Pruning and planting a tiny pomegranate tree

General Fruit Growing
1

So, I just got this Azadi pomegranate baby in the mail and will be planting it in the ground in a week:

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My few related questions are:

  1. Is it advisable to grow it as a bush or single-trunk tree?
  2. If I want to train this a tree, should I stake that main branch and head-cut it like is done with common fruit trees?
  3. Does it make sense not to do any pruning on this for the first year so the tree can benefit from maximum foliage and photo-synthesis?
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2

I’m sure people would take lots if different approaches, and many people take a much more aggressive approach to pruning than I do. But I would say to let it grow without any pruning for at least another year. If you’re sure you want a single-trunked tree, then you can remove the two smaller shoots coming up near the soil line. But you could also remove the side branches after a year still, it won’t make a big difference in the long run.

I grow all my pomegranates as multi-trunked bushes. I let them have ~5 main trunks each, and then past that I remove any new shoots that come up from the ground every winter. They naturally tend to grow in a bush form, so if you want a tree form you’ll have to do a bit more shaping than for other fruit trees.

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3

Thank you for the response. My current thought is also to grow this as a bush. In that case, do you think I need to stake the branches to straighten then up or that’s not needed?

4

It can’t hurt to stake them and position the way you want them. But I wouldn’t say it’s necessary. As the plant grows, it’ll continue to put up more strong shoots from the base, so you will have plenty of those to chose from and you can still get it to a nice shape by selectively pruning away branches.

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5

I would say grow it as a shrub, just because you can force a pomegranate to grow as a single trunk doesn’t mean it wants to at all. They are shrubby in nature and will want to keep pushing new shoots. You’d be way down in production for a very long time at least. However if you’re dead set on a single trunk you can alter course at any time. I also wouldn’t do anything to that tiny of a plant, but then again I grow them as shrubs. Good luck :+1:t3:

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