Hey folks,


I've searched throughout F4F, as well as other places online, and there doesn't seem to be too many pictures of pomegranate trees outside of California/the Middle East. I'd be interested in seeing some pictures of your trees - especially if you are in marginal growing areas (Zone 6/7). I have 8 or 9 varieties that I planted this year in the Piedmont of NC, and it seems like they aren't growing very quickly, though I'm assuming that they are, perhaps, just taking this first growing season to get established in the ground.

Thanks all,


-Josh

Are you looking for just in ground or potted?

Hi, Josh. Central AZ is Zone 9b, so it's not in a marginal growing area. We are growing Granada, a medium hard seeded variety that came from a sport of Wonderful. The photo is of a Granada pomegranate that has been in the ground for about 3-4 years. It is 12 feet tall (it really needs to be pruned down to 6' this winter). The fencing in the background is about 3 1/2 feet tall. We dug out a Wonderful pomegranate because its pomegranates weren't true to the cultivar; they always contained yellowish arils, instead of the purple ones we expected. That plant might have been mislabeled by the nursery.

 

After growing Granada, we heard about soft seeded pomegranate cultivars which many people prefer. We have planted 5 gallon sized soft seeded pomegranates in the ground: Parfyanka, Gissarskii Rozovskii, Ariana, and Desertnyi have all set fruit for us this year. The variety that might appeal to you is our baby Sirenevyi (still in a 5 gallon pot) which is both soft seeded and cold hardy.

You may find the list of cold hardy pomegranate varieties at this Pom Natural link interesting: https://www.pomnatural.com/cold-hardy-poms

An Alabama Pomegranate Facebook group published a great list of pomegranate varieties: https://www.facebook.com/alabamapomegranateassociation/photos/pb.1063185613726802.-2207520000.1498060123./1602169789828379/?type=3&theater

Hope this helps!

Crademan - thanks! Have you had any problems with late frosts? I've talked with Shane from Alabama pomegranates quite a bit, he's good resource. I'll check out that other site… I got my cold hardy varieties from Greensea farms in Florida, I'm wondering if maybe their growth was just a little bit retarded from the shock of the climate change and no/short dormancy.

Josh, 

If you choose a south facing location against a brick (or any) wall, I think Pom trees should do well in your area.  I had three Wonderful pom trees purchased thru two nurseries about 10 years ago, planted them into clay soil with not much potting soil then (I did not know much then).  All three died in one time or another due to relocation stresses, diseases etc...But they came back up, via the roots.  Two were grafted, and one was air layered when bought.  So I have one Wonderful, and two unknowns from the root stocks now, and all grow very well after settling done in my Zone 8 climate.  The majority of the growth is in spring time, though, with some growth but not much in the summer time, especially if they are loaded. The attached pic is Wonderful pom, with small softer seeds and deep red pulp.  The other two have larger hard seeds, one is pink and the other has white/tan pulp. Both are sweet without hint of acidity, unlike Wonderful.  I'd like to mention that during relocation of the pom trees, I had to dig them out with a spade, which resulted in severe damages of the roots.  But they survived.  I'd think that the pom trees is quite easy to grow, and grow vigorously when established.

Josh, in general my area has about 4 frosty nights per year; usually 1 or 2 in December and 1 or 2 in January. The last frost date is usually February 15. Because of our climate, neither pomegranates nor figs suffer much frost damage. We have to select low chill varieties of stone fruits, apples, pears, etc. Central Arizona averages about 200-300 hours of winter chill each year, so cultivars that require 500 or more chill hours may not set fruit at all here.

Most of the time, newly acquired plants do suffer a set back due to transit and transplant shock. If the problem persists for more than a year, you have to do a little detective work. Was there something wrong with the plant when you received it? If it dried out or was subject to excessive heat during shipping that can injure a plant. Other basic questions are about soil quality and drainage, adequate sun exposure, and water quality. Pomegranates are fairly tolerant of a wide variety of growing conditions. This California Rare Fruit Growers information page may be helpful: https://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html

P.S. LogeesPlants has a Youtube video on growing pomegranates in pots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nypJdOCmjU

Here is one of my salavatski pomegranate trees. It is about 8-9 ft tall in Lancaster PA ( zone 6b/7a). I just moved to the property last October and promptly planted it. In a pot the year before, it produced four nice fruits. This year, it flowered, but dropped the fruit as a result ( I believe) of not having the root structure and system to hold the fruit. I hacked it back to three feet last October and it grew like mad after suffering zero damage last winter. I realize it was a mild winter, but it definitely gives me hope for more fruit next year.

Crademan - Cool! Yeah, I've heard from some of the European growers that late frosts and that sort of thing can do Poms in, but it sounds like winter doesn't have quite that bite where you're at.

Bill - Great! Zone 6b gives me hope for mine here. That's pretty great that it got up to 8/9ft - I'm surprised you didn't get more fruit at that size.

No sure if my personal experience is relevant. First I am in Northern California with nice climate but we get down to 20 degrees on occasion during cold snaps. My two mature pomegranate trees seemed to take 4 years before I got some small fruits and the trees remained small and slow growing. However starting in the 5th year, they started growing a bit faster and every year I got more fruit and they started to get larger fruits. One thing to keep in mind is that Pomegranates are naturally a shrub not a tree. If you want it to grow and look like a tree, you have to stay vigilant and clip the new shoots that keep popping from the base and the lower two feet of the main trunk. currently the trunk on mine are about 3.5" Diameter on one and 3" on the other and they are around 9 to 12 feet after being planted for 12 years. They produce between 30 and 40 medium and large fruits each. I get about 200 or more flowers but fewer than 25% become fruits and the rest drop. I never ever water them since year 5, but they get a very little water from my neighbor's lawn watering overflow. I would try cutting back on watering and see if they react positively            

It appears that the extent of flowers dropping has something to do with the age of the tree and cultivars, along with climate conditions.  The pom's stigma is way down the base of the flower, not easy for pollinators to get into.  I am experimenting with a long, thin brush to manually pollinate the stigmas with pollens from other varieties.  This helped somewhat, but I have no solid data to support my statement...

Here's one of my babies.  The growing fig has since been consumed by one of my resident squirrel....hate those things.

I've been doing the hand pollinating too.   I started off with my finger, now I'm using a brush.  Some more of the pods today look like they're swelling, so I think hand pollinating works.

   

Just for a laugh this is my old (12years at least) grown from seed dwarf variety I inherited from my late father. Only had fruit once here in southwest UK but always flowers well, fruit was like a small bullet hard walnut. Just got back from south of France and there were many in fruit there, will check for variety next visit. All my figs have fruited but late and don't think they will ripen before leaf fall. Simon