Pomegranate Trees
A Few Things About Pomegranate Trees You May Not Know
Pomegranate trees are described as a tree or a shrub, and they can grow up to about twenty-four feet in height. This tree was originally found in the region from the Indian Himalaya Mountains to Iran. It has been grown commercially all around the Mediterranean area since the time of the ancients. It is often grown in tropical Africa, the East Indies, Malaysia, southeast Asia, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Algeria and Afghanistan.
In the countries of Armenia and Georgia, on the east side of the Black Sea, you can see wild groves of pomegranate trees that still grow outside abandoned ancient settlements. The pomegranate has been cultivated for so long in Armenia that they have located remains of decayed pomegranates that date back to One Thousand BC.
The pomegranate tree was introduced to areas of California and Latin America by Spanish settlers, and it is now commercially grown in Arizona and California, to produce juice. In these areas, pomegranates are in season from late summer into January. South of the Equator, its season lasts from March through May.
Pomegranate leaves are narrow, oblong and glossy, measuring roughly two inches across and two to three inches long. The flowers are a lively shade of red and about two inches across, with four or five petals. The fruit size is between that of a grapefruit and a lemon, and it has a reddish, thick skin, and about six hundred seeds. The pulp and seeds, which range in color from deep red to white, are edible. Actually, the fruit of the pomegranate is sometimes referred to as a berry. Some different varieties of pomegranates even have pulp in other colors, like purple.
Pomegranate trees are generally available from garden centers and nurseries, in five or ten gallon containers. There are some varieties that are better as far as the fruit goes, and some that flower more brightly but have smaller fruit on them. You can grow pomegranates from seed, but it is far easier to start them with cuttings so that you will be more assured of the quality of fruit you will have. To start with cuttings, you can take shoots of six to eight inch lengths, in late February or early March. Place them in the soil vertically, exposing the bud.
Pomegranates sometimes resemble shrubs more than trees, because they often produce a lot of suckers from the crown and root area. If you prefer the lean tree shape, you can choose a sturdy trunk and remove the suckers from it, fairly often. Pomegranate trees occasionally drop their fruit when they are young, but mature trees hold their fruit much more readily. You can help the tree hold onto its fruit by avoiding over-fertilization and over-watering.