For all the pomegranate updates. Feels weird putting them in 2025. Here are some cuttings starting to leaf out from bottom left and moving counterclockwise: surh anor, Myatadzhy, Ariana, Vkusnyi (still asleep).
Adding that I know I left the cuttings too long…I did it in a rush and didn’t stop to think about it until they started leafing out. I plan to brush off lower node leaves in hopes they don’t run out of steam.
Your cuttings are fine. Patience is required for root formation from pomegranate cuttings. You might have a significant number of shoots by then.
Pomegranates are large shrubs. You can attempt to grow them as trees, but it will require multiple prunings per year, esp. branches that emerge from whatever has been trained as the trunk, and roots suckers as well.
All natural cultivars of Pomegranate evolved in semi-arid environments. They are consequently susceptible to airborne fungi in your region. To date, only marginal control has been achieved with pesticides.
Thank you for the information. It certainly sounds like an uphill battle for little reward over here, and I wish I wasn’t fully obsessed and determined to try!
I sympathize with your desire. Many growers have gone before you. Also, with similar zeal, I’ve tried three separate times to grow European black currents, each time lasting 2+ years. The environment here, including local diseases, is not suitable. In fact, I still have other fruiting plants “on trial” here, having replaced previous gross failures.
I finally started checking all my plants, both in ground and potted, to see how they all fared over winter. I was truly afraid to check given this was the most brutal winter I think I’ve ever seen.
8/8 in ground survived with little to no die back. I did not provide any protection until a day or 2 before the awful “snowcrete” storm. A friend and I rushed to cover them with feed bags stuffed with straw and rather haphazardly (one of 2 mini orchards pictured).
So they all made it through one 13 degree night without protection and lots of sustained sub 20 temps prior to and after that storm. I believe our low while they were covered was 8 degrees. I uncovered them as soon as temps were back above 15 reliably and I could get to them without ice skates. Varieties in ground are: Uzbek, White, Kaj-Acik-Anor, Parfianka x2, Azadi, Sverkhranniy, Sirenevyi
I have dozens upon dozens in pots (rooted cuttings as young as late last year through 2 years) and of the ones I’ve checked, most have done exceptionally well with fairly minimal protection outside. A few probably didn’t make it, but I’ll give them some time in case they’re able to come back from the roots. Those few were not doing so great before winter already, though.
Overall I’m thrilled with how they all did. They really vastly exceeded my expectations.
I am going to have a LOT of digging to do. I’m recruiting a couple of friends and intend to start planting out potted pomegranates starting this weekend. I have other fruit trees to plant, so I’d like to get at least 30 total planted out this spring if I can. That may be a bit lofty, but, we shall see.
@Eme I may have some cuttings soon if you’re interested. One Parfianka is quite big now at over 4 feet. Some of my bigger potted ones will probably need a decent trim too. I will definitely have cuttings from my Chicago Hardy and Negronne figs too. They went crazy this first year in the ground.
Thanks, for the report. I’ll message you! I’m buoyed to hear that you protected Azadi through the cold with no die back. I would love to get 1/2 of mine in the ground.
I had salavatski, favorite, crimson sky and red silk in the ground and all I did was mound snow on top of them the first day when it was light before it became snocrete. We went down to low teens and single digits quite a few times for hours and die back that I see.
Does anyone grow Myatadzhy? I am growing out a cutting from Marta Really Good Plants. What I can find about it is mostly her description that says it’s from the same program in Turkmenistan as Ariana, which would imply that it is as cold hardy. Does anyone know if that is a reasonable assumption? It ripens early, she writes mid October for her overlapping with Eversweet.
Second question: is this winter damage? It’s alive above it but this looks horrible. This is a supposed Nikitski Ranni from Willis. It’s the only pomegranate I have that had tip die back and these splits are on the two most major shoots/trunks. I don’t think there’s any chance it’s actually NR that should’ve been just as cold hardy as my other 4 in the ground. I think it’s getting pulled in a week. That will be 3/4 trashed trees that I bought from Willis before I knew better. Annoying.
