Leaf Curl

[Eykca]

Spring is upon us in Fresno CA and all of my pomegranates (I have 12 varieties) are leafing wonderfully (pun intended). Once again, though, I have a couple varieties with leaf curl, of varying severity. Last year my Desertnyi got hit pretty hard. I tried treating it w/ Neem Oil, but it didn't seem to help a whole lot. This year, my Saveh and Al Sirin Nar are starting to get it (see pics). All my other varieties look great, just these two (so far...) Whats the deal here? Is this something I need to treat, is it no biggie? Is it a mold or a bug? Help me out if you can!

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[pogrmman]

I’m definitely interested in this — most of my pomegranates get some degree of leaf curl, but usually not this early in the season. I’ve always wondered what caused it.

[alanmercieca]

I would prune just under each part that is like that, I think that it's the same fungal disease that can cause a rooted pomegranate to die back nearly to the ground it's first spring, if that is what is causing it then you have nothing to worry about as long as you prune underneath the sick looking part. They are very resistant to the disease, I think that it's the same disease killing off pomegranates in some of the way more humid/hot areas than most of the USA has. Luckily we don't live in such an area where a fungal disease can be way more dangerous to plants.

[greenfig]

I am interested too. Last year my Sirenevyi got this curl but not Parfianka or Desertnyi. I spent hours online but couldn’t find anything useful. The trimming doesn’t really help. I don’t believe this is caused by any insect, it is more nutrients or environment.

[Eykca]

I can't really prune below the infected areas, considering over 90% of the leaves are infected. I hit it with a copper fungicide, (why not). I'm optimistic that it'll do the same thing my Desertnyi did last year, struggle with it all year, drop leaves, regrow, drop leaves, and then look amazing the next spring... Like alanmercieca said, maybe this is just a thing that sometimes hits first year poms... but if anybody has any magic bullets, I will certainly keep checking for replies.

[alanmercieca]

Like alanmercieca said, maybe this is just a thing that sometimes hits first year poms... but if anybody has any magic bullets, I will certainly keep checking for replies.

It's not exactly what I thought it may be. Yet a lot of plants struggle when they are younger, what is causing the leaf curl may just be the plants struggling with their new home, most likely with the ground. I think the best word for it is stress. Yet they grow stronger with age.

[pogrmman]

I think that it's the same disease killing off pomegranates in some of the way more humid/hot areas than most of the USA has.

I didn’t realize there was a disease going around that killed off pomegranates in really hot/humid climates. I wonder if it hits places like extreme south TX or FL.

I tend to notice leaf curl most on my pomegranates later in the year, but it never seems to be super severe. I even notice it on big plants: not just young ones. I, too, haven’t been able to find much information on it. At first, I thought it was damage from aphids or the like, but it’s definitely not that.

It does pop up a little bit this early in the season, but it is not as bad as in midsummer. You can see a little bit of it on this photo of my big, established one. This plant is over 10 years old and is always super vigorous.

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[alanmercieca]

I didn’t realize there was a disease going around that killed off pomegranates in really hot/humid climates. I wonder if it hits places like extreme south TX or FL.

Australia's pomegranate bushes have been hit very hard by such a disease, such a disease also exists in the most southern part of Alabama. Something in the soil that seems to be a fungal disease.

This is the fungal disease (Eutypa lata) in Australia that I was thinking about https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1 ... 9-1912-PDN

A different fungal disease (Lasiodiplodia gilanensis) that does the same thing was found attacking pomegranate bushes in Southern California https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... California

[Blake]

I posted this in the Fruiting Behavior thread but I'll post it here too...

I was just skimming a UC Davis doc titled Pomegranate Production in Afghanistan' http://www.ucanr.org/sites/kingscounty/files/19305.pdf:

The passage below (page 22 of the linked doc) notes wavy leaf margins due to zinc deficiency. Could this be the curl some folks are seeing in their own plants? (I have not noticed this curling on my own...yet.)

Zinc deficiency symptoms are most obvious in spring; trees may have delayed opening of flower and leaf buds. Leaves are smaller, often have chlorotic (yellow) areas between the veins, and have a “wavy” leaf margin. Sometimes internodes are shortened. Later in the season, subsequent growth hides these symptoms.

[gspom79]

I believe your leaf curl problem is a mite. Look up Aceria granati on the web and see if the pictures of the pomegranate damage cause by this mite match your leaf problem.

Graham