Punica Species, Granate Apple, Pomegranate

Pomegranate thrives in our climate. Here in the coastal area I see many strong plants blooming and bearing fruits all the year. They donÂ...Read More´t seem to mind our sandy soils, nor our burning sun.

This is one of my favorite fruits - I've grown it in Los Angeles and am trying to get it to fruit in Alabama (with little luck). I use th...Read Moree juice for cooking. Here's my method: take the fruit in your hands and gently squash it, making sure not to rupture the skin - you can feel the inner seed beans getting squished. After you have made the fruit totally squishy, take a knife and make a small puncture in the fruit - make sure you have a bowl to drain the juice in. Continue squishing the fruit until most of the juice is in the bowl and it sort of falls apart. Enjoy!

This is a tree with many good aspects.

First, it grows with many stems and can take a lot of pruning to produce the result...Read More you like.
Then, the flowers are a brilliant red and they make a strong impression.

The fruit is wonderful, if you don't mind the pips. You can take the juice by cutting the fruit in half and squeezing it on a lemon squeezer - if you are more sophisticated, it will give you a very refreshing juice with a juice extractor, like that used for carrots.
You can dry the fruit in the sun and use it in a pot-pourri bowl or hang it on the door back with a garlic, some cinnamon sticks and a horseshoe for good luck. In the old times they used to break a pomegranate in front of the home entrance to ask for prosperity.
A hai-koo written in Greek from G Seferis (Nobel):
"naked woman,
the pomegranate that broke
was full of stars"

The leaves turn yellow in the Autumn and give a totally different look.

There are several varieties, some for flowers only, some with early small pomegranates othres with huge dark red fruit, and you can graft a tree to produce 2- 3 different kinds.

What else do you want from a tree ?? Perhaps not to have thorns..

The seeds, (the edible part is the flesh surrounding the seeds) are best removed by cutting the crown off, then scoring the skin in numer...Read Moreous places, then hold the fruit under water and break apart the fruit. The seeds sink and the leathery skin floats. The flesh around the seeds needs to be removed to dry the seeds as it can cause the seed to rot or mold. The fruit has been used as an astringent, diuretic, anthelmithic(wormer), and febrifuge(fever reducer). It is considered a mediteranean fruit, and most commercialy grown in the San Joaquin valley of California.
It can be grown from seed. Has survived temps down to 15 degrees F, although a frost after budding will cause it not to fruit.

Some people find it hard to figure out how to get this plant to produce fruit, but once you do, it'll produce for years. The way you eat...Read More the fruit is to break it open and suck the pulp off of the numerous seeds. There's probably, by mass, as many seeds as edible pulp, so many people find it more trouble than it's worth. I, on the other hand, LOVE the sweet-tart flavor ~ reminds me of my Grandma's tree.

Semi-deciduous (will lose some leaves) in zone 8. Grows quickly. Great for color all year, does produce fruit, some can get up to 15 fe...Read Moreet tall. Prefers full sun.