Hi y'all!

[pogrmman]

Hi everyone!
I'm super glad there's finally a forum about pomegranates. I've grown them on and off for years. I'm from Austin, TX.
My first ever pomegranate was a double-flowered tree I bought as "Wonderful". It's a beautiful tree with gorgeous flowers, but no fruit. I've since found out that the nursery used to grow both the actual "Wonderful" cultivar and the flowering one, but got them mixed up because they're virtually identical when not in bloom...
Since then, I've also gotten an unknown fruiting cultivar (probably "Wonderful" -- the commonest fruiting cultivar here -- the taste is identical to a store-bought pomegranate) and "Red Silk".

The unknown one was planted under a big oak about a decade ago. It grew and grew, but never flowered. Then, hurricane Harvey ended up knocking over the oak tree and the pomegranate flowered like mad the next year. It set tons of fruit, but squirrels took a bite out of every single fruit when they were only like 2" across, causing them all to drop.

Because the tree hadn't been cared for, both last winter and this winter I've pruned out so many stems that I couldn't wrap my arms around the bundle. I finally got it down from 50+ stems to just 3 trunks. The biggest trunk is like 8" thick at the base: maybe bigger. The tree is 15-20' tall now. Even though it flowers like crazy, I've only harvested a single fruit because of the squirrels: they have done the same thing every single year since it started fruiting. It sets at least 100 fruit every year (probably more), but the squirrels make them all fall off. Literally every fruitlet I find on the ground has a squirrel bite on it :/

The only fruit I've had from it was one I protected by putting a 4" pot over it. It was really good and tasted nearly identical to a store-bought fruit, although it was a bit underripe and was starting to split when I harvested it. Does anyone have a good suggestion for fixing the fact that the squirrels try and eat the poms when they're still super hard and underripe? It's super disappointing to see so many fruits drop with little bites out of every single one.

I still need to plant out the "Red Silk", but I'm hoping because it's semi-dwarf and I've been able to get in some early structural shaping that it'll be easier to protect fruit from animals.

I've also got a bunch of rooted cuttings from the big tree and I'm giving them some pruning to grew into nice single-trunk trees. I'm also going to root some cuttings from the "Red Silk".

I really enjoy pomegranates because they're super easy to grow, taste fantastic, and are beautiful trees. I'm excited to read about other people's pomegranates!

[JoshHolbrook]

Welcome, and have you thought about a pellet gun?

[pogrmman]

Welcome, and have you thought about a pellet gun?

Haha, and thanks! I'm in a suburban area with pretty densely forested surroundings, so trying to control squirrels with a pellet gun seems pretty impractical: there's just far too many of them. Plus, I'm not at home all the time and don't usually catch the squirrels in the act. What kills me most about them is that they don't seem to learn that pomegranates that size are still rock hard, just like they don't seem to learn that underripe figs are filled with latex...

[Eykca]

You said there are only 3 trunks now, any chance you can put one of those metal sleeves on them that the squirrels can't climb? I've seen a bunch of trees around here (Fresno CA) with them. I am assuming your tree isn't in contact with other trees higher up. Not really practical for an orchard but if you only a few trees, perhaps.

Found this on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=garnWrTd7Y4. It seems the guy used some aluminum duct pieces and claims it worked great. Just ideas.

[pogrmman]

I might just try that, but the tree is planted by a retaining wall and they can probably get onto it from up there.
Here’s a photo that shows the tree today, so you can get an idea of the siting.

C8A5E87F-6F5F-498E-923F-410B7F96BB19.jpeg (3.62 MiB) Viewed 4931 times

Not the best choice for siting a tree, but it was planted as an ornamental, not for fruit purposes. There is still some work I need to do on the canopy — mostly with respect to one big, vertical branch that has a cluster of branches with super narrow crotches coming out of the top.

[greenfig]

If the tree is facing South, that is a super prime spot! The poms don’t like too much moisture when they are flowering and ripening, and appreciate any heat. It seems that’s what you get there . You can use bird netting or an electrical fence there

[pogrmman]

The wall you see behind the tree is to the NW of it, and the wall I’m standing on is to the SW of it. Fortunately, since the big Spanish oak fell, it gets full, hot sun basically all day now.

The biggest issue is I planted some bananas in the same bed (because it’s the warmest spot in the winter that has irrigation, full sun, and space for bananas), so they’re on the same watering system. Bananas use an ungodly amount of water during the summer here, so I’m probably irrigating a bit much for the pomegranate. I did read about pomegranates (and figs) being grown (for personal use) less than a mile from my house, on top of a ridge in the late 1800s, so I imagine they’d be fine here without irrigation. (Which is also why I have so many baby cuttings in pots: I’m gonna plant them out and see how they do without supplemental water).

I might try bird netting — it’ll be easier once I cut out the branch with really weak crotches: it’s the tallest bit of the tree.