Record Cold

[alanmercieca]

Yes both figs and pomegranates are sensitive once they come out of dormancy, also some varieties of pomegranates resist dormancy way more than others.

Once a large 'Salavatski' in the state of Georgia died from the cold, it was way out of dormancy and a light frost killed it.

[pogrmman]

Yes both figs and pomegranates are sensitive once they come out of dormancy, also some varieties of pomegranates resist dormancy way more than others.

Once a large 'Salavatski' in the state of Georgia died from the cold, it was way out of dormancy and a light frost killed it.

You’re certainly not wrong about that! I just find it kind of nuts that a big plant with a trunk as big around as my leg died back to the ground whereas one so small that calling the trunk 1 cm thick would be generous only died back about 18”. Yes, the latter had some protection, but, given the extended duration of this freeze, I doubt it did all that much.

[pombazaar]

I'm super sad to hear this, I was really hoping your tree would make it. I may have some leftover cuttings from this season I can send you so you can regrow. How long are you going to wait until you pull it?

[pogrmman]

I'm super sad to hear this, I was really hoping your tree would make it. I may have some leftover cuttings from this season I can send you so you can regrow. How long are you going to wait until you pull it?

Thank you for the generous offer! But I’ll be fine. My habit of compulsively taking cuttings of everything has paid off: I’ve got extras of everything. The fact that the worst that came of this crazy storm for us was some damaged and dead plants is truly a blessing.

I’m going to wait until at least May before I go to the work of taking it out. Given its large, established root system its hard to imagine it won’t try sprouting back...

[pogrmman]

I can confirm this tree is still alive, but it did get cut back to the ground. Here’s some sprouts coming up:

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I’m probably gonna have to do a loooooot of pruning to keep it from just becoming a mess of suckers. Fortunately, that gives me a chance to re-train the tree to a much better structure. I mean, suckers before the dieback would grow 15’ or more each year, so I’m expecting these things to really reach for the sky!

[pogrmman]

Well, I got the big one cut down to the ground. It’s a shame, but you can see from how fat the growth rings are that it began growing pretty amazingly fast as soon as hurricane Harvey knocked over the big red oak formerly shading it out.

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My smaller pomegranate in the ground is sprouting back vigorously as well, and my potted ones look lovely.

[pogrmman]

As a follow up from this: my in-ground ‘Red Silk’ fruited for the first time this year. I wasn’t expecting it to and it flowered really late — like August. It somehow made some fruit that got fairly ripe and were shockingly good for how little time they had on the tree! The arils were definitely not filled out all the way, but it wasn’t bad.

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Also, although this one is marketed as semi dwarf, I highly doubt that will be the case. It has shot up to about 10’ tall! The wholesaler this came from usually does a good job and has everything labeled right, so I don’t think I got something that was mislabeled.

The big one in the ground has shot up a thicket right by the main trunk, but also it’s shot up a bunch of growth from the other side of the retaining wall it’s planted behind! I think they must be coming up from the roots because it definitely hadn’t been able to layer itself over there.