One quick update… I have one in-ground Nikitski Ranni (aka Crimson Sky, AKA R19) Pomegranate here is northern VA, zone 7a. This is its third year in the ground and it produced one ripe pomegranate that I just picked a couple days ago. There was a very little bit of rot at the very bottom of the fruit but none of the rot had penetrated inside the fruit itself.
The quality of the juice was high, deep red with nice sweetness and quite a bit of acidity. The seeds were fairly large and hard but not inedible.
Hopefully next year I will get a larger crop. The bush grew quite a bit this year.
