Mid-Atlantic pomegranate realities

How do you prune it? I got one from raintree and may need to prune it a bit.

No fruit yet

This winter, I feared it had died. No signs of life until a few weeks ago. It sent a sprout from the roots. Then the largest stem broke dormancy and leafed out/ continued growing.

In March, it was colorless and looked dead, but the Scratch Test revealed green cambium.

I bought it new as a potted plant from Edible Lamdscaping (VA) last fall.

Starting 8" above the ground remove all but the 5 or so strongest well spaced shoots. Pruning should be done during the dormant season. Remove only crossed over and dead branches. Unlike other plants growth on poms do not seem to lignififully till after the second season.

Suhr anor has been as cold hardy as salavatski and kazake in my zone 7 NC climate and actually shows less cold damage than either. It also has been more productive. For some reason kazake is not very productive for me.

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I thought I should report back in now that I’ve finally harvested my first pomegranate. It was an in ground Salavatski, which probably set 8-10 fruits this year, but only 2 made it until late season without getting the dreaded rot from the blossom end back. I harvested the largest of the 2 early last week, which had begun to get redder and was starting to show signs of rot. It was probably too early and was still pretty tart, but still good. I don’t know how a Salavatski should taste so maybe it doesn’t get much sweeter, but I do think it probably would if I let it hang. But since it was starting to rot, I couldn’t wait any longer!

The tree is right next to the sidewalk and I kept seeing neighborhood kids stop and examine it and while I know they’re good kids,
human nature… I figured pick now or possibly regret all winter.





The smaller fruit is still hanging and now that I’ve at least samled on I’ll let it go as long as I can and see if it gets sweeter. Any other Mid-Atlantic pom people get fruit this year? How were they?

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I am getting a texas hardy pomegranate that has been reprtedly down to -18 degrees this spring from baylaurel, i will post the results

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That doesn’t look too far off. I usually waited as late as possible, they seemed to get better.

My in-ground poms are finally growing back after several years of getting wiped out. I got a few flowers this year and some started to make fruit but then aborted. Long term I’m not super optimistic and don’t plan on adding any varieties.

Let us know how Texas Hardy turns out. If it really is taking -18F I’ll buy one but I’m going to wait and see given all the $$ I have already plunked down on pomegranate failures.

Walter!

Sweet success! Looks awesome. Good for you!

Here is a Redsilk in container Zone 7b.
Earlier this year, there were a lot of flowers, but mostly seems male flowers. Only 6-7 fruits form. 4 stolen by squirrel include a large near perfect one. Only 2 left now. :frowning:

Question: This year, plant seems lost some vigor. Not sure if I will need to repot or increase fertilizer next year? Thanks

IMG_9785

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How big is your pot? I up-potted my 1st-leaf Red Silk into a 6-gallon this summer. No fruits yet on mine.

Hi Matt,

This Red Silk is in the same 10 gallon pot, since 2014 spring. I never up/re-potted. I don’t know how to. Do I need to root pruning?

Thanks

I would imagine a little root pruning would be good. I actually am not 100% sure. I am still learning about pom culture myself.

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I admire you guys’ efforts to grow these in the mid-atlantic. They are a very low maintenance easy tree in these parts. But worth the effort.

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I hope that it survives or that you have made a backup because L.E. Cooke Co. is the supplier of the “Texas Hardy” variety and they are shutting down. So soon I think even Bay Laurel Nursery will not have it anymore.

http://www.lecooke.com/le-cooke-blog/l-e-cooke-co-bare-root-nursery-division-closure.html

Texas Hardy is listed as R26 which according to Green Sea Farms, also goes by the name of Afganski.

Based on pictures and descriptions from the LE Cooke and Green Sea Farms, Texas Hardy and Afganski appear to be the same. If so, there are other sources for the variety. I obtained Afganski from Green Sea a few years ago, no fruit yet but so far, it has survived winter temps down to around 5-7 degrees.

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Chris are you getting dieback on the afganski (coming back from roots each year) or is the top surviving?

I do not recall having dieback on Afganski but may have had some after a late spring freeze.

I pretty much only have only the cold hardy types and have yet to have a inground pomegranate die on me in the last 4 years due to winter cold .

As mentioned by strudledog and others, the problem in our area is more the late spring freezes after they have budded out that really zaps them and make it hard to grow them in our area. All my varieties seem to be equally sensitive to these late freezes. I have a few growing in pots that I can move into a shed when these freezes come to possibly avoid total crop loss.

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I am wondering where it’s listed as that.