First time pruning established pomegranate- advice? pics

19 years ago

So here it is:

It has never been pruned before, and I'd like to do a little something now to encourage fruit-bearing.

From what I've read, the pruning for an established tree should be limited to dead wood and suckers (to help conserve resources that could otherwise be used toward fruit?). It's too late to do any significant shaping.

I have a few questions, though. Should I also be pruning old wood, since it doesn't bear fruit? If so - sorry for the stupid question - how do I recognize old wood? I did some pruning yesterday and thought some of the branches near the bottom were grayish compared to the others, but wasn't sure whether it was due to other factors (less exposure to sun, etc.).

Also, can I expect more fruit than is already on the tree? I saw branches without any fruit, but I didn't know if that meant a) old wood or b) new wood that hasn't flowered/fruited yet. I read that late summer/early fall is the fruiting period, but the poms from my tree don't usually ripen until October/November (is it because of the high temps where I live?). Also a bit confusing because I've walked by a house in my neighborhood whose pom tree is *loaded* with beautiful red fruit that looks ready to be picked.

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Comments (3)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
19 years ago
Red:

I'm no expert at pruning pomegranate having only worked with fairly young trees that weren't needing pruning yet. But looking at your tree I'd say that you will be unlikely to improve the fruitfulness by major pruning. Your tree doesn't look old enough for that to be the case. If it is not as fruitful as you wish, I don't know the reson for that. Could it be a seedling rather than a named variety?

Your tree looks very healthy. You could prune out the largest diameter wood if it is too big. But that is unlikely to improve your crop in the next couple yrs.

Your tree looks pretty young and vigorous. Bearing may improve as the tree gets older.

The Fruitnut
1canyongirl
19 years ago
Patience..........

Spring of 2000 I purchased a three foot scrawny pomegranate from the California Rare Fruit Growers booth at their Green Scene garden show. It had a typewritten tag that said the variety was "Juan" and it came from Mexico.

Over the years I've wanted to find out who donated this big non bearing plant to the group for sale.

Now, seven years later, for the first time ever, we have beautiful, large, green fruits. The color was quite unexpected but well worth the wait.

The literature says may take two to three years to fruit. The Ambrosia we have fruited at two years and 1 1/2 ft tall.
But then there are some that take 7, 8 years.

As fruitnut mentioned, your tree looks very healthy. Maybe 2008 will be your year.

Pam

Here is a link that might be useful: Pomegranate fruit facts
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reddimill
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks for the input, guys. Fruit production has actually been decent - always seems to split by the time they're ready to be picked, but it's not really much of an issue as we don't use them for decoration.

Fruitnut, I'm afraid to say I don't know the difference between a seedling and a named variety. But I didn't plant the tree so I wouldn't be able to tell anyhow.

The tree has thrived under my total neglect, so I thought that maybe starting to take proper care of it would produce magical results. But the idea didn't enter my mind until I spotted my neighbor's obviously well-cared-for pom (which looks like an actual tree, not an overgrown shrub).

Maybe I'm just suffering from a little pom-envy. ;)