This year is such a weird one. In so many ways.
We had blooms covering our big pomegranate trees . . . most fell off and I don’t see much fruit setting.
Perhaps I should have done some hand fertilizing . . . but I have not so far. These plants usually bloom for a long time, so maybe I still have a chance. Fungus. I have sprayed copper and Immunox. I have some Indar. Might try that. It doesn’t seem to have one fix.
I could open a fungicide pop-up, with all the stuff I’ve bought over the past few years.
The stinkin’ diseases that these pomegranates get are tough to keep at bay. And there just is no magic cure. (Except moving to CA, Iran, Israel or Afghanistan) Any takers???
We put up a high tunnel last year and it’s amazing how much faster and more disease free things grow in it. I’m trying a couple of pomegranates in it to see how they do, though I’m not optimistic.
@hobilus That sounds really great. Disease is ‘creepy’ tho . . . literally. It will creep in almost no matter what. I hope the tunnel works for you. Keep us posted.
Here is an update, so far the single fruit on the Surh Anor looks good. Eversweet looks to be setting two fruit, but too early to tell if they will hang on.
Freaky Development with Pomegranate Fungus
We had loads of blooms, but few fruit sets this year. Last year there must have been (a guess) 60 or so - on the Granada in my landscaping. Wonderful, right next to it, didn’t do well. They take longer to develop and seem harder to ‘fruit’. Very susceptible to rot.
This year, even with all the blooms - I’d say there are 15 fruits on the Granada - tops. However there are a handful developing on the Wonderful. Don’t know if they will mature or not.
Out in the field, where most of my pomegranate trees reside . . . hardly any fruit on the more tender varieties. Some of the more cold hardy have fruit developing with just a bit of fungus so far.
We did something different this year. Don’t know if the lack of fungus is because of it - or not. My husband did a lot of Japanese beetle hunting with Dawn and water in his sprayer. Kills the bugs. Seems to keep the fungus in check as well. He concentrated on spraying the developing calyxes, because that is where the beetles like to burrow and hide. I don’t know, for sure, if it was the Dawn . . . but can’t think of what else it could have been ??? because I was lax with my spray schedule this spring.
Dawn. Seems to be a miracle cure for many things. Maybe it will crack the code on pomegranate rot!
Harvesting early, before the fruit is fully developed - not a good idea. Sorry for your ‘rot’ problems. It’s such a shame. And because the fruit takes so long to develop . . . it has a lot of opportunity to ‘get rotten’. Many of mine are doing the same thing. I’m considering pulling out everything except for 2 or 3 varieties. Too much work for too little success.
I only have one variety left, Salvatski. It has half a dozen fruits this year and a few look rot free at this point. If I ever get a decent fruit set I will spray, but it doesn’t seem worth spraying with only a couple fruits.
From my experience, no. They are not true. They can self pollinate, but still can be different from the parent. I have 2 grown from seeds that are able to fruits. One of them have yellow outer appearance this year and white seeds from the previous year. It’s different from the parent. The size quality have improved this year. It’s much bigger than past year and mature faster. The yellow skin is something I observed this year. I heavy prune them last winter for the first time and could be the reason why the fruit got bigger. Base on the size so far, I think they can ripped in September. I hope the taste changed since they are more mature. So far, they tasted nothing like the parent from the previous year.
My big Surh Anor was no good. The rot got worse so I picked it early, wasn’t on the tree long enough to develop sweetness. I had a lot of eversweet set fruit, but most of them rotted. One left on eversweet and I am eager to pick it !
Look like your Pom need another month to ripen. So hold on and pray for that one Pom that’s left. Yeah, I got the end rot on my Pom here. There was only 2 on that tree and both have to be picked early. Tasted sour with a small hint of sweet. Just when it started to turn red and the seed starting to turn pink the bacteria that stayed dormant in Spring must have activated during the ripening process.
I still have hope because my other Pom tree has 5 fruits and this one will probably ripen in October. Finger cross for a sweet Pom.
Hey, It looks great! I have had good success using 3 low doses of NAA to prevent fruit drop. I have an outside salavatski with 24 baseball sized fruits this year.
I check on these pomegranate threads every once in a while hoping to hear someone has solved the rot issue, but it doesn’t seem so. I never had a drop problem here in Arlington, VA (7A) when I had poms, but gave up from all the rot issues. In 5 years of growing them, I probably harvested 5 pieces of fruit from 6 plants, including a Salavatski and Kazake that were in the ground and 10-12 feet tall. Hyrdanar X Goulosha, a semi-dwarf, that I had in a 10 gallon pot was the most successful and seemed the most resistant to the rot, but it wasn’t tasty enough ripened here to make it worth the space.
At the very least they make very nice ornamental shrubs. For now I’ll continue growing them, but maybe in the future I’ll replace them with more reliable fruits.
My outside grown Salavatski in a 10 gallon pot has 25 baseball sized fruits. There is only mild fungal damage. I have not opened one up yet but will in two more weeks when ripe. I have done 2 things to help with fungal issues. I have espallied the plant on a bamboo trellis to face 100% south and I have sprayed it about 4 times with tbs/gallon sulfur. I also used NAA to prevent fruit drop.
