I’m in 7b, southern MD, and I’ve become obsessed with the idea of growing pomegranates. I’ll get into more about all the ideas and plans I’ve been working on and I have lots of questions, but for now I have a situation I could use some thoughts on.
A couple months ago, before thinking things through, I ordered a couple of small Parfianka plants from CA (in my defense it was in the 60s when i placed the order ). They arrived with one visibly starting to break dormancy in the beginning of an unusually long period of below freezing temps.
My choices were to put it in the very detached garage during extended temps in the teens, or put it in an unheated room upstairs that sits in the high 50s. I chose the latter and removed the one set of little leaflets that had sprouted and have been giving it some time outside when it was upper 30s to 50s, hoping it would decide to go back to sleep.
Well now they are both definitely waking up. My plan was originally to plant after the last frost, but that’s probably a solid month and a half away. The pots they arrived in are too small. I put grow lights on them yesterday.
I’m trying to decide if it’s best to either:
up pot them now and then plant in the spring
up pot them now and wait until next spring to put them in the ground
wait the 6ish weeks and just put them in the ground
Or
put them in the ground now and put a cheap portable greenhouse over them
I’m not sure what will give them the best odds of success longterm. Obviously none of these are ideal.
Does anyone have any thoughts or advice from experience they can share?
Also, they’re in a 6" pot. If I do up pot them longer term, is it better to go bigger now or step the size up as they grow?
I’d recommend making sure they are potted in well draining media, giving them water, and limiting light exposure. Darkness will keep them asleep longer.
About 2 weeks before you expect the weather is favorable for low frost risk, begin giving them light if needed to recover from etoliation.
My figs usually have very light green etoliated leaves by the time they make it outside in the spring and I put them in shaded locations and only have them in direct sunlight for a little bit to start, increasing exposure as appropriate. Pomegranates love heat and don’t like constantly saturated soil. Keep that in mind for soil in their final location. Good luck!
Given your location, I recommend you check out the series of posts by @PomGranny. I’ll also point out that Parfianka requires more degree days to ripen fruit than you have available.
Yes I know this cultivar is a stretch. I have a couple of spots near the south side of my house planned for them. Multiple sources claim they do well here, but I’ve since seen other information indicating otherwise. I have a number of other varieties I’m trying to root from cuttings or have ordered rooted cuttings of, and a few are stretches for fun, but most I’ve selected for purported cold hardiness and early ripening.
@MDPoms
Once or twice I’ve read about a pomegranate cultivar not hardy to 5°F. Consequently I think of “cold hardy” pomegranates as a cultivar the doesn’t die back to the ground in zone 6.
Looking for shorter season is good for your location. But looking for lower degree days is better. I have a very long growing season but I’m also relatively low on degree days. Consider trials with the J. Chater variety “Eversweet” and G. Levin’s “Soft Seeded Pink”.
Thanks very much for the recommendations. I will look for those two next. I have been curious about Eversweet, but hadn’t seen much information about it; at least not about performance in cooler climates. I haven’t seen Soft Seeded Sweet offered anywhere that I can recall, but then again I wasn’t looking for it specifically. I’ve just started reading Dr. Levin’s manuscript.
Unfortunately there is not a good centralized source of reliable information about cultivars that I have found. Do you know of any resources for degree day requirements you could point me to?
I am currently trying to root cuttings of the following, all sourced from Planting Justice, except Afganski and Wonderful. The Afganski cuttings are from a 5 year old tree that’s producing fruit that is apparently also ripening in NJ:
I’ve only had Wonderful and Eversweet from the store. “Wonderful” seemed ironically named to me, Eversweet was pretty good.
I planted Sverkhranniy this past year in SE PA suburbs. It seems to still be alive. It grew pretty well. I got it in semi-dormant last year from OGW and decided to grow light → South window like two or three months before it was going to be able to go outside. It was a pain in the ass. It looks like you have a better lighting setup to take care of it than I did.
@MDPoms I am in Chesapeake VA, Zone 8A-8B . I am right near Virginia Beach and have probably around 15 varieties growing. Only several have consistently fruited. And, for the last few years, it seems that I don’t have a long enough growing season for Wonderful to mature fully.
I’ve stated many many times - that Granada seems to be the most reliable for me - and ripens before Wonderful . . . so it has a chance. I should qualify that statement with . . . IF it doesn’t get hit with the disease issue that my fruit has.
I’ve had some Hotuni Zigars, some Phoenicias, and a few KajAcikAnor. Also beautiful Nikitski Ranni and Purple Heart (AKA Sharp Velvet).
The Phoenicias that ripened early and escaped being totally annihilated by the fungus - were good. Quite tart. But good. Phoenicia has a thicker rind than the others - and I think that helps it deter the fungus a bit better.
It’s heartbreaking (although I’m getting used to the let down) that the fruit starts out looking soooo promising. And then - FUNGUS hits.
There are some on your list that I am not familiar with. But I do know that Austin requires more heat than I get here. I pulled it out. I had Agat (it died. And it has HORRID spikes, so I don’t miss it), Lyubimi AKA Favorite (everyone seems to have a different spelling) , Suhr Anor, Sumbar, Sweet and the 2 supposedly extremely cold hardy Afganski and Salavatski. No fruit from any of these can dodge the fungal bullet.
