Pruning

[pomtastic]

My trees are growing and currently have many-shoots. Do you all cut those away to establish one trunk or do you allow them all to grow? They all want to spread out and I have been staking all the little branches to try to get them to grow up instead of out. Thanks for any help.

[pombazaar]

I've tried both the multi and single trunk approach. Overall, I've had better fruit yield with my trees that are multi trunked. One cautionary point against a single trunk tree is what happens if the single trunk dies or gets infected? The answer is your whole tree will be toast and you'll have to start from the ground up again.

Staking up the tree is a good move, it will enable your tree to grow tall before branches start to weep downward.

As far as shoots go, I do a good pruning to promote balanced airflow, usually in the fall prior to winterizing. Why don't you post some photos of your trees? Maybe we can give you a few pointers.

[pomtastic]

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[pombazaar]

As long as you stay under 6 main trunks you'll be fine. 3-6 is the desired number. My largest tree has 5. I would fertilize generously and continue staking up the short branches. Eventually the tree won't need stakes as it gets stronger and stabilizes.

[pomtastic]

Okay thanks! Ive been using 6-6-6 slow release and the blue miracle grow general fert weekly, that alright?

[alanmercieca]

The tricky thing about which fertilizer to use, it depends on what the soil actually has in it already, and how deep the roots go. An actual pomegranate seedling has much deeper roots than what most people grow. The old fashioned way was to either grow a seedling for fruit, or graft a variety to a seedling, that makes them way more drought resistant, and that gets a lot of nitrogen, and maybe other nutrients from deep in the ground. Most people plant rooted pomegranate cuttings, or pomegranate air layerings because it's easier, and might even be faster to get a crop than grafting on to a seedling.

[pombazaar]

In the past I've seen exceptional results with liquid or water soluble fertilizer. Gaia Mania is 1-5-1 and the years I used that I had the most growth. Not only on pomegranates, but also olives and citrus. The amount of growth I had was really incredible. I've also tried things like Jack's 10-10-10 but didn't have the same results growth wise or fruit wise. After reading through The Incredible Pomegranate it seems that synthetic fertilizers are probably overkill. A lot of these contain added salts which can do more harm to the soil and may even stunt tree growth. I'm presently working on making my own brew out of leaves and water. Pure nitrogen tea filled with microbes that are wicked up by the roots (I use trays for all my large trees). At this point in my growing career, I'm trying really hard to avoid things like Miracle Grow and other big name synthetics.

It's completely up to you but maybe consider giving Gaia Mania a try and then phase out to something more organic. 1 bottle should last you an entire season or two. Well worth the money and a lot cheaper than big names.