Pommegranates

[moggy]

I though I would share with you my success at germinating pommegranates.

 

I am from England, and there it was a common thing to buy around xmas time. In NZ they are a lot more expensive and harder to come by.

 

I read up about their growing conditions

Poor quality soil

free draining soil

acidic soil

hot dry summers

cool but not very frosty winters.

 

Finally I thought I have the perfect crop for here - shingle, acidic soil, very little organic matter in it, summers over 40C and winters almost frost free (Yes this is an area of Canterbury I am talking about).

 

A year ago in springt I got a pomegranate and chucked a quarter of it into compost.  It lookd like every last seed germinated. I lost a few seedlings when it got a bit to hot in the garage and I forgot to water them, however I now have a dozen thriving seedlings. It will be another year before I dare to plant them out here, as the atrition rate for young plants is high.

 

I aim to be be the first commercial pommegranate orchard in NZ (unless someone has already beaten me to it)

It is another sucess story of supermarket fruit. There is a reluctance to plant it as everyone says -"ah but it might not be the same as the parent" but when the choice is plant the seed or do without, it is pretty good odds for me.

[Bridge Scully]

Yah pommegranates! I saved some seed off one of the trees at school last year...almost all of the seed germinated and they are about 10cm high he he. THinking they would do really well here in gizzy. I love the fruit and they are awesome for gardnishing desserts...oh and the juice is very good for you too. GOod work moggy.

[David Bell]

Moggy, pomegranates grow very easily from cuttings. My tree (now too big to be called a shrub - grown from a cutting next door) is well over 2 meters tall, flowers well, but has yet to fruit. Maybe my summers are not hot enough in Waihi (max 30C). It is not very frost tender, but is worth it just for the flowers.

[moggy]

yes I heard you can take if from cuttings, but on the south island, i have never seen a single tree to rob from:)

I believe they need to be around five years old before they will fruit.

[Kali]

That must be very gratifying moggy, good luck to the little pommegranate trees, your conditions sound really challenging. keep us posted. I want to try some kaffir lime seeds off a friend's plant as soon as the fruit are ripe, as it is the leaves you use mostly it wouldn't matter if they took years to fruit. I tried to grow the seeds of a yellow kiwifruit from the supermarket but none germinated, not sure what was wrong there. you can't buy the plants of these because they are under patent. fun trying though.

[moggy]

According to this thread here you should be able to grow them from seed, however they are an F1 hybrid, so results could be a bit random.

[Kali]

thanks for that link Moggy, great info, I think I may have let the dry out too much going by what was said there, will try again, the person talking about grafting several onto one rootstock had a good idea.