Ours have done well unprotected down to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, they were unprotected during the 9 inch snow storm that hit 4 Fahrenheit, I will have to see how well they did this time, but it stayed freezing for days.
The following is the information I have for it. I got it to be planted in NYC in the form of a cutting, yet I am not sure if the cutting rooted, and if so, then how it’s doing there.
‘Myatadzhy’ (it is also called ‘Мятаджи’, ‘DPUN 134’)
This variety was test grown in Russia at the ‘Kara-Kala Turkmenistan Experimental Station’. The original cutting was most likely from a farmers field ‘since it was a cultivated variety at the time’.
That ‘Experimental Station’ donated cuttings of ‘Medovyi Vahsha’ which were imported to the USA ‘by Thompson Southwestern Arboretum’ on January 22nd 1999.
It’s fruit has a reddish skin.
The arils of its fruit are a dark ruby-red in color, the juice of ‘Myatadzhy’ has a very sweet taste and is low-moderate in acidity, with a little more acidity than ‘Medovyi Vahsha’ has.
The fruit of ‘Myatadzhy’ has very soft tender seeds.
The fruit of ‘Myatadzhy’ ripens early to mid-season.
Yes, cold damage can split the bark like that
I just had some big freezes that killed most of the new growth on my pomegranates. I’m pretty sure the plants will be fine, but does anyone have experience if they will fruit after a freeze like that? I just started getting some blooms last year but no fruit set yet.
Blooms on a pomegranate only grows on last years new growth, if any flowers do bloom this year it would be on what’s left of last years growth.
Thanks!
I am in TX 8A. When talking about cold hardiness it is useful to know what cold here is. Usually about 7-10 days over winter will be below 25F, but bad cold snaps can get very cold but only happen every 3-4 years and will be for one night, or at most two that gets in the 0F-7F range. Perhaps every other year we get a regular cold snap in the 8F-15F range typically toward the warmer end of the range than cold, one to three times in winter, only at night. Half the winters I woul don’t get below 15F, the other half have either the regular or bad cold snaps. We have late freezes commonly and sometimes have early fall freezes the earliest I have seen is Oct. 31st.
Soft seeded varieties here get either top killed or completely killed so far over a 2-3 year period. Might be warm enough one winter, then get zapped the next winter with the cold snaps. Had a near perfect winter to test cold hardiness in 1-3ft tall soft seeded varieties with only one night hitting a 10F low and the rest of winter was above 15F. My observations for plants, all planted in ground, and specific varieties:
A.C. Sweet: This is not as cold hardy as nurseries claim. This was 3 ft tall, so maybe two years old, was top killed completely. Grew back from roots at a modest rate. This and other winter experiences also point to this variety not even being the cold hardiest of the soft seeded cold hardy varieties either. Nurseries need to stop claiming this is exceptionally cold hardy it is not in my experience, and it is not even particularly cold hardy for soft seeded types.
Fleischmans (aka Texas Pink): 1ft tall, killed completely.
Sverkhranniy: 1ft tall killed completely.
Sin Pepe (aka Pink Ice, Pink Satin): 1ft tall, killed completely.
Gissarskii Rozovyi: 1 ft tall, killed to the ground but grew back very robustly (maybe not killed to the roots? Perhaps the trunk survived? Came back fast and grew larger than it was when top killed.)
Parfianka (aka Garnet Sash): 1ft tall, killed to the ground, grew back from the roots at modest rate.
Gissarskii Rosovyi seems to be the most cold hardy of the soft seeded varieties I have grown (see below) as far as I can tell. When it is damaged it grows back at a very robust rate, whereas the other sort of limped back maybe not reaching their previous seasons size. The Incredible Pomegranate book (available free online) talks about 12F roughly as the cold hardy limit for soft seeded varieties, and my experience seems to see a similar thing with of course some variation by variety around that temperature.
