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[lee reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

I got around the winter kill problem for pomegranates here in zone 4/5 by growing my plant in a pot which I kept in cool storage after it went dormant for the winter. The problem is that after 5-10 years, the plant had still never bloomed. I finally got rid of the plant. Any suggestions, beyond the obvious, for the lack of blossoming?

It seems to me that another limitation for pomegranate in the in the northern areas of eastern U.S. would be that there would be insufficient heat and time to ripen the fruits well. Not to mention untimely rains splitting the fruits open. All of which is why I chose to grow mine in pots, where I could get the plants growing early and then ripen them, if needed, in the greenhouse.

Lee Reich, PhD

www.leereich.com

Books by Lee Reich:

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

A Northeast Gardener's Year

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

On Dec 2, 2005, at 11:03 PM, MARIE ASHTON wrote:

Are you in 6a or 6b?    6b is down to -5 and there are some possible varieties that might work. 6a at down to -10 is a little chancey but worth a try. Since pomegranates bear fruit on new wood you do not have to worry about buds being killed. If you have a winter snow cover then there is also a variety that might  work (under the snow cover).

But to state again 6b is a good possibility with the new (in the US) Russian/Central Asian varieties. The varieties that I would recommend are "Kazake" or "Salavatski". "Agat" if under snow cover (a low growing, good fruiting

pomegranate). If want to try one let me know and I will try to see that you get one to try, but pomegranates like a lot of fruit trees do not reach their best cold hardiness until about the third year and would need to be somewhat protected the first two years.

Richard Ashton

----- Original Message -----

From: Ginda Fisher

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 8:47 PM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pomegranate

On Dec 1, 2005, at 2:02 PM, MARIE ASHTON wrote:

How many of you are interested in pomegranates. It seems that many people think they are too much trouble to eat. They are somewhat troublesome, but some think they are worth the trouble.   The easiest  way to utilize them is to juice them with a common citrus/orange press, that's just a pressure press not the kind with the reamer as that kind will get the partation material and skin into the juice and that is bitter (tannin). There are a lot of new varieties available now and some cold hardy ones.

Richard Ashton

zone 7b/8a Central Texas

I am interested in pomegranate, but here in zone 6, I think I will have to content myself with indoor plants.  If anyone knows of a pomegranate hardy to zone 6, though, I'd be excited to try it.

Ginda

eastern MA, zone 6

---

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