... do not lose faith with poms--that they are unique in their bounce back ability among all fruit. He said next year it will come back out of nowhere! Although our winters are tough on them here in zone 7a... but still a very resilient plant indeed. John your zombie poms story is in line with his beliefs!

Pomegranates are not really that difficult to eat, Suzi.  With some methods, I'd say it's quite safe even with a white shirt/blouse.  Check out my web site http://www.purelypoms.com.  And there are some varieties that are quite sweet, though the brix isn't high enough for wine-making without adding some sugar (16-17).  My friend, Joe Real, made several cases of wine from about 500 pounds of my culls from my 2010 harvest.  He's won quite a lot of gold medals at the California State Fair and various county fairs with many of his exotic fruit wines.

Parfianka is one of my favorites, along with Desertnyi, Vkusnyi, Gissarskii Rosovyi, Azadi, Vina, Sirinevyi, etc.  I have a little over 70 varieties, though only around 25 have fruited in sufficient quantities to for me to give a solid opinion on them.  I have around 100 plants of various varieties in 1 gallon pots for sale which can be shipped.  I'll make someone a good deal if they take 100! :)  Some have flower buds on them.  I don't consider any of them ones I have left hardy below zone 8.

AH, Nature has always got a way to surprise you. 

Hi Tami,

Really simple. Pomegranate juice. About 1/2 cup sugar for 4 cups juice (more sugar for really tart juice) and a little lemon juice. Cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens and reduces in volume more than half. Put hot syrup in hot jars, add new lid and ring. Place in a boiling water bath 10 minutes. Or you can just keep the syrup refrigerated. Warning, depending on the pomegranate can be sweet and tart.

I have Eversweet that I got from Durio. I picked it because I read the fruit mature in 5 months vs. 6 - 7 months for some of the dwarf varieties I was considering. I did not even think twice and throw out the trimming last fall.

Now I'm think about it.....

Thanks Scott l think I could do that. I'm surprised it sounds so easy.

Two years ago the University of Florida released thousands of rooted pom cuttings of about 50 varieties to home growers and commercial folks in an effort to trial the plants under different growing conditions to find a potential commercially viable cultivar for Florida.   The study participants did not have a choice of what cultivars they received.  I have 26 varieties growing as a hedge.  They were set back a bit when a year after being planted I had to move every one of them when I decided to fence the property.  The deer were just being a massive pest.  The plants have really taken off and are growing like weeds.  

For those who have trouble with pomegranates, you can use the Pomegranate Aril removal tool designed by Israeli people. I have it and it works really well :

http://www.mshoham.com/Site/pages/inPage.asp?catID=8&subID=158&ssubID=160

I just bought one on ebay $14.99 and well worth it in my opinion.
Thanks for the info.

I deleted my orginal bookmark but found some other info on Eversweet AKA 'Armchat'.  Mid Aug. it said where others said Sept. Grenada was a full size that I did not think I could keep small.

http://www.google.com/patents/USPP5418
http://www.edvaldivia.com/Chater_Chart.pdf

I found to remove the seeds all you need is a knife, a bowl of very warm water. I skin some of the flesh without cutting into the seeds at stem and the blossom end. I skin about half a dollar size of the flesh on both ends. Soak at least 10 minutes or when I return to the kitchen.  Then I shuck it.