Four seedlings were very late to leaf out and two of them had zero die back or frost/freeze damage.
All of these are at least moderately vigorous.
I have a few others with just partial dieback also.
I’m excited to see how these progress, because they are at their most susceptible phase to cold damage when they are very young, and for some of them to have zero dieback and frost damage is very exciting, and we had an extremely early Spring this year also along with a very late hard freeze.
I transplanted some of the best ones to give them lots of space.
Of Cold Hardy Pomegranates I’m growing OUTDOORS in zone 6b/7a dry climate with desert hot summers of Northern Utah. Been growing since 2019.
Salavatski, Afghanski, Surh Anor, Kaj Akik Anor ,Nikitski Ranni ,Anvari ,Reza, Texas Red, Texas Pink, Kandahar, Agat, Kazake, Balegal, Petrovac, Bala Miursal, Parfianka, sumbarskii, Alk Pust Ghermex Saveh, Utah Sweet, AC Sweet, Achik Dona, Sogdiana, Er, Belbec, Pehli, 5 cold hardy seedlings, many more sprouts. The pomegranates are
far more cold hardy if they enter winter without humidity.
Pomegranates like to be watered well as long as they are well drained. Mine are growing on the side of a sloped mountain. Lowest Temperatures we have experienced is 4F. All the cultivars are still alive. I protected the tiny rooted cuttings the first year.
I meant to post a picture a few months ago when we had our first colder weather. A lot of the seedlings kept their leaves longer than the named varieties, so that was another interesting feature possibly showing their slightly increased cold hardiness as well.
Most infant trees of many species hold their leaves longer… they need to learn to go dormant because dormancy and lignification is what allows them to survive sun zero temps.
I am working on getting some cold hardy Poms growing here in north Texas. Our problems here are mild winter weather followed by sudden but short deep freezes. So one issue is the dormant plant surviving the cold and I don’t have anything to add to that yet. But the other is the early leafing out with mild weather. I just wanted to add this one data point that AC Sweet is showing a tendency to leaf out early with mild weather more than the others I have. It has started leafing out in January while Sumbar, Parfianka, Sirenevyi, Desertnyi, Fleischman’s (Texas Pink), Gissarskii Rozovyi, Sin Pepe (Pink Ice, Pink Satin), Sverkhrannii, and Vina have not as of Feb. 3. So in my hands AC Sweet seems to be one most likely to break dormancy with mild winter weather. Note these are in pots at the moment and am not testing them in freezing temps just yet as they are young. More mature trees I am told are more cold resistant to cold than young ones. AC Sweet leafed out in temps of 40-50f degrees where I am storing them.
The other issue is the plants going dormant in time for cold weather in the fall. We on occasion get early frost some years around Nov. 1 periodically. As temps started to drop in the fall before freezes hit I had some that went dormant faster than others. That included Texas Pink, Sin Pepe, and Vina which dropped leaves mid to late Oct. AC Sweet, Desertnyi, and Sirenevyi started going dormant in November. We did have a freeze in November but as they are young I brought them in to protect them from it then put them back out.
No idea if this pattern will continue with age but thought I would put this out there.
I am especially impressed with the selection of pear scion wood you are offering, sadly I have already made all the orders for this year that I can. In a few years my 3rd rootstock should be ready to be grafted to. I will buy from your company then.
I’m having good fruiting responses from all the pomegranate trees that are old enough now. I have more seedlings from all these trees. This year I did a test and gave my trees no protection in zone 6b/7a. They are all still alive. I seem to have better luck than people in zone 8 because in zone 6 and 7 the winteres do not warm up enough for the trees to come out of dormancy until it really is ready to be spring. Additionally the lack of humidity makes them more cold hardy than those in a humid zone 8. The humidity certainly weakens them severely. Pomegranates love the American Southwest. I’m adding several more varieties for trialing along with my seedlings. One seedling produced a fruit last year.
The latest two seedlings to leaf out started about April 3rd, the other best two about March 30th and the rest about March 25th. It looks like 2 of the seedlings leaf about about a week after the parent which is better than I expected. Maybe after 2 more generations I can get one that will make it to our average last frost date of April 15th.
We have a possible freeze or frost tonight so it should be interesting to see how all of them do.
I haven’t noticed this with pomegranates, but with my asian persimmons I’ve noticed that my more mature trees leaf out earlier than the younger trees, even if they’re the same cultivar grafted to the same type of rootstock (American persimmon seedlings). There does seem to be some variation between different cultivars in terms of when they leaf out, but the general age of the tree seems to be a more significant factor. Not sure if that would be the same for pomegranates, but I thought it might be helpful to mention as you compare. My pomegranates seem to be the most sensitive to frost damage of all my fruit trees and unfortunately very prone to waking up too early for central NC.
Based on two years of those best two and the next best two being about the same time after the parent and all of the other 50 seedlings, which are small also but match the parent’s ealier leafing out time, especially the latest two seem to have something special. Only time will tell though!
