Mid-Atlantic pomegranate realities

Yes my poms get those tiny red leaves before my figs break dormancy. If I get a late freeze after those tiny red leaves are out, the Pom dies to the ground here in Dallas

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Well I went to dig out a Salavatski that died to ground last winter and had not regrown and surprise here in late October it decided to sprout back from roots and couple just broke and several more just under soil line. Well I went ahead and dug it and potted it up to garage over winter and see if it completes the resurrection. I planted out a bunch in hopefully a little better location off the windy hillside. I put a Prok persimmon in itā€™s place.

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Well, Iā€™ve finished wrapping up my pomegranate shrubs. I ended up using packing material from my wifeā€™s many, many Amazon deliveries (basically large bubblewrap), and then stuffing in leaves. Given that the temperature has been in the 50-60s, it may have been unnecessary this year.

The little guys are around two feet tall, 2 years old, and have been in the ground 1 full summer, Should I be thinking about pruning before spring, or should I just let them do their thing for another year?

Iā€™ve been trying different pomegranate varieties on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland since 2008. Angel Red did not make it nor did a local variety sold by Thomas Gardens in the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

All Maryland growers should be advised that the island that created our state cake, Smith Island, has pomegranates that have been there for decades. I have gone for the past ten years and picked up poms off the ground (no one eats them there, some make jam or use them as decoration). They come ripe around the beginning of November on the island and are VERY tart and hard seeded. There are also brown turkey figs all over the island.

Two winters ago we had the coldest winter around here that I can remember. We had a morning that was -2.5. I have NEVER seen negatives here. Usually only short periods in single digits a couple of early winter mornings; otherwise, the ground does not freeze and we only get lows in the upper teens typically. I have not been to Smith Island since this incident and wonder if it killed their pomegranates. They are extremely moderated by the temperature of the bay water, so Iā€™m willing to bet that they survived last winter. Any pom lover should make the trip over there in September or October. It is a quite a spectacle to see these 15ā€™ pom bushes full of pomegranates all over the island. In my lifetime, Iā€™m imagining that the islands will be abandoned and all those poms will be washed away due to rising sea levels.

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Thanks for that tidbit. I have never been there as access is by boat only but I have heard a lot of stories about Smith Island over the years. The pomegranates could be particularly hardy since they have probably survived for a long time, maybe even hundreds of years. I have found older pomegranates in the area but all show evidence of dying back, none looked older than ten years or so above the ground.

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I donā€™t know about the die back there. I donā€™t remember seeing any. Obviously, they are very poorly pruned. There are also about 50% flowering variety there, and 50% fruiting which is also interesting and perhaps has contributed in some way to their success there?

Here is a picture that I found on a quick google search on the topic. I remember getting fruit from thsi very tree! It really surprises me that they tolerate the humidity there enough to set fruit so successfully.

This photo of Smith Island Inn is courtesy of TripAdvisor

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And what I meant by ,ā€œobviouslyā€ is that since they do not eat the fruit that they donā€™t pay much attention to the trees. Please no one misinterpret what I meant by thatā€¦:mask:

If theyā€™ve naturalized there, it seems like it might be worth it for some enterprising experimenter to grab a few to propagate and develop elsewhere. But maybe that island microclimate is too unique.

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Fascinating!

Great story. Now I just have to figure out how to get there sometime.

Speaking of Poms surviving. It looks like weā€™re headed to some frost temps this weekend and early next week (down to 28 or so) and my Salavatski and Kazake that are in the ground are both pushing green tips and might have leaves out when the cold hits. Are they in trouble if I donā€™t try to cover them? Otherwise they seem to have come through this mild winter unscathed.

I have about 6 or so other varieties in large containers (up to 15 gallon) but I can probably just stuff those back in the garage.

Zen,

Good to see you and great to hear your pomegranates survived this winter! I would cover them this weekend if I were you.

