Thanks Zendog, some good info. Luckily it is not really that humid here. I grow figs and I think the fruit is excellent. It can be hot here in the summer. We do get some humidity, but by mid-August it starts to become less humid. My best tasting figs were in September. I could let them hang a long time with no mold. My Indian Free peach fruits in October, even though I’m far north, the lakes gives us this wonderful protection from the cold. The air warms as it passes over the lakes. So hard to tell what the pomes will do? I have to try it but I won’t have high expectations. I’ll research all cultivars mentioned, thanks much for this info. I can make a much better decision now.
Another reason i was looking at the Russians as they seem to be more humidity tolerant.
Sounds like you are in a better place for humidity, which hopefully will keep you from having the rotting issue we seem to have.
Just make sure to get some early ripening types to increase your chances of success. Poms are about 6 months from flower to harvest and unlike peaches, apples, etc. they don’t flower first thing, so in my zone I think I’ll be lucky to have Salavatski ripen at the end of October. Would that put you in November? If I have a cooler October the flavor may not be great, which is something I’ve heard from most northern people who’ve succeeded at getting fruit from poms. Growing in containers, does allow you to shuttle them in and out and seems to get you a week or 2 ahead of the inground, so that may help.
I still may have it too, doesn’t seem to stop rot on stone fruits. [quote=“zendog, post:12, topic:10247”]
I’ll be lucky to have Salavatski ripen at the end of October. Would that put you in November?
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Yeah that’s too late, I can get by with a couple weeks in October, but that’s about it. Thanks again for this really good info!
I have 1 in the ground and 2 potted. The in ground one suffers greatly and will be potted up if it returns this spring .
After 3 years my potted ones are not yet so large that I have felt the need to prune them.
Scott
Here is 10 year old ‘nana’ my wife gave me. To say this tree has been abused is to put it lightly. It has survived my parents house, collage apartments, re-abandonment at my parents house. Winter droughts, Winter over watering followed my more drought. This tree has never known a normal seasonal cycle. Last year I really did think it was the end. I retrieved it and moved it to NJ with me I repotted it and did a 100% soil change, untangle, and added some mycorrhiza to the new soil. I took the opportunity to turn the tree 45 degrees and I am going to cut off the lower branch which is well rooted at this point.
What I can tell you about pruning comes from AHS Pruning and Training. Pom’s are spur bearing like apples and pears. Spurs fruit for 3-5 years. Other then shaping you only need to prune older growth to encourage branching. New growth from last year is still transitioning to woody its still very flexible like a willow.
A fruit I found in the bottom of the pot. The fruit was fully developed last year over 2" wide. The flavor was standard pomegranate
These are some of the best soft seeded varieties. I grow a number
of them.
I am growing M.R., but another soft seeded favorite of mine is Sirenevyi. I’d grow it if room was available.
I am growing or was growing or at least last fall was growing all those in the soft-seed category on that link with exception of Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi. Will see what greens up from this winter with a low of 4F. Sin Pepe was looking bad last year after a 12F low.
Most of the really good ones are long season. I need something ripe by October, looking around, thanks all for your help! Wow, so many, it’s like I got tree fever again! Glad most are not practical!
Pomegranate naturally wants to be a bush, but you can shape it to almost any form, it takes pruning very well.
This book has some useful info about pomegranate varieties.
BTW, there is no such thing as “Russian pomegranate”, they don’t grow in Russia (except in a greenhouse). Many high-quality pomegranate varieties originate from the Garrygala experimental station in Turkmenistan, which at a time was a part of the Soviet Union. Therefore some of the varieties selected there were given Russian names.
I saw a cultivar from Uzbekistan too.
Kazake Russian Pomegranate
Nothing Russian about it, even the name. There are also varieties from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, they don’t have Russian names.
I didn’t name it. I myself prefer the use of Russian as they are usually hard seeded and cold hardy, so the name is very useful to me.When I used Russian I was actually referring to these characteristics, not it’s origins.
I prune my poms to a very low single trunk tree form with three main branches. This gives the structure and look that I prefer when they leaf out, bear and even when dormant. But they can be tamed nicely to fit into whatever landscaping plan you have in mind. I have to disagree with the previous poster who suggested that they are spur bearers, my experience is that they fruit on new wood and usually on a branch tip. Since they bear on new wood, they appreciate and respond well to aggressive Winter pruning. Remove crossing branches, suckers, etc as you would with any tree. For poms, I also remove a lot of the "wispy’ growth as well. Here’s my ‘Wonderful’ pruned out the way I like to do it and beginning to leaf out back in 2015:
If my plan was to grow a pom as a house plant, I would start by taking my own cuttings from a variety that I really like. They root easily and would start out nicely from the outset with a single trunk and potentially/often with the three main branches. Here’s a pom cutting I took that started out perfectly that way: 
Looking great, thanks MrClint! I like the idea of a single trunk, or more, but not a shrub/bush like structure. Just because it will be easier to move around. I can get a dolly on it without breaking branches. Of course it might not be that easy if the plant fails to cooperate, and certain cultivars etc may keep suckering. I may give up. Root from cuttings!? Cool, OK, well i won’t be buying anymore, I’ll be trading. I plan to grow in a container, but it will not be a house plant. it will have to live with the figs in an attached garage.
It’s opposite to useful, it’s very misleading. Wrong assumptions leading to wrong conclusions. The line of thought “They are Russian —> they grow in Russia —> they are cold hardy” is very far from the truth. No pomegranate is hardy enough to grow in Russia, and there is no relationship between the Russian name and hardiness. Some Iranian varieties are close in hardiness to Salavatsky, and many Turkmenian varieties with Russian names are not particularly hardy. Vkysnyi, Desertnyi, Parfianka and many other Turkmenian varieties have very soft seeds, in fact, Vkusnyi’s seeds are the softest ones among all varieties that I tried.
All those countries, I have no idea where they are or their weather??? So maybe to those with a better geographic knowledge then me, it’s important. Not to me. They are named and called what they are called, I had nothing to do with it. Cold hardy to me means they can survive under 25F, not hardy if it cannot. Exceptions to every rule sure. At this point, I know little about them, and all i want is 2 trees at most. It looks like the more hardy type despite what was said fit my location, not from being hardy but that they fruit earlier, and again exceptions to every rule. So if I see Russian, I look for when it is ripe. It’s the only name concerning this plant that has any meaning for me. Hoping to find any that ripen earlier, no matter where they are from. From being informed by Ray really helped a lot, opened up what i can look for… That hardiness doesn’t really matter. Seems to correlate with early ripeness, but exceptions to every rule, so any that ripen early is a start, go from there to see if possible to be successful here.
Sorry, I was under impression that people on this forum try to get as much information about fruit as possible, and celebrate knowledge and not ignorance.