One winter my Wonderful - which is the most established of all my trees - died back to almost nothing. But . . . it rose from the dead! And . . . never brought another decent piece of fruit to maturity! LOL
Richard, Do you think that a pomegranate ‘shrub’ could do well - and escape the fungal disease issues - IF raised in a greenhouse (or covered) setting? Would that prevent it from catching the dreaded rot???
Karen,
First I want to thank you for your outstanding write-up.
Thinking about the rotten time you’ve had with pomegranates … consider their evolution in what was a semi-arid environment. After all your trials, I guess we should have anticipated they’d have trouble with biology not present in ancestral Anatolia. As you found out, they make perfect hosts for the tiniest members of the plant world. Controlling it is difficult at best.
But then there’s John Chater (Sr.) who was determined to have pomegranates in the long season but low degree day environment of Ventura CA. He bred them (along with a few other fruits) for his climate. It was a long process but he succeeded. There are 3 resulting pomegranates, “Eversweet” being the best.
So perhaps someone will be inspired to follow in John’s footsteps – but on the Atlantic seaboard. Whomever takes up this task should pay close attention to the performance of cultivars in your write-up above.
BTW, J. Chater’s grandson became impressed with grandpa’s work at a young age. He is also named John Chater and went on to earn a PhD in Plant Sciences from UC Davis. Of course his dissertation concerns Pomegranates! Nowadays he is employed at IFAS.
I might have a spare ‘Soft Seeded Pink’ that I could give you, I will not know until the leaves grow back this spring.
I will also be getting another variety within the next few years that requires few degree days, that very few people have. That I could send you, I will most likely be sent more cuttings of it than I need. It’s a variety called ‘Belbek’.
I second the recommendation of ‘Kaj-Acik’ that one is producing in ground in NYC. It requires about as much degree days as ‘Belbek’.
My mistake. I jumbled the cultivars as I was responding. I read that thread you linked and it seems Ross acquired materials or a plant and has Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi growing in PA. I found a recent video on YouTube he made and he says it seems to be resistant to anthracnose compared to Parfianka in particular, which is exciting.
I reached out to him via his website to see if he would be willing to sell cuttings.
It’s interesting that Wonderful was not selected for fresh eating given it is most of what is grown and sold commercially. I’ve seen pomegranates labeled “SweetHeart” and “Juicy Gems” sold in grocery stores but haven’t been able to find any information on what cultivars they actually are. I emailed the Juicy Gems headquarters but did not receive a response.
In any case, I don’t have much hope for the Wonderful cuttings anyway, as they arrived mostly dried out and very thick. If they don’t root, I won’t bother to try again.
Yeah, I forget which store I saw it, but I did a doubletake when I saw it and picked one off the cardboard sign/shelf thing. Didn’t know anything about it at the time other than it was a different, non-Wonderful variety.
Thanks so much for your reply and all of your experiences! I’ve read quite a few of your posts before finally signing up here. I believe it was your posts that made me decide to attempt Grenada/ Granada in the first place.
I saw this video andhttps://youtu.be/xGkmmlKtUBU?si=F3QAn5Y7ggptBK0S it sounds like Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi is appearing to be resistant to the fungal disease plaguing some of his other cultivars in PA. I assume no one is culturing the fungus and I’m very uninformed on fungal disease in plants so forgive my ignorance, but is the fungal disease he is seeing in PA likely the same as what you are seeing in VA?
Have you tried growing Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi there?
Also has anyone tried Makedonia/Greek Red in this area that you’re aware of? I’ll do a search for that on my end as well.
I saw a piece on the grandson but did not realize his grandfather developed Eversweet to suit his climate. I have been trying to find resources on pomegranate breeding.
I saw this video awhile back and will have to rewatch it, but Dr. Dixit with the University of Maryland Extension’s Bay Area Fruit School is studying the prospect of growing pomegranates on the eastern shore. I’m not sure if he mentioned breeding in his presentation, but I will dig around on their website and likely reach out to him directly to see what he is working on currently and if I can be of assistance on my farm here in southern MD.
My educational background is in computer science and this is my first foray into fruit, so I’m not sure how realistic pomegranate breeding is for a layperson, but I’m interested in finding out more.
I would be very interested in purchasing cuttings from both and/or a spare plant if you would be willing. I know I read about someone growing Belbek on another (pomegranate specific) forum, but that is all I think I’ve seen about that one. It is another one that I don’t believe I’ve seen being sold in online nurseries.
Very few people have ‘Belbek’, and many nurseries originally get the pomegranate varieties that they sell from the usda National Plant Germplasm, and they never had ‘Belbek’.
). They arrived with one visibly starting to break dormancy in the beginning of an unusually long period of below freezing temps.
… consider their evolution in what was a semi-arid environment. After all your trials, I guess we should have anticipated they’d have trouble with biology not present in ancestral Anatolia. As you found out, they make perfect hosts for the tiniest members of the plant world. Controlling it is difficult at best.
?