We had a pomegranate that stored in our garage all winter long. My wife was ready to compost it, but instead decided to open it out of curiosity to see how bad it got, and to our surprise it was totally fine after many months!
I assumed that Pomegranate is a more tropical climate fruit, but after reading into it found that there are varieties that can handle zone 6, and that the seeds are variable, so now im thinking of using some of the seeds from the fruit, and see if i can get them going in an air prune bed over the next few weeks-months.
Does anybody here have experience with growing this species? Id love to know what the recommended approach is for successful germination and establishment.
Can the seeds be dried, or best used fresh?
Im thinking about letting them soak in water for a few days to ferment and release the pulp, then select for sinkers, and then proceed to planting or drying.
Once I buy on a market place in my town in France, Pomegranates that come from Portugal, from a Portuguese vendor, seller. The grains were so dark that they appeared to be black.
And the taste.. oh that taste. Like nothing else about others Pomegranates I used to taste. A rich taste, without bitterness, sourness,..
I sowed some seeds directly without any specific treatment. And they germinate well, rapidly.
I gave some plants, and I planted others in my yard. Unfortunately I think my soil is too dry for them or they have any specific requirement that I can’t provide to them.. (there are others planted in my town, but surely not the same variety)
This year I decided to plant one next to the terrace just to see if the spot may please it. Two others are in containers and I planned to plant them too, according what the one next to the terrace perform.
As with many tropical fruits, it grows from seed pretty easily, providing you keep high temperature. I was always using ziplock bag method and temperatures above 25C, preferably 30C. One trick I was using for anything from lychee, trough pomegranate, to mango, was to secure ziplock bag with seeds to a window glass, facing south. Other than that, I ws using a heat mat.
But then, no chance to keep the plant alive outdoors, at least not in my place. It is Zone 6 in theory, but this winter there was -27 degrees C, no tropical tree survives that. After successfully growing many tropical tree seedlings indoors, I have stopped playing with them.
Some of our 4th and 5th grade garden club kids planted seeds in their outside beds after sucking off the juice last fall, and they’ve got 4 seedling trees up now.
According to my rare fruit grower friends, seedling pomegranates have quite a bit more potential for good fruit than many seedling fruit trees, so it’s definitely worth a shot.
Once they’re up, they are quite heat and drought tolerant - so all the sun, and don’t drown them.
I’m in Zone 8b. I have three pomegranates, two wonderful and one angel. They are very hard here in West Texas, though I rarely get fruit. But when we get a really cold winter, they do tend to die to their roots, but they have always come back up the following year with new shoots. It’s not as cold here as it is for you, but that may give you some idea what to expect.