At the house I recently bought there was a pomegranate tree growing. I have been having lots of red flowers but I have not noticed any fruit development. I have no idea of the variety but would guess wonderful (that is what I see mostly around here at the nurseries). I am guessing that I should be seeing some fruit development by now. Is there anything I can do to help?

I am growing a Wonderful pomegranate. In the spring my tree gets quit a fewof red flowers ( the flowers are quite pretty) however, over the years I have noticed that a rather small number of them ever actually set fruit. I noticed just today, that the tree has produced a second flower production. In the past I have hand pollinated the blooms using a small artist brush, but it does not seem to increase the fruit set. Do you know how old your tree is? Note that pomegranaes are a discidous tree, and will lose all foliage in the winter, and replacement of leaves is rather quick. Mine is growing in a year around warm greenhouse. You now know 100 percent of what I know about pomegranates.

Millet (1,286-

There a bush, not a tree, we cut the ones in the container field in my nursery back about 40%, there a very low chill plant but will still need a minimum of 100 hours of dormancy to set fruit the following year. I'm doing some experiments on growing the ones I have on grape trellis to see how commercial yields will be affected

I've been wanting to ask this question for a while too.

I too, have a promegranate bush, about 8+ feet high and about 6 feet wide. Every year, there are tons of flowers, but most would eventually fall off.

Every year we always end up with about 8-10 smallish sized promegranates towards December. Surely a tree of our size can hold onto/or set more than a measly ~ 10 fruits.

Any pomegranate expert on this forum? How can I get my bush to hold onto the flowers and set MORE fruits? Our bush is more than 8 years old and BIG. Definitely strong (and healthy) enough to carry a big load.

There are two kind of flowers. The male flowers, very numerous, have a calice in bell shape and will fall what ever you do. And the hermaphrodite flowers, very seldom , have a calice in vase shape, those will give fruits without the need of hand pollination.
But I don't know what conditions influence the rate hermaphrodite flowers/male flowers. I would be happy to learn about that!

Sylvain.

gdbanks,
You might want to join the Yahoo Pomegranate group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PomWorldwide/
maybe someone there can help.

I've read that although pomegranates are self-fertile, planting another one will increase fruit production. My single pom "Favorite" (aka Lyubimyi) flowered for the first time last year and bore circa 8 fruits, has about 3 or 4x that this year. I've planted an "Angel Red" nearby this spring, but will be another few seasons to see if it helps increase fruit set.
Gene

I have a 6 month old Dwarf Pomegranate purchased online through Gurneys. It arrived in good shape, and we potted it in a 3 gallon pot and put it on the same drip system as our citrus. I enjoyed the post here that explained the difference in the male female flowers, and sure enough, ours had many bell shaped male flowers, and then one appeared looking all sassy with that vase shape! Sure enough! She is now swollen with a baby pomegranate, and we have tied that branch carefully to the support stake because she is so young, we don't want her to lose her first baby! I have ordered some cuttings of Wonderful from UC Davis, and hopefully I can get one or two to grow and they can all cross pollinate!

Thanks for that great male/female flower explanation!
Suzi

Pomegranates can be propagated very easily by either hardwood or softwood cuttings. The use of a rooting compound helps greatly. When a softwood cutting is being rooted the cutting must be misted or kept in high humidity. Root suckers can also be dug from the base of the plant and transplanted, and it is also possible to increase pomegranates by layering. Pomegranates grow easily from seed, but the resulting shrub or tree is always ALWAYS of inferior quality. - Millet (1,240-)

Pomegranates are the easiest to propagate using dormant cuttings (collected during late fall to winter). The next best thing would be air layering. The least reliable are the softwood cuttings, but not impossible to do, only have very high mortality rates.

I've heard from the USDA workers at Wolfskill Pomegranate Germplasm Collection that it is not reliable to propagate softwood cuttings during the summer so they discontinued distribution of softwood using summer cuttings. The dormant cuttings are outstanding for stem cutting propagation and that is what their most recommended propagating material for distribution.

Here's how to improve your dormant stem cutting propagation even more:

First step, wrap the top 40% of your stem cutting with parafilm, skipping the areas where buds would sprout, just like you would when doing grafting.


By joereal at 2008-05-10


Then simply bury the cutting in your rooting bed as illustrated below. Take note that when you bury the cutting, some parafilm gets buried. The very purpose is to protect the stem cutting from fungal infections which commonly occurs at the surface, especially at the base of your cutting. By putting the parafilm, you minimize such infections, thereby increasing your success rates. You can dab the exposed lower protion with some rooting hormone before sticking them into the soil. Parafilm tape will minimize water losses from the cuttings as it takes some time for the roots to grow. The parafilm helps keep the scionwood from drying out. It lets air exchanges but not water, that's why I use it mostly to keep scionwood from drying out, so why not with stem cuttings?


By joereal at 2008-05-10

And here's my rooting bed, which is nothing but ordinary soil. I simply plant them closer together for simplifying my watering. There are several pomegranates and mullberry cuttings. 100% success rate so far, directly in the soil. They will be dug out next year and barerooted, to be given away to friends. The advantage of this method is that you don't need a rooting chamber or a misting setup. You simply stick it in the ground and water it every day without fear of the cuttings drying out before they root.


By joereal at 2008-05-10


Here's a closer look of the pomegranates. It is starting to push out really well as the weather warms up.

By joereal at 2008-05-10


I also did plant some stem cuttings directly unto the soil, without the paraffin tape. Well, I've only got 20% success rate on that.

Excellent post Joe, it should help many of our membership wishing to propagate a pomegranate. Question: is Wolfskill going to have their public tasting day again this year? I have heard that last year was to be the last public day. - Millet (1,240-)

Wow! JoeReal! Thanks! Wonderful Post. I have a big order (my first one) in to UC Davis for cuttings for mostly grapevines, but a couple olives, figs and pomegranates also. I was very worried that they wouldn't take, and hoped for just one of the 3-5 of each they send, but now, using your method, I'm worried they ALL will take, and where will I put them?

I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of those root, air pruning pots and have myself a container orchard!!

Thanks!!
Suzi

I need some serious help with my Pom. It was a cheap 5 gallon that I bought in the spring and planted. It's growing well, but it looks horrible. The branches have grown faster than the tree can support, so the whole thing is a droopy mess. I need to post some photos for shaping and trimming advice.
The main two stem at the base of the shrub are about to cross as well and not sure which one to cut. Heck, I'm not even sure when I should cut these things.

I have some small Pomegranates, grown from seed (as are all my small trees, bushes and plants) from lunchtime fruit. They have got to about 75mm (3") tall and have stopped at that size for some weeks now, I suspect they don't like the cooler weather.

Richard