Anyone growing pomegranates...????

I planted one this year and wondering if anyone has any advice to offer a first time grower..The nursery told me it would do okay in this zone (8a) DFW area....I think it was the variety Wonderful..

I used to have the variety Wonderful. It was very easy to care for. They need full sun and heat to produce tasty fruit — two things that are easy to provide here in Texas. It's not picky about soil pH but it should drain well. It can tolerate drought, but for good fruit production it should be irrigated regularly. I fertilized lightly and mulched with steer manure. It can be trained into a standard, but it tends to sucker so it's an ongoing task. The first link suggests training it to 4 or 5 branches.

Wonderful is the one most commonly available, but I discovered a number of others recently and thought I'd try something different. I just purchased "Grenada" and "Eversweet". I think I'll train those using the 4 or 5 branches suggested. It should be less labor intensive.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pomegranate.html

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/pomegranate.html

Thanks for all the referrals...they provide a lot of info. Now I am worried that it will end up looking like the fig tree I planted here thinking it was a dwarf tree....everyone tells me they have never seen a fig tree get that big..it is a constant battle keeping it trimmed back every year to stay out of the power lines and away from my neighbor's and my houses.....but oh boy, those figs..

Kris

Kris,
Are you adding a lot of fertilizer? I used to keep an un-named variety under 10 feet tall by pruning in winter. I have a Petite Negri and a dwarf Black Jack in large pots but plan to plant them in the ground this spring. What variety do you have? TAMU recommends that figs not be fertilized.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/fruit/figs/figs.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/fig/fig.html
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html
http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=D345

I've purchased most of my fruit trees from RainTree Nursery and have had good results. Hope this information helps you.
Veronica

I just planted the pomegranate this spring (a month or so ago) and added fertilizer at that time. It is now starting to show green leaf signs..good thing, shows it wants to grow. I also planted a persimmon at the same time..I am hoping to have a lot of fruit to eat someday.

Thanks for the referrals and all the help..

Kris

Persimmons are my favorite fruit. I had about 12 persimmons off my little Fuyu tree last year. Before we moved, I had 2 fifteen year old Fuyu persimmon trees. I dehydrated persimmon slices and we had dried persimmons for months.

Bettydee...how long did you have to dehydrate them? Is it similar to doing apples??

I have a dehydrator that I bought many MANY years ago while living in Ohio and have only used it once since I moved here to Texas (in 1984...LOL)....I LOVE the persimmons, have 2 in my yard and planted 1 in my son's yard next door..they are just babies yet, hopefully within the next 2 or 3 years I will have some fruit on them.

Kris,
My dehydrator has a fan and a range of temperatures. At 135ºF, it takes about 8 hours. Persimmons are easier than apples. You don't have to dip persimmon slices in anything. Just peel and cut into slices about 3/8" thick. The slices are ready when they are dry, but still pliable. It takes a batch or two to the right consistancy. This is for the non-astingent types of persimmons. If you have an astringent variety, you can make fruit jerky with the jelly-like pulp or freeze it.

Thank you so much, if not for your 'dehydrating' comment, I would not have thought of doing this, but now I will dust that contraption off and give it a whirl...(once I have fruit, that is..)

I used to dehydrate apples a lot when living in Ohio since they had orchards where you could go pick friut for a minimal fee. Something like that is probably a thing of the past, though.....and I have never seen anything like that around here...(they only thing grown in DFW area seems to be money and apparently I am not using the right fertilizer..)

Kris

I love your sense of humor. Although I have never been to one, there are a number of pick-your-own orchards in Texas. This website may help you find one near you. The area around Fredricksburg has quite a few.

http://www.pickyourown.org/TX.htm

I didn't start to dehydrate fruit until my fruit trees in San Jose got large enough to bear fruit. We lived out in the country, near New Richmond in Batavia County, Ohio for 4 years. My husband kept telling me not to plant things as we weren't going to be there long. When we moved to San Jose, CA, I started planting fruit tree right away figuring that once the tree was in the ground, he wasn't going to yank it out. I was right. I ended up planting 1 pecan (The other one died.), 2 almond, 4 apple, 3 nectarine, 1 pomagranate, 2 persimmon, 1 Washington Navel Orange, and 1 fig tree. All, but the pecan were wither dwarf or semi-dwarf trees. Additionally, I had 5 miniature apple trees, 8 citrus and 2 dwarf figs in 24" or 30" pots. I cried when we moved. I hated leaving all that behind. The miniature apple and fig trees came with me plus a few of the large empty pots.

Would you believe it? While I was typing this, I got kicked off and had to sign in again losing the posted material. Thank goodness for the Back button. I had to open a new window, copy and paste.

WE have three pomegranates in our yard. They're easy here. Full sun full sun full sun. If you want a good crop of fruit, you will need to provide regular watering. If you don't care about the fruit, the tree is quite drought tolerant and will grow on just mother nature. They're an easy care plant. A couple of things: if you want to prune it into a tree, you must do so early before the shrub starts to crown out. Secondly, the first year or two you won't get any or much fruit at all. It takes about three years to start getting a really good crop. So be patient. The fall color is very attractive also. People should plant more of them. Did you know they're really high in lycopene? They're really good for you. Good luck!