Pomegranate grown at home is an exotic culture in the form of an elegant dwarf tree, an ornamental shrub growing up to a meter tall with lush flowering and sufficient fruiting.
When the plant blooms, it is impossible to take your eyes off it, and its impressive bright red inflorescences are the guarantee of future fruits with a tart sweet and sour taste.
The yield from such a miniature pomegranate is small, there are few fruits tied on it, but all of them reach at least 5 centimeters in diameter and, in addition to taste features, also have useful properties that make up the so-called “apple”.
Features of growing pomegranate at home
• First you need to choose a good planting material, namely a couple of dozen ripe nucleoli of burgundy or white pomegranate in color. Pomegranate has a great germination, but it is better to hedge, deciding on such an experiment.
• The pomegranate kernels must be solid, red and peeled from the film of the fetus itself.
• Next, the nucleoli should be washed under a little water and placed in a solution of zircon, in a ratio of 2 drops per teaspoon of water. The nucleoli should not be completely covered by this solution, only half. In this state, planting material should be around 12 hours.
• Then you need to prepare the soil for growing pomegranate. It is best to take a loose primer, consisting of fertile, saturated soil and sand with peat in equal proportions.
• Also, soil for growing pomegranate can be purchased in specialized stores - this will be land created for flowering plants.
To grow pomegranate from seed at home - how realistic is it?
Pomegranate is an unpretentious tree and will not require any special care from a person who wants to grow it. In this connection, the cultivation of pomegranate tree is that for the florist, that for the beginner it is quite acceptable and real occupation.
The room where the pomegranate will be located should be bright, bathed in sunlight. But here, it’s also important not to go too far - the direct rays of the sun can harm the leaves of the tree, so if the temperature in the room is higher than normal and it needs to be darkened with blinds or curtains.
In the summer, the pomegranate shrub should be taken out to the garden and dug, and in the winter kept in a cool place.
You can’t also keep the plant in the shade, otherwise it will completely stop growing and blooming.
How to grow pomegranate at home: where to start?
In a pot or container with prepared soil as described above for growing pomegranate, it is necessary to plant the nucleoli, deepening them by 1.5 - 2 centimeters. Then, planting material must be sprinkled with earth and covered with a plastic film on top, which will create a certain greenhouse effect and excellent temperature conditions of 25-30 degrees for the successful germination of nucleoli.
The first bores will appear depending on the time of the year, for example, if the nucleoli were planted at the beginning of the spring season, then the shoots will make themselves felt in just a couple of weeks. If the planting occurred at a different time, then the appearance of sprouts can be expected within a few months, or even six months.
When the first leaves appear, plants can be planted in pots, which must be filled with the soil necessary for pomegranate. Weak and diseased sprouts are permanently removed.
When transplanting a plant, it is necessary to dive, so that in the future it does not stretch much. When a third pair of leaves appears, the next ones are pinched, which stimulates the plant to grow in two tops. Then these two branches are also pinched when a third pair of leaves appears. Without a pick, pomegranates will grow a thin twig, good, from which there will not be at all.
In the summer, seedlings are put up on the balcony or in the kindergarten, where they are located until the first frost. In the autumn, well-developed, well-developed plants are planted in separate pots. With the advent of winter, young plants are harvested in a relatively cold place, where they are at rest and will have to be until spring comes.
In principle, caring for a pomegranate tree at home is easy and simple. When summer comes, the pomegranates are taken out into the fresh air so that the tree breathes and feels at ease, but for this they select a place where direct sunlight does not fall.
Water the plant as the soil dries, in which pomegranate grows. Top dressing and fertilizers are applied at least twice a month. By early fall, watering and top dressing the soil and plants are reduced. In early September, the tree is taken to the house.
In the winter, any care for the pomegranate is not required. After the pomegranate is discarded in September, the tree will begin to prepare for winter rest and dormancy before the spring comes.
In fact, the quality of flowering and the appearance of the ovaries for the next year will depend on how the plant transfers a state of rest.
Before the pomegranate goes into hibernation, the land ball is dried and the residual leaves are removed. In principle, a pomegranate can do without wintering, the plant is simply cleaned in a special room, where they create all the conditions for a home holiday. The tree easily survives this period, if only the temperature in the room is maintained at least 15 degrees and albeit artificial, but there is acceptable lighting.
