Was away for 2 weeks look what I found.
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Wow! What beauties! I didn’t realize that Salavatski had yellow skin! I put my ‘vatskies’ in last spring. A lot of nice growth - standing a bit over waist high - but I probably won’t see fruit for several more years. How did they taste???
They tasted great! Lots of juice but the seeds are a bit harder than a Wonderful. Although, I do chew them up and eat them. Overall, we are very happy with the fruit.
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Pomegranate seeds = GOOD fiber! 
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I received 3 pom varieties from the latest CRFG scion exchange here in San Diego and I’m i the process of trying to root them. I’m starting to get limited on space, but do have a spot near the house along one wall. How invasive are the roots? Almost everyone is on a slab out here, so no basement and the water pipes run through the front yards.
How close can I put a tree to the house?
Thanks!
And maby good oil…
‘Salavatski’ is said to have red skin when ripe, yet they technically very in color from fruit to fruit, you could have both red and yellow skinned pomegranates from the same tree, that you picked on the same day, and all be fully ripe.
Here is a photo of some Salavatski Fruit (photo credit Treesofjoy.com)
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The roots of a pomegranate bush are tap roots, which means that they grow more aggressively down than forward and than upwards, I’d be more worried about giving the bushes enough space to grow than the roots being a problem.
My sisters have a few pomegranate trees in LA, California. The oldest one has surface roots, but they are more than 10 feet from the house. You may find something useful in these articles about the root system. Also, please note that planting fruit trees too close to the wall may cause ants and rats problems.
http://www.madaboutberries.com/pomegranate/how-to-grow-pomegranate-trees-in-containers.html
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Thank you both for the information! If I do end up putting the poms near the house, I should be able to keep them at a decent distance from the house.
Yes tap roots all do grow outwards some, even though they prefer growing downward, that is why they are normally not that invasive, then again roots do tend to be magnets to the type of things that are in a septic tank, and that to some extent come out of a septic tank. I never did think about the possibility of ants or rats/mice. We never grow any fruit trees near a house ourselves, yet a lot of people do. I never noticed them complaining about ants or rodent problems in their house because of it, yet it does make sense.
Most of the lots in socal are small so people will plant trees very close to the house. We had cement walks next to the walls around the house, but with time and earthquake they cracked and the ants came in. I don’t care about the ants or other creatures in the yard, only when they get into the house. Same as my neighbors, my brothers and sisters have the yard sprayed many times a year as a necessity. Because my children have allergy problems I don’t want to use chemicals, and I only worked part time so I can fix around the house using grouting to block the ant and rat entrance. It is amazing how they get in. The ants are here year round for water source, but the tree rats mostly come for citrus and they will get in the attic if there is a small hole. We had a new roof and had the attic sealed last spring so I only have to work around the foundation. A few weeks ago, after fixing all the cement around the bottom inside the garage there is no ants in the house now. They used to come in from the floor or the ceiling, because I have the electric repeller system on the wiring system so they don’t stay inside the walls. In case of emergency, masking tape or small amount of pure cornstarch baby powder at the hole will stop them instantly, until I have the time to fix.
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Every year we find ants indoors for a few weeks and we plant no plants that attract them near our house. I think when outdoors has little food for them they come indoors to look. Usually the only other things they do to bother us is steal a few of our figs, get in to the dirt of our plant pots, or go in bags of soil.
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You are so lucky. That was like twenty years ago when they came in after a heavy rain, and would disappear two days after, so I just waited patiently for them to leave. With the drought the last few years , not only at my house, they would show up at sinks in the bathrooms and kitchen, through the electrical outlets. They are all over the open hills. The owner across the street has an attachment to the garden hose for spraying. They have no fruit trees, only palms, lawn, and native bushes. They are not fire ants so I just clean up the yard and keep them away from the house. To protect the fruiting trees, I wrap heavy masking tape around the trunk and put on petroleum jelly. The main thing is to not have any branches touching the wall of the house, and look at the walls, bottom to top, everyday to catch any ant lines going into the walls from the yard. Baby powder and drawing thick chalk lines don’t work in the rain, or when it is windy, and the roly poly eats the corn starch I have relatives from San Jose to San Diego, they have the same problem and it is getting very bad. They need multiple sprays to stop them on each invasion. Whenever I am sick and can’t do the fixing in time, I put a little Terro on a small lid right next to the ant line for a day and then remove it. The first time I used that and put out a large amount, when I came back there were all kind of ants, big and small going in from the hillside below, it was horrifying. One of my brothers uses the exterminator service and they can only guarantee ant-free for a short time after.
Yes, heavy rain interferes with ant prevention. I got some kelp powder to prevent slugs destroying our plants and I read that it also stops ants. Yet with heavy rain it would likely wash away as well. Actual kelp leaves would be way too expensive for me. I don’t live near a beach with any type of seaweed.
We use borax inside when we see them inside that seems to help keep the population down some.
Borax is the active ingredient in Terro. I tried different online recipes using borax but somehow the ants like Terro better. I use very little so it doesn’t cost much.