A Disappointing Season

[pombazaar]

Well this year is going down in the books as the most disappointing season for me. Not a single tree produced fruit. I was expecting to see a decent sized harvest from Belbek, Kazake, and Parfianka but nothing. I think this failure may have been due to only partial sun exposure. In years past full sun exposure has made a grand of a difference. I think factor #2 may be that my large potted trees are root bound. First thing I'm going to do in spring is a heavy root pruning before leaves begin to pop. Next year I will reposition and work on getting Kazake planted in the ground too. How are you all doing?

[greenfig]

Yeap, same here in the SoCal.
The spring rains pushed the trees into producing lots of leaves, it was too wet for flowers so most were dropped. The fruit that stayed on the trees, turned to be smaller than usual. I hope the next year is different!
Because of that excessive moisture, my Sirenevyi died
First, I was heartbroken but then I realized I have a spot for a Spanish Pom.

[pombazaar]

I'm hoping for the same next season. Bummer on your Sirenevyi! I know that is quite a late variety even in SoCal...so don't stay sad for too long lol. I have some UCD varieties you can have to replace it if you'd like. Totally on the house, just pay shipping.

[JCT]

It was a bit of a weird year in SoCal. Only my in-ground Parfianka produced more than one fruit. It's also been a busy year and I didn't keep up with all of the potted trees as well as I should have.

[alanmercieca]

Well this year is going down in the books as the most disappointing season for me. Not a single tree produced fruit. I was expecting to see a decent sized harvest from Belbek, Kazake, and Parfianka but nothing. I think this failure may have been due to only partial sun exposure. In years past full sun exposure has made a grand of a difference. I think factor #2 may be that my large potted trees are root bound. First thing I'm going to do in spring is a heavy root pruning before leaves begin to pop. Next year I will reposition and work on getting Kazake planted in the ground too. How are you all doing?

Yes, pomegranates need a spot with a lot of sun and heat to produce well, especially in a cooler climate, the most important time of pomegranate fruit ripening is during a cooler time of year, with not so many sun hours to hit the fruit.

Further more dehydration can drop the fruit, and they also need a lot of nitrogen during production like citrus does, or the fruit drops. In certain parts of Europe like Malta and like Italy the pomegranates start producing flowers and fruit, as the yearly drought conditions are not so severe especially at the night time, due to the cooler nights, as the night temperatures start to drop. Although the day time temperatures can still get very hot and dry. Like I have said on here before, in Malta most pomegranate bushes are on own roots, either seedlings, or cuttings grafted on to seedlings. That allows the roots to go way deeper than the roots of rooted cuttings can, so no matter how dry the soil is at the surface, the roots will still collect some water, and that water will have nitrogen, calcium and other nutrients. The roots on such a pomegranate bush in Malta will pull up more water when the fruit and flowers are forming due to everything being less dry, the more nutrient containing water the more nutrients for the fruit and for the flowers. Also the deeper part of the roots will also remain cool no matter how hot it is at the surface.

I have started to use water globes for my potted pomegranates, otherwise it's too easy to over water or under water potted pomegranates, yet it is possible to underestimate how long the globes can take to empty. This year we had one way undersized pomegranate on a potted plant yet it's our first edible pomegranate fruit on a potted plant, so I am happy about that. The globes do help, although the plant did not have enough sun or nitrogen.