I am have searching and researching cold hardy pomegranates on this and other forums and also other academic grower experiences and I wanted to get people’s personal experience updated here if possible. However as I have researched these posts I have found some issues that I think are causing confusion of how hardy varieties are based on growing zone and the differences found in those zones at the extreme. Hopefully some of this helps.
I have been reading people give their zones and where some had success and others did not with the same types of cold hardy varieties. So I dug a little deeper and looked at the yearly absolute low for some locations looking back 8 years or so. People in similar zones on the coast near water for zone 6 have buffering from the ocean and may not see temps as low just a bit inland. Those of us in the mid west from Texas up to MI tend to have more extremes of absolute lows for example if it is midwest zone 6a or 6b all the way down to 8a where I am near DFW Texas. Scanning for some absolute lows for the past 8 or so years I saw 0F three times in DFW 8a area where I am, in Detroit -10F (more commonly near 0 or so for coldest days), whereas Raleigh NC (zone 8a it looks like) reaching 4F once. This was a quick search and I may have missed some. As far as absolute lows Raleigh NC is warmer than my DFW area, but DFW average lows in my part of Texas are warmer than Raleigh for example, Obviously as everyone knows those really cold spells kill pomegranates planted out side and a one day cold spike low can do it. Look at the history of the absolute lows for your area and don’t go by just zone. The absolute lows can differ greatly in the same zones and those are the ones that might kill your trees. Here near DFW has pretty mild winters but has one or two spikes lower per year, and every few years we get a big spike lower. Thus I need some protection for my trees but only need it a few days of winter. Of course if your local temperatures go below 12-15F you probably will need to provide protection, and if under 7F may need to have them in pots to bring indoors or in a greenhouse for winter (assuming cold hardy varieties here).
Another issue are mild winters. My TX winters are mild except one or two cold spikes typically but otherwise warmer. So my plants are more likely to come out of dormancy early and then get hit with a cold spike. Whereas where people have consistent cold weather (but not too cold) will have their plants remain dormant till spring. So when talking zones we need to be talking about these absolute lows, mild (or not) temps in winter, and of course the absolute lowest a plant can handle, but also how likely they are to coming out of dormancy for those with mild winters with cold spikes. If you can share any information regarding these points I am hoping we can collect it here as people have had more time experimenting and some info is older so wanted to get an update from people’s experiences here.
The information below is from memory from GF and other forums so can’t remember user names, but want to put this down before I forget.
Belbek: one person’s mature tree in MI was killed at 0F, saw this on Pombazzar forum.
Makadonia Red (or Greek Red): Supposedly a mature tree in Bethelehem PA from which this comes has survived there, I see some low spikes to 0 sometimes from weather apps. Supposedly it can have some die back on these cold spikes (don’t know if killed to the ground or just branch die back). Sounds like it can handle it otherwise. Thus may be another very cold hardy variety (once mature).
I see one user talking about cold hardiness being greater in low humidity desert regions. I wonder if this is more of a situation of consistently cold weather keeping trees dormant through winter. Noted below some desert regions of Texas have studied Pom growth and the humidity doesn’t seem to be a factor but more so the quite variable temps in our mild winters cause early dormancy exit followed by freeze damage.
The commonly cited Russian, Turkmenistan origin plants seem to be a bit variably for cold hardiness looking at people’s posts, including people in the same zones. My thoughts here is we are seeing differences in absolute low temps. For example people on the coast have some moderation of the lowest temps compared to the midwest inland where absolute lows can vary widely, even such as here in Texas our winters are mild on average. Basically we need people talking about their absolute lows that caused damage and less reliance on just zones. Zone 7 inland in the midwest will see 0F spikes at some point so either nothing but the hardiest outdoors in ground, or provide winter protection on cold spikes. It does appear as mentioned with a super hardy Belbek noted above in MI a 0F spike seemed to kill their plant and it was a mature plant. A younger one might need protection. Other varieties might be truly hardy at extreme low temps but since these are rare here (in the U.S.) it is hard to tell how low they can really handle extreme lows despite the growers comments. Or maybe they freeze to the ground and regrow. That is a big difference in fruit production depending on which it is.
