A little skill and a lot of luck

Oh pomegranates…how I love thee….now. I can say I have never bought a pomegranate in the store in my life. This is not because I have anything against pomegranates from stores…it was just never a fruit my mom bought and then as an adult I didn’t really know what to do with them. Plus, they are crazy expensive compared to most other fruits. My love for pomegranates started when I made the shift to growing a lot of our own fruits and vegetables. I was walking through the local nursery and there was a small tree for sale, and I thought, “Hmm, that’s something different! Let’s try it!”. I also love growing things that I can’t necessarily get easily at the store. In this case, the price of pomegranate always deters me.

Year 1…Sour Fruit

When I planted the small tree, I really had no idea what to expect. It was about 2 feet tall and wide, full of green leaves. My little experience with growing fruit trees told me told me I wasn’t going to get fruit right away. This held true. I planted the tree in May, 2017 and that “season”…Late August, we had 3 fruits ripen. Oh boy were they bitter! I was definitely not excited yet about this little tree. But, hey it was a fast grower. By that September the tree had doubled in size, so I figured we would stick it out.

That October, the leaves started to yellow and lose its leaves. I was definitely concerned. Then, as I usually do, I immediately started to research why. It turns out, Pomegranate Trees/ Bushes in my climate behave as a deciduous plant. Now, most things in my garden are definitely not seasonal since, well…Southern California. I learned that deciduous meant the tree would lose all of its leaves, go dormant and then come back in the spring. The tree did go through a very pretty fall phase. I later learned that this deciduous phase would be very useful to me.

Year 3…Let’s Try Pollinating

During year two I noticed that the tree had a lot of flowers. The flowers are so beautiful and unique looking. They are red, with a hard “shell” and petals that are almost like paper.

I had a tree full of flowers but less than ten ripened fruits. So I did my usual and started to research. I was concerned I needed a second plant for pollination. It turns out that the plant self pollinates (with the help of our favorite flying insects) but if little fruit is produced, the tree might need some help. I found a small paint brush and started to “tickle” the centers of the flowers. I did this several times.

Boom!

Getting the hang of this…

That was it! We now had a lot of fruit and WOW…sweet fruit! THIS is what people are talking about!

…and now I am in love.

I SO look forward to our pomegranate each year. The plant keeps growing (about 7 feet tall now) and producing the most amazing fruit. BUT….we are remodeling….and the house is being expanded to where the pomegranate lives. This is the moment I became stressed. I did NOT want to lose my new favorite plant! We have to be able to move it right??

This is where that deciduous part became useful knowledge!

It turns out, that when they have lost all of their leaves, they go dormant (kind of like being asleep). No active growth is happening. This is the ideal time to move the tree. Yes! It turns out that we are in that phase now…lets do this! One weekend, I looked at my husband and in great urgency said, we have to do this NOW. (He thinks I am totally nuts…but have you seen those pomegranates??)

This was the tree in it’s original location, no leaves, completely “asleep”. So we started to “moat” around it to figure out what exactly was going on with the roots. It turns out that the roots all grow outwards, none really down. This was great. I was able to trim them in a circle freeing the tree. I cut each root in two places (you can see my hand pulling the segment out below). This made sure the tree was completely free.

A lot of digging, gentle pushing and then the tree was free and quickly placed into its new home.

The nervous wait

The next few weeks I watered deeply every 3 or 4 days and kept all my fingers crossed. All I could do was wait. The tree usually starts waking up as the weather turns warm…should be soon.

Every day…feeling the branches for bend (if they snapped, they are dead).

It’s alive!

Stay tuned

Phew! Little baby leaves are sprouting and I couldn’t be happier!! I will update soon with the status of the fruit! All in all….it is worth it to try to save the plant….I was ready for the worst, but hey! It seems to have worked!