Greetings from Waddell, AZ

[crademan]

Good morning everyone. Pombazaar deserves a big thank you for setting up this website. It will be fun learning about pomegranates here!

My husband and I went to the California Rare Fruit Growers Festival of Fruits in 2011. That was the Arizona CRFG Chapter's "Year of the Pomegranate." We joined the Arizona CRFG Chapter in 2011 and have been learning about growing all sorts of rare fruits from club members ever since.

Old fashioned Wonderful pomegranate arils do not turn red in central Arizona's hot dry summer weather, so we took out our Wonderful pomegranate to make room for better cultivars. Soft seeded pomegranate varieties are my favorites. This is a link to a table prepared by Bill Castle [[email protected]], University of Florida, which offers lots of useful information about pomegranate cultivars. https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/pom ... de2016.pdf

[pombazaar]

Welcome crademan!

I'm amazed at all the sign ups and posts that have went out in just one day, this community has so much potential. I also wanted to thank you for sharing this table. Such valuable information! What varieties do you and your husband grow?

[greenfig]

Welcome to the new forum and thank you for the link !

Which soft seeded varieties do you like and do well in Arizona?

[crademan]

@pombazaar, We have Desertnyi, Gisarskii Rosovyi, Parfyanka, Ariana, Granada, and Eversweet in ground and bearing. We transplanted one Sirenevyi pomegranate into the ground this spring that has not yet fruited. We have 5 gallon pots containing Angel Red, Salavatski, Ink, and an unknown pomegranate propagated from tree located in Texas by a hobbyist that may be (or is similar to) Mollar. The grower gave me this link that describes Mollar. http://www.granadaselche.com/the-pomegranate.

[crademan]

@greenfig, most pomegranates do well in Arizona, except Wonderful which rarely produces the dark red purple arils for which it is so famous. Granada is a hard seeded "sport" of Wonderful that has two advantages. First, it ripens a month earlier than other pomegranates. Second, its arils are reliably red purple and sweeter than those of Wonderful which tend to be very tart here.

You cannot go wrong planting soft seeded pomegranates in central Arizona's Zone 9b climate. They adapt very well to our alkaline water and soils. Among soft-seeded pomegranates, we like Desertnyi best for flavor, production, and sweetness. Parfyanka poms can be larger, their arils tend to be pink and VERY soft seeded, so they are a little like eating a crunchy citrus fruit made of pink lemonade with very little seed crunch. Gissarskii Rosovyi poms are a bit prone to sun burn, taste very good, but to be honest were not memorable last year (our first crop). If you like Sweet Tart candies, Ariana's rich, tart sweet pomegranate flavor and beautiful deep red soft seeded arils will win your heart.

[Pomhill]

Hi, I agree what a great opportunity to discuss everything pomegranate haha

I personally can NOT recommend Mollar De Elche,

We have 600 of them and they have one more year to produce the goods or we are going to rip them out.
We live in Western Australia and I suspect Mollar are calcium hungry.

The reviews of Mollar get you all excited but maybe bad cultivar imported ....they flower, they fruit but fail to mature and have chalky pith. Yuck !!!!

[crademan]

Thanks for the heads up on Mollar, Pomhill. My Texas friend says that his pomegranate ripens in July. Our earliest pom begins ripening in October, most cultivars ripen in November, so I thought maybe this bush would extend our season. It will be interesting to see how it does here in central Arizona.

[greenfig]

I have not tasted Mollar but have tried Yazd from Paradise Nursery. Yazd was very sweet with great undertones (not just sugar water) and I am planning to buy one. The arils look similar to Mollar and the taste profile is close too but it is lighter in color outside (rind).
I hope to visit Paradise later this month and take some more photos.

https://paradisenursery.com/product-cat ... ate-trees/

Please see the Yazd arils below (I apologize for the stained napkin )

[bopcrane]

Thank you for the link, that has some great information on it! bookmarked

@greenfig Is that the "White ‘Anar Yazd’" on their website? looks great!

[greenfig]

Thank you for the link, that has some great information on it! bookmarked

@greenfig Is that the "White ‘Anar Yazd’" on their website? looks great!

Yes! I sampled it liked it a lot. My son said they tasted like gummy bears. That settled it