With that being my first attempt at these I replanted a lot of these in ground but used winter protection for the cold snaps. I also planted the most (as best as I could tell) cold hardy hard seeded varieties too. Depending on the temperatures cold protection might be a plastic trash can with an air tight cover put over the plant, if exceptionally cold I will put lithium ion battery hand warmer inside the trash can that supposedly lasts about 8 hours to hopefully increase the temperature inside a few degrees at least during the coldest part of night. This past winter I did not have enough hand warmers so for some small plants I bent their stems over and covered them several inches of compost burying them for the night. Since I do the protection now it is a bit harder to tell exactly what temperatures some are cold hardy at given the outside temperatures. Another thing is that larger more mature plants are supposedly a bit more cold hardy than small ones so I started buying larger plants about 3-4 years old to get around youthful cold sensitivity. With that understanding we get to this past winter where we hit 5F for several hours one night then back up to 15F for the day as a cold snap. Then we had a late freeze (about 30F at coldest that night) that hit the plants after they had started leafing out. And here is what I found:
Gissarskii Rozovyi: 2 ft tall, had put a trash can over it for the 5F snap but did not have a hand warmer for it as other plants got priority. To my astonishment it was not top killed, came through mostly intact. Then leafed out, put a trash can over it due to the late freeze, and amazingly not all leaves were killed, about 25% of leaves survived. Again surprised
Alk Pust Ghermez Saveh (aka I2 in the GA growth study): One ft tall, new this year, for the deep freeze buried it under 3 in compost. It appears it has been at least top killed, may have been completely killed. Still too early to say as it could sprout from the roots. But it had not leafed out or sprouted from roots by the time the others had. I think it is dead. Surprised by this one.
A.C. Sweet (second one in another location, with the original panted elsewhere): 2ft tall, for the deep freeze I could not bend the stem down so buried it 2/3rds up in compost and put an air tight trash can over the rest for the deep freeze. Heavily damaged by the freeze but the lower part survived and was starting to leaf out when the late freeze hit. The branches that were leafing out are now dead, and this may have killed it, scratch test is a little unclear, maybe there is hope not clear. The second A.C. Sweet mentioned in the above section had no protection during the deep freeze and may be dead too.
Kaj-acik-anor 3 ft tall plant and was planted last summer. For deep freeze put a trash can over it with a had warmer inside. Survived just fine. Leafed out hit by late spring freeze and took maybe 50% damage to leaves but is alive. This may be the most cold hardy one of what I have, or one of two.
Salavatski Planted two of these and bought them at about 5 ft tall or so, three to four years old I guess, planted in two different locations. For the deep freeze one I put a trash can over with a hand warmer, the other I ran out of stuff to protect with and had to let it ride it out exposed. Both were top killed. Supposed to be the most cold hardy I thought? Not for me. It is regrowing from the roots after the late freeze. Did not start growing prior to late freeze.. Kaj-acik-anor planted ten feet away in a worse spot did better.
Suhr-anor 1 ft tall planted in the last year. For the deep freeze I could only put a trash can over it as I did not have enough hand warmers for everything. Was not damaged at all. Started leafing out, late freeze hit with little damage and is doing fine. While cold hardy from the university growth studies it appeared a bit less cold hardy, but still very hardy, d id not expect this, survived completely. Candidate for most cold hardy or maybe the hand warmers are not doing anything, not sure.
Sverkhranniy 1 ft plant planted in the past year because I simply have not killed enough of these yet. For the deep freeze buried it in a pile of compost and survived but maybe with damage. Started to leaf out and the late freeze hit and I think it is dead. So no evidence of life, has not grown from the roots though I suppose there is a chance it survived.
Sumbar 1ft plant planted in the past year. Deep freeze, buried in compost, survived with some damage. Started to leaf out then the leat freeze did more damage. I think it is alive as the scratch test on the lower stems look green. But still no sign of growing back from stems or roots yet, so can’t be sure.
