New Member With a Slight Conundrum

[BizarrePom]

Hi everyone,

I'm in 7b, southern MD, and I've become obsessed with the idea of growing pomegranates. I'll get into more about all the ideas and plans I've been working on and I have lots of questions, but for now I have a situation I could use some thoughts on.

A couple months ago, before thinking things through, I ordered a couple of small Parfianka plants from CA (in my defense it was in the 60s when i placed the order ). They arrived with one visibly starting to break dormancy in the beginning of an unusually long period of below freezing temps.

My choices were to put it in the very detached garage during extended temps in the teens, or put it in an unheated room upstairs that sits in the high 50s. I chose the latter and removed the one set of little leaflets that had sprouted and have been giving it some time outside when it was upper 30s to 50s, hoping it would decide to go back to sleep.

Well now they are both definitely waking up. My plan was originally to plant after the last frost, but that's probably a solid month and a half away. The pots they arrived in are too small. I put grow lights on them yesterday.

I'm trying to decide if it's best to either:

1) up pot them now and then plant in the spring
2) up pot them now and wait until next spring to put them in the ground
or
3) wait the 6ish weeks and just put them in the ground

I'm not sure what will give them the best odds of success longterm. Obviously none of these are ideal.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice from experience they can share?

Also, they're in a 6" pot. If I do up pot them longer term, is it better to go bigger now or step the size up as they grow?

[pombazaar]

Photos would help but 2 seems to be the most viable option in your scenario.

How long until lows average above freezing temps in your area? What are your current lows looking like?

I really can’t vouch for 7B but general rule of thumb here is wait a minimum of 3 years before planting in ground. When I bought my Parfianka I immediately up-potted it to a 15 or 20G container and the growth exploded.

[BizarrePom]

Thanks very much for your response! It looks like we normally see our last frost by mid to late April. Right now our lows are kind of all over the place. Low 20s to upper 40s.

I tried to upload photos with the original post but the file sizes were too big. I think this one should work though.

They are about 2 feet tall right now and look like they were pruned for height before shipping. Is there any way to determine how old they are? Unfortunately the Etsy seller hasn't been terribly responsive.

ETA: would putting them in the ground now, covered by a cheap portable greenhouse be a good option? I'm not sure how much protection those really offer though. Has anyone had success in this manner?

[alanmercieca]

I think you should wait, I tried protecting an in ground pomegranate, and it suffered more with the protection, and this was a older pomegranate than yours. I am in 7b too. I am not sure about where you live, yet our 7b North Carolina the milder late frosts are harder on the pomegranates than the actual cold is. Protection at that time I think wakes them up faster. Here we'd be better off if the plants took a month/month and half longer to wake up. The only protection that could work is if you take them off all the time otherwise the plants would wake from dormancy faster. Also the protection could not touch the plant if you do protect, and an added heat source on only at night would help like old fashioned Christmas lights. Yet once they get big enough you'd not be able to protect them.

I'd wait until at least mid April to plant them, maybe even late April if they are out of dormancy already. Plant them near the house if you can, and plant them on the south side of the house, or on the south eastern side of the house if you can, to reduce the northern winds, and to block the very early morning sun, while gaining some night heat from the house.

[brain]

This sounds like a good opportunity to try one in the house and try planting one outside in the ground now to see what happens.
If the one outside doesn't make it would be sad, but you still have the other one.
It also is not very hard to find another Parfianka.
https://restoringeden.co/product/pomegranate-parfianka/

I haven't ordered from them but I plan on it when they have Sumbar and Super Early back in stock again.
They seem like a good place.

[BizarrePom]

Sorry I missed notifications for these replies. I ended up keeping them inside until this past weekend when I planted them as it was looking like we were warming up quickly and the extended forecast was all lows above 40.

Anyway, of course the forecast has shifted dramatically and we may get into the 30s overnight next week. I picked up a roll of "planket" at Costco recently, so I'll wrap them in that and maybe also some reflectix for those nights.

I have a dormant Grenada that I may plant soon, along with Sirenevyi, Azadi, Sverkhranniy, Utah Sweet, and a couple of Eversweets on order from Planting Justice. I also will be planting Makedonia/Greek Red and possibly some other rooted cuttings from Fruitwood in the coming weeks. My back is going to be very unhappy, I think .

My plan is to test out as many varieties as possible to see what works here. I think humidity here may end up being be the biggest challenge, assuming I can get them established without cold injury and to the point they're actually producing fruit.

[brain]

I am following your thread on the other forum.
That one has 50 replies over there.
I'm guessing that is the place for conversation.

