North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John Barbowski <jbarbowski@gmail.com>]

*
Thank you all for your comments. This spring, I'll pay more attention to
the flower bud shapes. I have noticed the 'bell-shaped hermaphroditic'
type, also thinking they would develop into fruit - but alas - most of
these dropped. I believe I'll try hand pollination on a few.

In response to Mark:

Yes, I started my plants indoors in the spring from cuttings; 2/3rds of the
8" cuttings were put into a peaty, sandy loam in a plastic pot and then
covered with a plastic bag tent. No direct sunshine. They readily rooted.

I tried 2 plants outdoors beside my house, one in a SW exposure and the
other in a NW exposure. Both were covered with copious amounts of snow. The
NW exposure plant did not sprout the following spring; nor did the base.
The twig branches for the SW exposure died to the ground, but the plant
survived and grew more branches ground up. They also died during the next
winter - but again - the plant survived. This defeats the pomegranate
purpose as fruit is only borne on 2 yr plus wood. I dug up the plant and
put it into a large plastic pot (5-7 gal).

I treat the plants like figs. The leaves yellow and the plant goes dormant.
They overwinter (Dec 1 - Mar 15) in a special room in my attached garage whe
re the temp often goes down to 20 deg F (-7C).

The blossoms on the plants are very impressive and make the plants definite
keepers, but not as nice as the blossoms on a Pom that I saw in Turkey:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc149/JBarbowski/Pomegranates/DSC_0160.jpg

john b*

*Canadian Zone 6B
just north of Toronto*

>
> > John - Did you start your Siberian pomegranates from cuttings? Do they
> > survive outdoors in Toronto?
> >
> > -Mark Lee, Seattle
>