Cold-hardy pomegranate cutting rooting success- finally!

I purchased 4 cold-hardy pomegranates from an MD in the Southern Fruit Fellowship 4 years ago and have been trying to root over a hundred of cuttings since then, with only 3 rooting well.

These plants originate from Georgia of the former Soviet Union and were sent to the USDA germplasm lab in UC Davis by a Soviet botanist who was exiled from Turkmenistan. The botanists' fascinating story is detailed in the book "Pomegranate Roads":

http://books.google.com/books?id=_G59NFbNpREC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Cuttings of the pomegranates can be gotten through the germplasm lab if you want to try a species trial; priority is given to universities and other research institutions but cuttings can be gotten by the general public:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=12170

I have been trying to root cuttings from my pomegranates to give to friends, including you at DavesGarden. I am excited that it looks like I'm having success with the following method:

I purchased a clear plastic box 15 inches deep (from the dollar store) and filled it to 10 inches with 50:50 vermiculite and peat, wetted. To keep the medium at 100% humidity, I also buried to the soil line a clay pot plugged with silicone and filled with water. I put roottone on cuttings 12" long and placed them in the medium. The expert on pomegranates at our local (Jackson MS) Southern Fruit Fellowship group recommends 2 nodes above soil and 2 nodes below when trying to root them.

I checked the cuttings today (after 3 weeks) and there are root hairs growing from most of them!!!! I am excited to finally have success!!!!! I will send some rooted cuttings to 2 DG fruit forum regulars and hopefully can soon ship more to other folks for cost of postage if success continues!

The doctor who I got my pomegranates from originally did say that it takes 5 years for them to bear fruit, though mine bore after 2 years (3 years after being propagated).

These Georgian pomegranates have lighter but sweeter arils than the standard "Wonderful" variety from California sold grocery stores here. They are beautiful shrubs with conspicuous red flowers- I saw many large ones when I took a tour of Williamsburg Virginia with my 6th grader last spring.

Pomegranates are one of the more pest-resistant and reliable bearers in my mini-orchard, along with pears (which were attacked by fireblight this year), Fuyu persimmons (just scale and Japanese beetle pests so far) and blackberries. Unfortunately, I seldom get many pomegranates for myself since my daughters grab them first!

Cheers, Susan Mc

This message was edited Sep 14, 2009 7:03 AM

I am trying the new seedless pomegranates this year. They are supposedly like the seedless grapes.
Here in San Marcos the regular kind grow wild and no one ever eats them. The kids have fights with them sometimes. It is the same with loquats. Every other house has a loquat tree and no one eats the fruit. They just go to waste. Well, except for me and my wife.

Oh yeah, congrads on the cuttings. What type of sun exposure are you giving them?

The pomegranate cuttings are getting indirect morning sun exposure only. I tried some cuttings with more sun exposure but they died quickly.

My pomegranate shrubs, however, get full sun and do great; they are drought resistant once they are established.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2009 6:55 AM

I got an answer from Jeff Moersfelder, the person in charge of the pomegranate germplasm at the USDA lab at UC Davis, about how cold-hardy pomegranates are.

He said, " As a general rule dormant pomegranates are good to around 12 degrees F with the most cold hardy varieties going down to 7 degrees F."

8a is 10-15 F
7b is 5-10 F

Hopefully next year I will have plenty of cuttings rooted to share with DG pomegranate enthusiasts up to zones 8a/7b!
I started another 45 cuttings just recently, early September, for this purpose.

This message was edited Sep 14, 2009 6:59 AM

I bought a Russian from this place. http://www.plantfolks.com/preview/sitebuilder/Plantfolks/OtherPlants.html

Might be the easy way to go. LOL. Mine is on a small hill in morning sun and does fine, drought tolerant and pest free for the most part.