At the beginning of spring, buds begin to bloom and pomegranates are taken out to a warm place and provided with abundant watering. After the plant begins to be covered with bright green leaves, and on the tips of the shoots of one-year-old buds appear.
Bloom
For the first time, a pomegranate can bloom, only for the tenth month, from the planting of the nucleoli, and then if the pomegranate suffices light. The number and size of pomegranate flowers will entirely depend on how the grower looked after the tree.
Important! If the plant does not grow and does not stretch, and young twigs immediately acquire a bark of a reddish hue, leaves on the tree appear broad and greenish-brown in color, one thing means that the pomegranate does not have enough light.
When the first ovaries of flowers appear, it is necessary to leave no more than two buds on the tree, and the rest from the plant must be carefully removed.
With proper care for your pet, pomegranate will blossom in a year, and at home he will be able to please his loving household with his beauty and luxurious flowers.
In the future, for good fruiting, you can do artificial pollination with an ordinary cotton swab. But it will be more appropriate if the pomegranate is pollinated with the help of another tree. But in that, and in another case, by the end of the fall season, it will be possible to remove the first fruits from your favorite.
Home Pomegranate Pruning
The grenade requires periodic cutting. The crown needs to be cut so that the pomegranate looks like a tree or shrub. In the spring, young branches are pruned, leaving 2-4 leaves. Pruning is done on an outside kidney.
If you regularly trim, bend using a wire of young twigs, you can give the pomegranate tree any necessary shape and exotic beauty.
How to grow pomegranate from seed at home: soil, lighting, top dressing
The soil
To grow a home pomegranate tree, you need to take loosened, airtight soil. The composition of such soil must necessarily include large river sand, sawdust, compost, an ordinary layer of garden soil.
Although for the cultivation of grata, universal soil used for any indoor plants is suitable.
You also need to remember the drainage, consisting of pebbles and expanded clay, which is so needed pomegranate.
Lighting
Pomegranate is a photophilous plant, therefore it is recommended to locate it at home from the south side, and not from the north.
At the same time - this decorative tree must be protected from direct sunlight falling on it. Therefore, in the sultry period, garnets are recommended to be shaded.
You also need to remember that pomegranate needs a hot climate. Any especially sharp cooling can lead to the death of the plant.
The required temperature for the desired growth and development of pomegranate is 20-25 degrees. If the temperature rises above this mark, in this case, the plant must be moved to the balcony where there is an abundance of light and fresh air.
Top dressing
They feed a pomegranate tree 2-3 times a month - it all depends on the growth of the plant, a variety of fertilizers. In the spring, nitrogenous components are introduced, during the flowering period, phosphorus, in the autumn, a potassium composition.
It is more advisable to apply fertilizer after irrigation has been carried out in gloomy and cloudy weather.
It is also recommended to pour the remaining water in the pan before top dressing.
But if the fruits from the tree must be eaten, it is better not to use the purchased universal fertilizer, since the nitrates contained in it will certainly get into the fruit, and then into the human body.
Bone pomegranate at home: why does it die?
The first thing pomegranates can die from is the improper and careless care of it at home, namely:
• From low temperature, a pomegranate tree can simply freeze.
• From an excess of moisture, it can rot both the bulb and the plant itself, especially during flowering.
• The death of a pomegranate can be caused by heat, direct exposure to the plant of sunlight, which will first cause a burn of the leaves of the tree, and then if the plant itself does not deal with the situation in time.
• Pests such as the spider mite also cause the death of a grenade, due to which a white spider web and an unpleasant, sticky coating, as well as aphids and insects, are formed on the leaves.
• Then one should not underestimate pomegranate tree diseases that lead to the death of the plant, such as gray rot in the beginning, affecting the leaves, root cancer, which reveals itself as dark spots on the foliage, which become larger if the plant is not treated.
• Another disease that poses a threat to the life of the plant is branch cancer. The bark on the trunk and branches of a pomegranate tree is cracking, and therefore deep wounds appear that swell around the edges. If you do not eradicate affected areas of the plant in time, the pomegranate tree will die.
But against pests, you can use various chemicals to treat pomegranate, tinctures from onions and garlic, as well as tobacco mixed with laundry soap. The most important thing is to spray in time and cure your favorite tree from an ailment.
Growing pomegranate at home will give the lover all the best - the most delicious fruits, chic flowering appearance of the tree, which diversifies the interior of the house, and will bring harmony and prosperity to his household.