Information from academic sources. A data dump that many know but will lay it out in one place here for reference:
Derived from the book The Incredible Pomegranate:
From 1988 USDA/ARS in Byron GA Pomegranate experiment: Tried 28 varieties (4 trees of each), had a -6F short cold snap in 1985 “almost” all of these were killed to the ground. Some varieties grew back from the roots: 100% grow back (4 of 4 trees per variety): Entek habi Saveh, R-2 Mejhos 6269, Salavatski, Kaj-acik-anor, and R-29 Apseronski. 75% grow back of the following (3 of 4 trees per variety) survived: Sejanec 2-5/8, R-12 Apseronski krasnyj, Afganski, Saartuzski (yalta), Surh-anor. However in 1986 Salavatski, R-12 Apseronski krasnyj, Surh-anor had scattered fruit production (not fully killed to the ground maybe? doesn’t say). By 1988 after two years drought without irrigation the following were producing fruit: Salavatski, Surh-anor, Kaj-acik-anor, Afganski, Saartuzski (yalta) and Surh-anor. Note: the freeze in '85 were mature trees since some were producing fruit the prior year, not new starting plants. Anyway for the common cold hardy plants tested, a brief -6F freeze was enough to kill to the ground with perhaps a few not fully killed to the ground (unclear).
According to Richard Aston: if temperatures remain above 12F you can grow just about any variety if you have a long hot summer to ripen. If you have temperatures from 7-12F you need to look at cold hardy varieties, 3-7F only the most cold hardy varieties and have them in protected areas. Two or three of the ornamental varieties will stand
average winter low temperatures down to 0 degrees F but only a few of the ornamental varieties have any fruit and it is generally very small fruit. Most American, Mediterranean and Indian varieties suffer some damage at temperatures from 8.5-15 degrees F depending on variety, and at 0 to -2 degrees F most are destroyed down to the ground. Research in Turkmenistan on Central Asian varieties which are more cold hardy, showed at 5 to 7.8 degrees F the upper parts and some buds of one-year sprays are damaged, at 1 to 3 degrees F, the skeletal branches are considerably damaged, and at -1 to -6 degrees F all are damaged.
Goup A most cold hardy: Kazake, DK from Shevlan and Kaj-acik-anor
Group B medium cold hardy: Salavatsky, Surh-anor, Al-shirin-nar, Sakerdze, Bala Myursal, Nikitsky
rannyi, Entek Habi Saveh and Krmyzy-kabukh
Group C mildly cold hardy: Apsheronsky krasny, Kara bala Myursal, Papershell (soft-seeded), Skerdze, KaraKalinsky and most Iranian varieties.
Frost sensitive varieties (bellow -12F) Wonderful and most American, Indian (Asia), and Mediterranean varieties and all soft-seeded varieties (except Papershell).
In addition, all pomegranates varieties can be damaged by late spring frosts that occur after new growth begins; the damage is less on growth on older wood than from 1-year old wood. Also sudden hard early freezes in the fall before the leaves are gone may result in some damage.
Some noted varieties from countries with coolish temps:
Greece: Patras Acide– extra large, red fruit with very sour taste. Good
for syrup.
Patras Douce – large, red, sweet fruit. Productive
Yugoslavia: Slatki Barski Nar – Early ripening, large, yellowish-green fruit with sweet taste.
Bulgeria: Uzbekskii Sladkii (Uzbek Sweet) – Sweet fruit
Nikiskii Rannii – Sweet-tart fruit, early ripening and early to produce.
From experiments on growing Pomegranates in southern Texas:
Russian 18 (believed to be Texas Red): Cold hardy; adapted over a wide area of Texas; bears at an
early age
Salavatski: Good cold hardiness; ripens in mid-October
Sumbar: Ripens early; has survived very cold winters in Fredericksburg area; potential cold injury problems if planted too far north Note these experiments were done in 8b zones or higher. And cold spikes mentioned happen south of me, but the absolute low may not be as low as DFW (its a big state!). When they mention "north they are talking about northern Texas, not the U.S.
