[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Dick]

Ellen, I have a healthy pomegranate about ten years old that I have never 
fertilized but splitting still occurs to some degree. Uniform feeding and 
irrigating may be the only effective treatment   Splitting is, in my own 
experience, pretty common in this species and I think it happens during 
rapid growth when the skin can't expand at the same rate-and something has 
to give. Fruit growth may not be involved if a sudden infusion of moisture 
in the fruit causes the skin to fracture. I used to see splitting in San 
Diego, too. A sudden onslaught of warm weather combined, perhaps, with a 
shot of fertilizer and irrigation are the elements involved, apparently.

I believe the species is a desert plant or at least adapted to a dry desert 
climate. Subject it to widely fluctuating weather and things unusual happen 
to it.

In this area, splitting may be a bit difficult to prevent considering that 
the temp may be 110 F today and 85 in the morning. It is a common phemomena 
that someone in this area has surely figured out how to correct. Those 
persons are urged to respond. It is a remarkable fruit.

I remember seeing years ago in the old Tucson Mission courtyard, a Golden 
Pommegranate species that had no split fruit. I got cuttings from the tree 
but, if they rooted, I have no recollection of what happened to them.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
U of A Maricopa County Cooperative Extension


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ellenschlenker at cox.net>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 2:30 AM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Ellen Schlenker
> 85375
> ellenschlenker at cox.net
>
> Re: Pomegranates.
>
> I have planted two Pom trees in our backyard.  I have loved pomegranates 
> since my early childhood and I am now 65.  We have two trees; one we have 
> had at least 10 years and the other about 6.  They both bear fruit but the 
> older one more than the other.  The fruit is not the bright red you see in 
> the stores but a red/brown and seems to split.  I leave the fruit on the 
> trees so that the birds can eat the seeds since most of the fruit split on 
> the branches.  My two questions are how often should I feed the trees 
> (what type of feed) and how do I get them to be the right color for 
> picking and eating?
>
> Both the family and the hummingbirds enjoy the trees in the early spring 
> when they are in bloom.  And to see the trees just full of their blossoms 
> and in bright red/orange color and then change into the the fruit itself 
> is quite amazing.  People she have these trees in their backyards for they 
> are easy to maintain and to watch the hummers flipping from flower to 
> flower and then the birds attacking the fruit is great fun to watch.
>
> Thanks you in advance for any informatin you can send me.
>
> Ellen Schlenker
> ellenschlenker at cox.net
> Sun City West, AZ.
>
>
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