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 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.
Stan, thanks for the clarification, clearly you are very knowledgeable with poms, and we’re glad to have such experts on our forum. I think there is a common misconception out there about grouping certain pomegranates under a “Russian” moniker. Better to use “soft-seeded” vs “hard-seeded”. I grow 15 different pomegranate varieties including Sirenevyi (which is from Dr. Gregory Levin’s collection at the Garrigala Research Station in Turkmenistan.) I also grow Suhr-Anor from the same collection, and Subarskii, which comes from Afganistan. And thanks to Richard, I am starting some cuttings of Myagkosemyannyi Rosovyi ( Myagko Semyannyi Rozoviy), which also originates from Turkmenistan. It IS important to know from where the various cultivars emanate, as those climates will help those of us here in the USA make good and appropriate choices, especially if you reside in zones less than zone 9. Here is a nice presentation on pomegranates by John Preece from National Clonal Germoplasm Repository at Davis, CA:
And, a great resource, “The Incredible Pomegranate” by Richard Ashton:
I really appreciate Ray’s input. That information was a game changer! Helps a lot in my decision making process. And Stan thanks for letting me know I can’t rely on the names to tell me much. I never would, but I guess some might? Patty the links look great, I will check them out. It’s a busy time of year, so thanks all for taking the time to educate me. I thought I should only look at cold hardy types, fact is in zone 5 none will grow here in ground, and even if they can survive, it will be an uphill battle. Since I will be protecting them, I can grow any of them. I may not get fruit though. I need to know is when they ripen, and go from there, other factors will come into play, but no point looking at those factors if it will not even ripen here… Location can also influence when a fruit ripens. Speaking of which, does anybody know when Desertnyi ripens? At what location?
Desertnyi (DPUN 0108) ripens in September in Central California, which is pretty early for pomegranates. Gissarskii Rozovyi (DPUN 0107) has similar ripening time, also in September. Eversweet (DPUN 0050) can be eaten starting from late summer. Rannii (which translates as “Early”, DPUN 0112) should be ripe in August, but for me it happened in early-mid September (my tree is very young, however, so things can change as it matures). Azadi and Medovyi Vahsha are described as ripening “early” but I didn’t see a more specific info.
Rooting pomegranate cuttings instructions by Marta Matvienko (CRFG): Rooting pomegranates_Marta_Matvienko.pdf (158.1 KB)
I followed these instructions with cuttings from CRFG exchanges and got 70% to 80% success rate.
All resources agree that Poms are spur baring http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/tree_fruits_nuts/hgic1359.html. That is not to say however spurs don’t develop on new growth my new grow flowers every year but I have never had a flower set and develop on new growth only old growth. Perhaps your cultivar has stronger new growth retention then others, its possible. But I would set expectations for old growth.
That really helps, thanks Stan! I think I’m going to take some time to research these plants before deciding on any. I don’t have any time now. I spent yesterday prepping to build two new raised beds, spraying my fruit trees, grafting and setting up air layers on figs, and making sure my tomato and pepper seedlings are moist. I started a ton of flowers, mostly annuals, one perennial. My garden has my full attention at the moment. Spring finally is here in Michigan. Everything is starting to leaf out, looks fantastic. I took a little time to do the taxes too! What’s really rewarding is everything is going super well this year. Looks like the trend for bigger harvests every year is continuing I conducted a number of experiments on overwintering. I was having problems and they all worked! My zone pushing of blueberries, blackberries, and figs all worked. A perfect storm this year.
