Absolutely do not give up hope. Give it a good heavy watering and wait. The abuse a pom can recover from is amazing. Might take two months but don’t count it out.
Same with me.
I have Kazake in the ground, not done well but scratch test looks good this spring.
I have A. C. Sweet in a pot that was moved into the basement. It has started pushing growth and is outside now.
I also have 3 parfianka poms in a 7 gal pot that I overwintered this year in my unheated garage. They seem fine, but have not yet started pushing new growth. One of these bloomed last year and set a couple fruit, but they dropped due to drought midsummer.
Scott
It’s alive!
My potted Red Silk pomegranate is sprouting from the roots, and some of the plant buds are greening up ever so slightly.
2 Likes
My Poms have begun to flower with Hyrdanar X Goulosha being the first out of the gate. This dwarf variety from the Russian collection was supposedly developed for high density production, but I haven’t been able to find out much about the quality of the fruit, except that it was good for juice. I’m pretty sure the seeds are on the harder side. I have several started from cuttings 2 years ago, still in smaller pots but all are flowering. The largest, in a 3 gallon pot, must have 50+ buds, some already flowering. Parfianka has one flower open with many more coming on and Desertnyi and Salavatski are just behind that. I have Salavatski and Kazake in the ground and both had some bud die back at the tips from the late freezes so that has set them back. Kazake has never flowered. All the others are in containers and were in an unheated garage and did great.
With all these blooms coming on and multiple days of rain ahead, I will be interested if all my fruit just winds up getting that nasty rot beginning at the calyx again. If so, they may be making room for more figs.
Does anybody know if earlier flowering correlates to early ripening? If so, that might be another good reason for me to keep the Goulosha going, plus it just has a great name.
Here is the one in the 3gallon pot.
4 Likes
Wintering in zone 7a with a winter low of 4F out of around 30 cultivars the 3 most hardy in order were Lyubimyi, Kazke and Salavatski. These have all be reported as some of the more hardy so no real surprise. Several others are showing some life from base, but it will be some time until I start pulling plants as they can be slow to recover, but even if they do come back a repeat disappearance each winter will get them ejected from the orchard.
4 Likes
I’m really tempted to try pot growing a couple. I’m not sure yet how to overwinter them…would a 55F basement area work? too warm?>
Are your poms over wintered outside? I have been wintering my ‘Nana’ indoors and flowering really seems more connected to dormancy break then any season. I also notice a major difference if dormancy break happens indoors protected or outdoors. This year I broke dormancy indoors in Janurary. I had a few flowers that didn’t set and when I put her outside in march she lost every single leaf to that cold rain. The leaves are growing back slower but I think healthier now. If they disappoint you I can give them a home in DC.
Question for you. my ‘nana’ has a lower branch that when I repotted I positioned under the soil. I am preaty sure its rooted. But Don’t know when a safe period would be to cut it way from the mother. Any Suggestions?
Hi Lordkiwi,
I have a Salavatski and a Kazake in the ground, but all my other Poms are in pots. Some of the larger ones are in 20 gallon root pouches. Once they’re dormant and the cold is here to stay (although is it ever these days), they get moved into my detached garage, which is dark, unheated and with no insulation. I’ve placed thermometer in there that tracks min/max and on the few nights around here (I’m in Arlington) that it gets really cold, the poms only get down into the mid 20s or so. Besides being sheltered from drying wind, the effect of being inside also really slows down the temperature changes which is a big help. So even some of the less hardy soft-seeded types like Desertnyi and Vkuzny have been totally fine. Since there are no leaves, I hardly water them while dormant either. I’ve also overwintered them in an unheated crawl space.
In the spring, I bring them out when I see green tips on the buds start to form and then shuttle them back in to avoid any freezes… kind of a pain. The poms outside are easily effected by late freezes since they start waking up earlier and their buds, once swollen or showing any green, are fairly tender. I can see that those leaf buds are dead after such a freeze, even though the bark on the rest of the upper branches will show green with a scratch test. This year I lost the top foot or 2 of growth for the 2 poms in the ground.
