I have a question that perhaps you can help me
answer.
Why are 2 of the 3 trunks on my sverkhrainniy pomegranate tree still not leafing out yet? All the branches attached to these two trunks are still dormant, despite the fact that all the branches associated with the third trunk have been leafing out for 10 days.
Is it safe to assume we can rule out cold damage? I’m located in zone 9a, very nearly 8b, and our low this winter was 26 F. Is that still cold enough to possibly stunt the tree? I have 6 other pomegranate trees and all of them are leafing out fully.
Any insight you may have will be much appreciated. At this point I’m trying to brainstorm, see if other people have encountered a problem like this that resolved itself. Perhaps the tree being young, only 3 years old, has something to do with it?
I moved them inside for the freeze night. Otherwise, they’ve been happy outside being somewhat neglected. How are all of your cuttings from the random productive tree you found?
I just started a thread about rooting pomegranates and put an update in there, but out of 9 started, I have leaves on 7 and visible roots on 2 so far. I just started them about a month ago.
I’m really interested in finding a way out of the humidity dome(bag, in my case) trap I seem to have found myself in, so I might try the parafilm wrapping on my next batch. Have to had any issues with mold forming under the wrap? How long have they been going?
Hey Maryland pommers @MDPoms@Eme ! I’m also in Maryland. I’ve grown maybe a dozen varieties in the last 15 years and I somewhat gave up, they die back every 5 years or so and it got me frustrated… just when they are going to fruit a lot they die back and its back to square one. Also the fruit rot and need to be sprayed if you want to avoid that. The variety that worked the best for me is Salavatski. Last year I got one fruit that didn’t rot, it was yummy! I’m going to try to remember to spray this year. Assuming they didn’t die back that is, my figs mostly died back after this last pretty-bad winter and often the poms follow the figs. @MDPoms good luck with that plant you found, maybe its a winner!
Ugh, so sorry to hear you’ve had such frustrations. I have no idea what variety this is, but the color of the fruit in the photo doesn’t look like Salavatski to me.
And they were picking it in early September! I don’t know what varieties might have been on the market in local nurseries 10 years ago, do you? In any case, if it thrives on neglect and produces an abundance of fruit, we will definitely have a winner .
Have you tried any foliar feeding sprays for your pomegranates? I listened to some Orchard People podcasts this week about increasing plant health and resistance to disease and pests through addressing nutritional deficiencies, but I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of those topics.
And, yes, this winter was brutal. I hope all your plants pulled through.
This is certainly the theme I found reading this thread. I don’t have any delusions about being able to easily produce rot-free fruit, but I love pomegranate too much not to try.
The only poms I have seen in local nurseries are things that would never make it, like Wonderful. September is super early, no pom I ever fruited was that early. I don’t do anything to my poms, no sprays at all. I’m also not the biggest fan of foliar sprays in general, I have done some but didn’t notice much difference.
@Eme definitely give it a go, maybe you will have a particularly good spot for them. luck is a big factor.
I don’t really know what causes it, but I’ve always blamed cold damage. I have a 12 year old Wonderful pomegranate in zone 9a that dies/doesn’t wake up down to ground level. It always produces suckers and grows back, but it’s never made it above 3 ft.
This year my winter low was 23.7f, and I had no dieback my Wonderful or my new Parfianka.
It’s probably just cold shock, I see it in different kinds of plants, when they get shocked by cold, the leaves come back very slowly, one area at a time.
I have found my Salavatski to be very rot resistant as well, yet I have seen people say that it has been a fruit rot problem for them, one of their least disease resistant. Fungal diseases can be so confusing.
Thats wild, the wonderful (supposedly it was early purchase from a non reputable nursery now I know) nor either of my other two (with a few grafts on them) has ever had any dieback. They bloom sparingly in spring but push heavier blooms in summer.
I got a “Russian Pomegranate” from TyTy (yes, I know better now) and it survived a week of temps in the single digits in middle TN zone 7a. Only had maybe an inch die back on 1-2 shoots. I was impressed.
I tried looking up “Russian Pomegranate.” Its seems there are quite a few. Any idea which particular one this could be?
@jsteph00921
I have the same situation with a couple of the varieties that I’m growing. And I don’t know what the answer is. I’ve had an entire trunk of a multi-trunked tree just ‘give up the ghost’. For no apparent reason. And I have dormant sections of trees that will eventually show signs of life - but remain hold outs for quite some time . . . ‘playing dead’. Who knows why? Hotuni Zigar and Kai Acik Anor are guilty of this. I’ve had to remove entire trunks of both of these. And now they are lopsided. But, when those 2 varieties produce fruit . . . the fruit is great!
Like Alan . . . my Salavatski and my Afghanskis - Rot Magnets! And it’s so disappointing, because they have numerous fruits to begin with . . . but eventually they succumb to the dreaded fungus. (fungi?) We just watch them turn black . . . and pull them off a soon as we’re sure ‘they’re done for’.
That’s fascinating. I wonder if there are other species of tree that do this two. How long do you think I should wait for them to wake up before I just lop them off? I suppose I could make this into a single trunk tree.
I also wanted to ask you what is the earliest pomegranate that you grow? I’m kind of in a unique situation being so far north. Despite being a zone 9, pomegranates that ripen after early November are not great for fruit production. I get ripe fruit from the cultivar Favorite around Halloween. I’m grateful for that, but would prefer to grow pomegranates that ripen in early October while the warm weather is still around. Every 5th year our rains will start earlier than normally and that would probably keep the Favorite from ripening.
I find storm surge to not be real haha (just kidding kind of) but that’s a different discussion. I definitely don’t understand it.
But yes most older homes were built as „Beach boxes” (like a small 800-1000 sqft on pilings) then over the years build a second floor on ground level. The last major flood event (I would not call it major as it’s not rushing water and drains quickly) was 2003. My house is at 18ft above sea level somehow and it hasn’t ever flooded to my knowledge. But our house fits my description of a beach box which had a ground floor added many years later.
Yeah my loquat stays happy, I have to prune it very often, it pushes growth for about 10-11 months out of the year. It also has the most sun I can provide for it in my yard. Prime spot for the quat
Evacuations are rare, but I’ve never evacuated. Now I’d consider it having the little one, but it would all depend upon the storm. Most people evacuate here, go to Raleigh, get flooded and become stuck there. While we are fine, maybe a short power outage. So it’s hard to evacuate unless you’re making it very far away and my work doesn’t really allow me to be gone too long as I’m almost always working the day before/of and after a storm. It’s just something you become accustomed to pretty quickly.
So you are growing a wonderful around Crescent City? Those are late ripening, right? I’ve mostly chosen to grow early or mid season fruit. I wish I could grow the late season pomegranates because you can’t beat Wonderful’s fruit.
The Russian variety I get a yield from is called Favorite. It produces rather large fruit that have a nice balance of sweet and tart. The tree itself is very robust and experiences no dieback. Even the epic cold snap in January 2024 didn’t hurt it, despite remaining below freezing for nearly 60 hours.
Someone else who responded to my comment said they have a few pomegranate varieties that sometimes won’t wake up all at once. Some branches will stay sleeping for a month longer.
I had suspected cold to be the culprit, but I opened some buds under the microscope and they look totally healthy. If those branches don’t wake up by the end of May I’ll remove them and make it a single trunk tree instead.
It varies . . . as to which ones ripen first. I think perhaps Nikitski Ranni. ?
I’m bad at keeping those kinds of records, so I’m just going from what I recall. And perhaps Hotuni Zigar and KajAcikAnor ? Granada ripens before Wonderful. But that is usually in late October / through November.
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