I am in Zone 7b, Just South of Atlanta. It’s 8a nowadays I think.
Casualties were Svrerikranny, Parfianka, and Medovyi Vasha.
Suhr Anor did well and is coming back from the roots very well. I moved it as well after this winter. I almost pulled it up, but my experience with my hardy citrus made me wait. They looked dead and came back strong as well.
I gave Salavatski to a friend and it did well from all accounts but she left it in a container and neglect did it in.
I tried to chose for production as well, so I’m only picking the hardy ones that are known for good production (Suhr Anor, Nikitski Ranni, and Al Sarin Nar). I don’t have room for a plant that gives me 1 or 2 poms a year…
Nataki, you and I are probably in closely similar weather areas. I’m in central SC, outside of Columbia, near a large lake. Summer temps in this area have been running a good 5 degrees above the “official” Columbia temps taken at the airport. Atlanta may be “HotLanta”, but we run a bit warmer here year round. I don’t know how closely your own area matches Atlanta’s conditions. The terrain around there can make a difference between one small area and another. I think @Chris_in_GA is just north of Atlanta. I could be mistaken.
Still, our growing conditions are not far different. I wonder if yours are close enough that survivability could hinge on which side of a hill, whether there were windbreaks, structures that provided heat sinks, or even the maturity of the plants. How old were your plants? Did you have any varieties that survived well?
I’d love to hear about your hardy citrus experiences, as well. But we should make a new thread to talk about those.
Hey Matt, like @manfromyard I lost Parfianka and Madovyi Vasha. Also one Kazake died, but I think the deer did it in - it came back from the roots but then the deer munched the shoots. Everything else at least came back. Austin barely came back but I had just put it in the previous year; all the others are going strong. Oh I think Angel Red is also finally dead, it has been heading that way for some time. It and Parfianka are not even worth trying unless you are in zone 8 or higher.
@manfromyard, did you give the Salavatski away because you didn’t think it would be productive or was it some other reason? I had never heard about it being productive or not, but that would be good to know.
I have one I got as a gallon plant last fall and I put it in the ground this spring after giving it protection in an unheated crawl space for the winter. Besides some wilting at the tips on hot days in its first few months in the ground it seems to be doing pretty well and surprised me with about a half dozen blooms. I don’t know if it will carry fruit, but at least this one bloom is showing some promise. I also put a Kazake in the ground, but plan to keep my Parfianka, Desertny, Kara Bala Murisal and Vkuznyi in 15 gallon soft pots and putting them in the garage every winter. I also have some other varieties started as cuttings, but I’m not sure how they’ll do here. None of the others have bloomed, so I wonder what triggered the Salavatski.
Here is the Salavatski planted against the edge of a retaining wall which i hope will help buffer it in winter.
At the time, I was trying for soft seeded pomegranates. Salavatski is one of the harder seeded ones , plus it has average production, so I gave it away. After the soft seeded ones died, I moved the Suhr Anor to a better spot. If I was going to get another one, it would probably be Nikitski Ranni. If I’m confined to harder seeded varieties, I might as well go for productive ones, because average production at Wolfskill means below average production in Humid Georgia…
From reports I’d read it seems for our area further north, only Salavatski and Kazake are more likely to make it through the winters and no guarantees with them either. But maybe I should consider the Nikitski Ranni as well.
I have 8 or so varieties and besides the very sensitive soft-seeded ones the rest have been fairly similar: they are all good in a mild winter and all die back in a bad one. There are slight differences but not huge. Kazake was doing well but as the plants got bigger I had problems with the buds all dying in spring, its as if they start budding out too early and die in the freeze. Note that all my non-soft seeded varieties are touted as hardy ones, its probably not worth growing the ones not known as hardy.
Its not just the lowest low so its hard to say precisely. Many days with highs below freezing and strong winds on some of the coldest days. My lowest low is usually in the 2-5F range. The last two years were in that range, and the previous ten were also, but the last two had many more very cold days.
I may get out my covers this winter, I’m getting a little tired of the dieback on figs and poms.
I have three still fairly small (under a foot) seedlings in the ground here in 6b PA. I don’t know the varieties, unless Bass happens to recall what kinds of seeds he was passing out at talks 2ish years ago, but the parents have at least proven that they can fruit in the general area.
What should I do to protect them come winter? 2 are fairly close to the house, one is not.
In 6B they probably need to be covered every year. My favorite cover is to make tents out of aluminum bubble wrap insulation, put it together with a stapler. These covers are much more effective than just wrapping it with burlap. I used it on my poms several years ago and I never lost a single shoot.
Well, I have a discouraging pomegranate report. All of my 8 varieties survived the winter with temps down to 9 degrees and began leafing out in the spring. Then came the April freeze that wiped out my peach crop. The late freeze killed my 4 year old Salavatski, and 2 year old Sverhrannii, Saartuzki, Kazake, and Kaj-Acik-Anor. I may have contributed to the Salavatski death by doing some spring pruning prior to the freeze. All my varieties are advertised as being somewhat cold hardy but pomegranates apparently are quite susceptible to a spring freeze below 28-29 after the trees have leafed out. It seems like the only hope for long term survival in my area is growing them in pots.
Chris, ouch! The end of March freeze was bad enough. I didn’t realize you got hit with a one two punch by getting another in April after they completely broke dormancy. That hurts!
Have had a dozen or so of the purportedly ‘cold-hardy’ poms in the ground here in KY for a number of years. Kazake & Salavatski had grown most vigorously, and had the least winter die-back of the bunch.
Winter just past, however, killed them all,outright, so far as I can tell; not just back to the ground.
I’d not thought it any worse than recent winters, though we did get more snow than usual… but there were no pear blossoms, no blueberry blossoms, Kiowa blackberries were killed back to the snowline, very sparse, spotty apple crop.
Matt, I have harvested few pomegranates. Some I only recently planted and the others got hit by the last two bad winters just as they were starting to fruit. Only Salavatski and Kazake have fruited much. Kazake has been the most reliable.
I need to decide if I am going to cover them this winter, at least it would get the smaller ones a chance to grow more up to size. My general interest in poms has taken a big hit with the last two winters. So while it would help to cover them I lack the motivation to do it.
My Russian and Phils Sweet both seem to have died at the roots from the cold. The top lived and leafed out but them wilted and died, nothing ever grew back from the roots. My red silk which is the only pom I have that was mostly unaffected by the cold decided to start blooming now, mid August.
My Kazake died back badly (no new growth until second week of August). Of the 2 varieties I had in the ground it is the only one to survive the past two winters. My lows are usually just below zero, but these last two I have seen around -12 on multiple nights. I put those spring up plastic woven caps on them, but I also packed with leaves which I will not repeat as my biggest problems also appear to be mold/mildew caused rotting.
I have a couple in pots and one of them bloomed heavily this year, but nothing formed as there was no pollinator for it.
When I had a single pomegranate it set fruit with no others around. The set wasn’t heavy compared to the number of blooms, but it was a decent amount for the plant to carry and continue to grow.
If your plant is still young, it might be better for it long term if it doesn’t expend effort ripening fruit, but if it’'s large enough, you could try frequent hand pollination and see if that works for you.
I am not finding Pomegranate as hardy as Fig, and not as likley to come back from freeze to ground After 2 winters of 0F Kazke was the only one of 5 cultivars to come back. Even Salavatski failed to come back, but they were on a completely exposed windy location. I have been sizing up about 30 cultivar in pots garaged for a couple years and this year I planted most out, in a less windy some what protected location, and hoping for no single digits