For your rooted branch, I think it is all a matter of how much root you have to how much branch. I expect if there isn’t much root you could cut it from the mother and just shorten the branch part and be okay. When I transplanted some cuttings, I had very little root on some, but they made it. But of course waiting until it is dormant will probably give you the best results.
1 Like
Strudledog, I find that the deep cold of winter is only half the problem. It is the late freezes that are only in the mid to upper 20s that seem to do more damage as the poms are waking up. Unlike figs that are slower to wake, the poms get up early and suffer for it here. Even partial dying back is problem, since that seems to really reduce the flowering and delay it as well, which makes the later ripening varieties less likely to produce good fruit before frost.
How have you done in terms of fruit and were they worth it in terms of taste?
1 Like
Warmx, I don’t think a 55F basement will be cold enough to keep them dormant, but you might get away with it if you keep them dark as well. But don’t bring them in until they’ve gotten some chill hours, unless it is for a night or 2 to avoid the coldest nights.
And you should probably be prepared to baby them through inside if they wake up early.
I agree on the late freezes. What handles single digits mid winter gets killed in mid 20s when coming active in spring. Same issue with my persimmons.
I have ripened very few fruit that has not split and/or developed rot. I am hoping to get maybe 6 cultivars that would produce reliably here. I have close to 40 cultivar that I was trialing only about 30 in ground. The last group I started and was sizing up in pots before inground most will go in ground this year. At least now I have openings in the Pom planting now for them. I have a feeling most my pom area will be invaded by figs within a few years. Some even showed to much damage prior winter after only seeing 12f. those being Desertnyi, Ink, Sin-Pepe, Sverkhranniy, Vina I don’t expect to recover from 4f and probably several others. Red Angel even died after 12f last year
i could probably leave them out until December ish… Garage would be iffy…might have to get it more insulated and try to keep it a little warmer. It gets below 0F in there most winters.
I didn’t get any dieback this last winter on my in-ground hardy poms, I think it didn’t quite warm up enough for them to wake up too early.
Kaj acik anor has been the winner for me, its much bigger than the other ones.
All of those soft-seeded ones have done horribly, I killed off a bunch of them. Hard-seeded only for me from here on out.
I don’t see any flowers this year, after dying back for two years it looks like they need more than one year of not dying back to flower.
I have also ripened very few fruits total, its starting to get a bit frustrating. The rot has not been that bad but just as they start setting well they die back.
I grow Kaj-acik-anor I think it is showing some regrowth from base. It was a smaller size plant for me and one of those I only have a single plant to evaluate. I think getting them larger surely helps on marginal temps.
My Kazake looks the best it ever has (SE Mi). It’s grown more in the past spring than in the previous 3 springs easily. It’s in the ground.
I have 2 others, one begins with a P (and I’m. Not looking for the name right now. The other is AC sweet.
AC is overwintered in an unattached garage and has done well 2 winters now ( with 15-16 being quite cold). The other is brought in dormant and maintained that was as long as possible All 3 look great this year. 2 bloomed last year, but poor watering caused it to drop flowers/fruit.
Scott
Regarding Kaj acik anor, have you tried the fruit? Could you please comment on it?
I have two cuttings each of this variety and Salavatsky. Only if I could tell which is which!!!
My potted Red Silk is growing great guns.
Its a new one and it died back the first two years after planting. I was hoping I might get fruit this year but it looks like none of the poms have set due to all the dieback.
Do yours have fruit? Have you fruited them before?
I’m really tempted to just take a stab at one…if it fails…just add it to the list.
I assume all yours are in ground. I’ve Salavatsky and Kaj acik anor in pots. I lost their tags so I do not know what’s what.
I don’t think I could get fruit out of these trees but grow them to bring back a fond memory.
Back there, pomegranate branches were (and still are) used to sprinkle holy water on participants during holy/auspicious ceremonies. I may have not eaten a lot of pomes as a child but got wet on several occasions by the holy water 
1 Like