So where do I go from here? Getting another Kaj-acik-anor or Suhr-anor for one thing. Salavatski simply was not as cold hardy and it was the biggest most mature ones I had. Can’t explain that. I have yet another Sverkhranniy in a pot and since I am a Sverkhranniy serial killer I am going to plant it out yet again and try one more time. If Sumbar is dead I have another in a pot to replace it if need be. I am done with A.C. Sweet if it is dead. I will plant a Sirenevyi in its place if it died, or nearby if it survives. I have another Parfianka in a pot as well and will plant this one out too but I don’t think this is going to be quite cold hardy enough even with protection to make it. But I will try again. I have a Desernyi in a pot to plant out as well. For all these soft seeded ones I will have to do even more winter protection for them to survive, will need more hand warmers I guess. And that is where I am at here in Texas with my pomegranates.
You misspelled ‘Surh’
Update on the pomegranate cold hardiness since my last post above.
Additions are as follows:
Alk Pust Ghermez Saveh it has been top killed but no is putting out new growth from the roots. Took quite a while so it is not dead. I am surprised it got top killed given it was buried under a couple inches of compost, but the top is not alive. The roots made it and growing back.
A.C. Sweet: So far still no growth on this. Did another scratch test on the half inch diameter stem very near to the ground and does not appear green. New growth should pop up from the roots but still has not.
Sverkhranniy Appears to have survived but was maybe 90%some by the bad hard freeze completely buried in a pile of compost, then seemingly more with the late frost after it came out of dormancy. Before the late freeze it had growth on several lower branches and now there is a small amount of growth coming from the lowest thickest branches at the base, not as robust of growth so far as before the late frost. So at least it survied.
Sumbar: Might be seeing some new growth from near the base of the plant.
Salavatski This one is weird as I have two. One I covered with a trash can and put a little battery operated hand warmer inside with an air tight seal in my front yard, the one in the back was left totally exposed as I rand out of stuff to cover with.The one that was protected with the trash can and hand heater was top killed. Yet the one exposed to the cold in the back appears to have at least one branch that survived and has some new growth coming out. This is a 5 ft bush with several branches and so far only see one with a tuft of leaves on just one branch. Neither of these appeared to leaf out or start growing from the roots prior to the ate freeze. I don’t understand why the one most protected in the bad freeze did worse than the one with no protection. There was ice in the bad freeze and i guess it is possible that the ice coating on the exposed plants provided better protection than the trash can and hand heater. Maybe the lack of ice made them a bit more senstive than the covered plants.
Went ahead and bought another Kaj-Acik-anor and one Surh-anor, the two biggest survivors of the bad freeze and the late frost.
I left out my potted pomegranates a week or two ago when temp dropped into 20’s and everything froze. They were Azadi, 4 Fleishman and 5 or 6 I grew from grocery store pomegranate that I just refer to as seedlings, and brand newly planted in tall 1g’s Kaj acik anor and Grenada. Thankfully all my rooting cuttings hadn’t been put out yet. I fully expected to lose the last two that 100% froze through. They were all leafed out or starting to from being in a warm garage. Everything seems fine except the Fleishman. Buds all got burnt. Still scratch green all over. Crossing my fingers they start to regrow.
My in ground pomegranates all look healthy but waking up slow, which I’m happy about.
Update on pomegrantes here in MD 7b. Turns out my Red Silk died back to maybe 6”. It was still green last week but now is brittle and only leafing out at the bottom and regrowing from the roots. That doesn’t work, so it was pulled.
Salavatski and Favorite have leafed out nicely.
My container Fleishmans that were starting to wake up when we had many hours around 26 degrees actually didn’t die back at all and are continuing to leaf out fine. The fully leafed out and at the time 1 day potted Grenada and KAA that froze through actually didn’t skip a beat and are doing well.
My grocery store seedling that was 6” in the ground was fake alive. It also died back and was growing back from the roots and got pulled.
Doing well rooting new this year are surh anor, Afghanski, vikusnyi, Myatadzhy, Ariana, eversweet, alk pust ghermez. I hope to put Mya and Ariana in the ground or at least graft them. Surh anor will replace the red silk and I’ll graft Afghanski as well. Anything special about grafting pomegranate?