In a field trial in El Paso Texas (far south Texas) 22 pomegranate cultivars (‘Al-Sirin-Nar’, ‘Angel Red’, ‘Apseronski’, ‘Arturo Ivey’, ‘Ben Ivey’, ‘Carolina Vernum’, ‘Chiva’, ‘DeAnda’, ‘Early Wonderful’, ‘Kandahar’, ‘Kazake’, ‘Kunduzski’, ‘Larry Ceballos 1’, ‘ML’, ‘Mollar’, ‘Purple Heart’, ‘Russian 8’, ‘Salavatski’, ‘Spanish Sweet’, ‘Surh Anor’, ‘Utah Sweet’, and ‘Wonderful’), four plants per cultivar, was established at Texas AgriLife Research Center at El Paso in April 2015. ‘Angel Red’ died to the ground in winter but re-sprouted in the spring in 2016. Of the remaining 21 cultivars, 65.5% of the trees in the field had late freeze damage in 2016 that was correlated with how early leaf buds started growing thus breaking dormancy. Pomegranate trees bloomed from April 2 to 23, 2016. ‘Surh Anor’ is an early bloom cultivar, whereas ‘Mollar’ is a late flower cultivar.
Separately apparently Fleishman (Texas Pink) froze out at 7F in a Texas 8b location. So not the most cold hardy variety.
In Lubbock Texas (zone 7b) some growers were having success with many of the noted cold hearty varieties once they had matured. However freezing to the ground did happen but they regrew. Varieties included: Salvatski, Al-sirin-nar; Russian 18, did well. Kandahar did not flower for some reason.
In El Paso Texas leaf budding was studied:
Based on the 3 year experiment (plants were green house grown to 30 cm, then planted out so 3-5years old for the in ground experiment), leaf budding was earliest for ‘Ben Ivey’ (46 d) and latest for ‘Kunduzski’ (58 d). Overall, the varieties Angel Red, Arturo Ivey, Ben Ivey, Carolina Vernum, Chiva, DeAnda, Early Wonderful, Kandahar, Larry Ceballos, Marcelino Lozano, Purple Heart, Utah Sweet, and Wonderful had significantly earlier leaf budding than Kazake, Kunduzski, Mollar de Elche, Russian 8, Salavatski, and Surh-Anor based on the mean of the 3 years. The average GDD corresponding to the mean onset of leaf budding ranged from 73 to 117 GDD and showed highly significant correlations. Growing degree days (GDD) were calculated as the sum of the daily average temperature minus the base temperature of 10 °C, which is the temperature at which bud development is activated in pomegranate
The pomegranate varieties that leafed out latest and had early flower formation were: Salavatski, Sur Anor, Russian 8, Kazake, Kunduzski. Late leaf budding and late flowering: Mollar de Elche.
Moderately early leaf budding and flowering time included: Kandahar, Al Sirin Nar, Spanish Sweet, Asperonski.
Early leaf budding with moderate early flowering: Purple Heart.
Early leaf budding and late flowering: Angel Red, Wonderful, Utah Sweet, Early Wonderful.
There was no cold damage to dormant plants with 23-24F freezes. Early freeze damage (23F) before dormancy varied. Those that showed no early freeze damage included Apseronski, Kunduzki, Kazake, Russian 8, Salavatski, Surh Anor. Moderate early freeze damage: Al Sirin Nar (only for young plants), Kahndahar, Mollar de Eche, Spanish Sweet, Utah Sweet. Most damage: Angel Red, Early Wonderful, Purple Heart, Wonderful.
As most know young plants are at greater risk from cold even while dormant. The plants above were 3-5 years old. They noted the first 1-3 years were more susceptible to cold damage while being more hardy after 4 years.
With the above data if you have mild winters with sporadic cold spikes, getting varieties that leaf out later may save you from damage from late freezes.
It appears based on above the most cold hardy Russian plants at maturity can survive a brief -6F cold spike albeit being frozen to the ground. Apparently with fairly rapid regrowth. I am guessing a young plant would be killed at 0F and a bit higher at 3-6F in ground. Based on above the most cold hardy would get damage at 0F to branches on a mature plant at least. I read on a forum a claim that Uzbek origin plants are cold hardier than Turkmenistan origin plants. Supposedly Kaj Acik Anor and the variety called Uzbek come from Uzbekistan.
One GF forum member indicated they have Entek Habi Saveh,Kaj Acik Anor, Uzbek, Kazake, Salavatsky. These all encountered 5F. They had freeze damages except Salavatsky. But all grew back fast. I am assuming these were more mature plants. Anyway the commonly available most cold hardy Pom’s look like you don’t want in ground till mature and 5F is hitting the lower temperature where damage is happening. Salavatski as a mature plant may handle a few degrees lower than that. When you get in the 0F range it appears possible this is top kill range for all but the most cold hardy. Anyway, trying to bracket the temps the cold hardy plants can handle for in ground growth and all of the above are data points. If you have some more data points to add please post! Thanks!