I have a dormant Grenada that I may plant soon, along with Sirenevyi, Azadi, Sverkhranniy, Utah Sweet,

I planted an Angel Red last year, which is a bud sport of Grenada and it is shooting up a ton of shoots from the ground,
so apparently it survived the winter here in 7B.
The growing zone is only a small part of the equation I think.
I think the duration of winter and whether the ground freezes or not makes a big difference in the end.
The ground doesn't/hasn't/didn't freeze here.
January is the coldest month with about 3 weeks of freezing temps.
Lowest temp was in the single digits a few times, I think 9 is what my phone said but I know my backyard is always a few degrees warmer than that.
They seemed fine because they were dormant and mulched.

But.....As predicted, they woke up early and then got hit with a freeze in March and all the buds and new sprigs got frozen.
The trunks are fine and apparently the roots are fine because they are back at it again.
Hotuni Zigar and Kara Bala Miursal(I swear that letter I is not supposed to be in the name) didn't get slowed down at all.
They leafed out and didn't freeze, which seems really strange. I would figure a leaf is a leaf and a bud is a bud,
it seems like if a plant leafs out early and frost happen that it would affect all of them the same.
I had no doubts that the plants would survive but a little surprised to so those two just keep going like nothing happened.

I also have a Utah Sweet and it appears to be fine but it has been slower to resprout since that frost.

Sirenevyi I decided against because it is known to ripen late.
Sometimes the first frost can happen the second week of October here, So I think I am going to prioritize early ripening varieties more in the future if one of the existing plants doesn't make it and/or needs to be replaced.

I am really curious about Eversweet, but ended up getting other things that would end up taking the spot that an Eversweet would be occupying.
Really I just want one good sweet to make it. I have 2 AC Sweets, 1 Utah Sweet(Might even be the same thing. Don't know because there is zero information about where the AC sweet came from, but it is from the same region that Utah Sweet is popular and they really look the same. Won't know until fruit happens I guess), then a baby Sverkhranniy that doesn't look too promising since it got damaged in shipping.

My plan is to test out as many varieties as possible to see what works here. I think humidity here may end up being be the biggest challenge,

In theory Azadi and Eversweet should do the best where humidity is a problem since they are known to do well in coastal environments.

[BizarrePom]

Where are you located? I know a community food forest near here had an Angel Red that died, but I'm not sure why - it's just notated on their map. I mentally crossed that one off my list based on that and various sources online saying it was good in zone 8 and above. I might have to put that back on the list.

Yes it seems zone is only a suggestion, but other factors can still cause a cultivar to fail.

Hotuni Zigar and Kara Bala Miursal are both on my list to try. I keep reading that Utah Sweet can grow up to 30 ft, but I have yet to see an actual testimony or picture confirming that. AC Sweet is on my list, and I have a Sweet cutting that looks promising based on foliage so far.

That's a shame about the Sverkhranny. I hope the seller is willing to replace it for you.

And yes, it seems there is more activity on the other forum, though I really like the idea of a forum dedicated to pomegranates.

[brain]

Where are you located?

I am in central New Mexico, south of Albuquerque a bit.
Short winters but unpredictable weather patterns.
In November everything got snowed on heavily before they were dormant, that was alarming.

I know a community food forest near here had an Angel Red that died, but I'm not sure why - it's just notated on their map. I mentally crossed that one off my list based on that and various sources online saying it was good in zone 8 and above. I might have to put that back on the list.

It is probably not the best idea for me to do it but so far so good.
I also have 3 wonderfuls that are fine too.
Wonderful, grenada, and angel red are known to be frost sensitive not recommended below zone 8.
It was another one that was hard to say no to. It was flowering when I bought it. It was produced by Monrovia.
It also had the worst transplant shock I had seen. Whooops. I planted it in May, seemed fine, but for several weeks it looked sad and dropped
a bunch of leaves and I thought it was going to die. Probably too hot while trying to acclimate.
Then eventually it took to the ground and all was better.
Also it produced 2 fruits the first year which was surprising. Even more surprising was they tasted amazing!!

That's a shame about the Sverkhranny. I hope the seller is willing to replace it for you.

Yeah they were responsive, friendly and gave me store credit but I opted not to try again on the Sverkhranniy.
I think the stake that they put in the soil to protect it in shipping acted as a shovel and uprooted it disconnecting the trunk from the rootball.
The other two plants I got from them were fine, so it was just probably bad luck and random.

Whenever Restoring Eden gets their other poms in late spring I'll try ordering from them because they seem pretty cool.