After a particularly chilly May, my Angel Red that had been growing beautiful leaves and TONS of flowers (it is a 4 year old tree, give or take), suddenly yellowed, dropping all leaves and blossoms. I had hardly watered it and just thought- what the heck, I'll apply new fertilizer and deep water. It looked dead for another month, so much so I went out and bought a 'Sweet' pom, thinking I'd be throwing this one out. Not so fast! About 6 weeks later all the leaves came back and now there are approximately 15 blossoms all in varying development. I have again kept it on the dry side, watering less than my citrus (deep watered today, so, we'll see) but the blossoms have started falling off about 5 days after they open! According to Millet, I assume I should pollinate by hand, but, I have no idea how! Has anyone else had this problem/experience with Angel Red? I called the grower and they of course gave me the standard 'watering problem' answer... It truly is such a beautiful tree (if there is anyone reading this that is thinking of purchasing one). Thank you so much for any tips!

Pomegranates, are deciduous trees. They will always lose their leaves once every year. The process is,.... first the leaves turn yellow and then rapidly fall from the tree, this is the normal life cycle of a pomegranate tree. A month or two later the tree produces its new vegetation. This even happens to pomegranate trees growing inside warm greenhouses. I hand pollinate just by sticking my finger in all of the blooms throughout the tree. I do so because there are no bees inside the greenhouse to accomplish pollination. Whether hand alienation is required I really don't know, but the tree develops a large crop every year. I don't think there was anything wrong with your tree, nor your care for the tree. - Millet (544-)

Ok, thanks Millet...however, the tree had already once come out of dormancy. We had a crazy heat wave in March that I believe made the tree think it was the end of summer when we then went through the cold spring. In March it had gone from bare and twiggy to the leafy, blossoming tree I had told you about. It then yellowed and dropped, now has come back again. So, are you saying that pattern is normal? I'd be relieved but am leaning toward the climate shifts. All my plums came ripe at random, inappropriate times for their varietal too.

BTW, I have doused the lane late with High nitrogen (and iron for good measure), per your advice. We are having a warmer week, hopefully it will help the uptake and Lane will be on the road to recovery soon! There are some new blossoms emerging, I'll take that as a good sign. Thanks again!

A pomegranate should only lose its leaves once per year.- Millet (544-)

That's what I thought...weird, huh? Just when we think we have Mother Nature figured out...

I swear, the tree looked done for, as bare as it was over the winter...now, just as alive and gorgeous as ever. Ihand pollinated this morning the 2 blossoms that were opened...I'll keep you posted

Well, unless I am mistaken, it seems my tree has produced 3 pomegranates. Not a bad start for Maryland. I wish I had hand pollinated.

Well it is half way through the summer and I guess it will be next year before I get pomegranates. That's OK but you can be sure I'll be finger pollinating next year. Thanks for the advice Millet. I still have the occasional bloom but I'm assuming you have to pollinate from a different flower or will they self polllinate and you just need to stir it up?

I've never bothered to learn much about the pollination of Pomegranates. I just went ahead and hand (finger) pollinated by going from flower to flower. Whether or not it is actually required, I cannot say, but I get a large crop every year without fail. I started hand pollinating because my tree is inside the greenhouse where there are no bees. - Millet (536-)

UGH! I lost 2 more blooms this morning!!! One of them was the one I hand pollinated and was getting really bulbous. I'm sooooo frustrated! The soil meter was just above dry and the digital one read 2. I had watered and fertilized over the weekend. I deep watered today as the temps are heading up (but only to 83). I don't know if I'll ever get fruit from my little tree~

P.S. It's in an 18 in. pot

don't be discouraged. keep trying!
reread the crfg info: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html see if there's anything you're missing.

Good luck

-Luke

Luke thanks for the CRFG link. The link answers the pollination question.

.........." The pomegranate is self-pollinated as well as cross-pollinated by insects. Cross-pollination increases the fruit set"................

That explains why my pomegranate tree faithfully sets a large crop. -Millet (532-)

Yes Thanks for the link. Much appreciated.

One of the two Pomegranates on my tree fell and rotted, so I figured it was time to harvest the other one. I gotta say, it tasted pretty good. Not quite a Wonderful from the market, but not too far behind.

Not bad for a tree just planted this past March. Hopefully a bigger crop next year.

Many times I have heard people say that one should keep a pomegranate tree on the dry side, so the fruit does not split. After reading about the cultivation of pomegranates, I find that they actually should be kept evenly moist in order to PREVENT the fruit from splitting open. - Millet (459-)

Millet,

this is very interesting conclusion and I think you are absolutely right. I was following that "dry side" suggestion and did not supply too much water for our wonderful... A few fruits split after the first rain (we had an unusually dry summer).

I also did an experiment on two other small pom seedlings growing in the shade: one was getting almost no water over the summer... and was growing happily. The other was on the drip system and was getting slightly over a gallon twice a week. The second plant looks happy too and... got about twice thicker trunk compared to the first one. They both are of the same age, in the same soil, and were treated the same way except for the water. Both had no fruits this season and both will be on the drip system for the next year.