Did you ever get that lone fruit on Salavatski to mature last season?

Iā€™m going to have to post pictures. The Suhr Anor had a good year. Fruit set was surprisingly high. I counted 10 or so fruits on a 2 year old plant. Unfortunately, they all developed rot and fell off. I hope that as the tree becomes taller, that the higher ones might avoid the fungusā€¦

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Glad to hear you had such good fruit set on your pom. I did get fruit on my container grown Desertnyi, Parfianka, Hyrdanar X Goulosha (a dwarf type with full sized fruit) and my in-ground Salavatski. Unfortunately like you they all rotted like yours, starting right behind the calyx. I saw in another thread a grower in the Carolinas having the same problem year after year, so Iā€™m hoping it is something that wonā€™t be an annual event for me here in Northern Virginia. Iā€™ve seen a bunch of pots of the little Nana covered with mature little poms and there was no sign of rot, so perhaps it was effected by the weather we were having around the time mine all set. I have a few other varieties that havenā€™t set fruit yet so maybe theyā€™ll work out better for avoiding the rot.

Iā€™ll try to remain hopeful for next year, but if they all rot again I might just chop them all up into ā€œcuttingsā€ to sell on ebay!

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Some varieties are more prone to rot than others, I have not had too much rot on my Kazake or on my Russian Hardy. Yet another hump to get over to get good poms for the mid-atlanticā€¦ My poms have died back for several years in a row now so nothing to report here. Well, several did not die back this last winter, but they were just focusing on growing back to their original sizes this year.

Its good that poms are hardly any work, otherwise I would have pulled them up a long time agoā€¦

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I have given up on growing Poms in-ground here. The late frosts are devastating.

My wife and I both love poms, so now I am leaning toward buying the naturally-dwarfed Red Silk cultivar for pot culture. Over-wintering will occur in my unheated basement.

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Is anyone having rot problems with Red Silk?

Mine is fairly large, if what I have is Red Silk. Potting may dwarf any pomegranate.

All of my pomegranate varieties rotted this year. Had lots of fruit this year, left with one nice Red Silk, no Mae and no Garnet Sash. I just sprayed Garnet Sash with Roundup and it will be replaced this winter. I hope some perform better in the humid climate just like some figs do better. I donā€™t know how to stop the rot, this year I sprayed the fruit with Immunox and Captan a few times when I sprayed plums but it did not help. We did have lots of rain this year. Other than rot they are trouble free.

Reading this whole thread, it seems these are best suited for container growing. Out here in the west they are my least demanding fruit tree. Set it, forget it (sometimes literally) and they thrive without any irrigation. I think these are a must have on the west coast.

Wanted to add some data points. All three of these are seedlings from an unknown (but local) pomegranate. This is their second year in the ground. I covered them all during winter, and havenā€™t done anything for them beyond that. Here are the two which I planted in fairly sheltered locations by the house:

Both of them had to grow back up from the ground.

And hereā€™s the one that is out in the middle of the yard:

I hope the picture conveys how much larger (3-4x) this one is. It also managed to keep a lot of branches alive overwinter. Maybe getting full sun at all parts of the day is more important than having shelter.

Now, none flowered this year, so this isnā€™t a success yet, but it is looking promising.

I agree with you Calron they are much more suited for the West than the East. I lost many fruits this year because of Hermineā€™s heavy rains. Every single one split but they are all grown in ground. Had they have been in a container they probably wouldnā€™t have had this issue but who want to shuffle around pots every winter. I had some rot on fruits that where low to the ground early in the year but the ones higher up looked great until Hermine. Kazake is one of my better trees with little die back and I recommend it to anyone in 7b or higher along with Sumbar and Eve. Most of the others I grow experience some die back in winter and some die all the way back to the ground. I added about 30 some odd more varieties this past spring to trail so time will tell how they do. Iā€™m hoping to acquire State Fair next year to see how it does. Iā€™ve heard good things about it.

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