We usually haveso many poms that we end up throwing most of them
away.  Can't give them away.  Is there an easy way to juice them? 
Last winter we would break them open, throw them in the flower beds
and let the birds have the seeds.  This year they all split before
they got ripe so just threw them all away.  Don't know why they did
that.

I am jealous - my pomegranate tree is three years old and while it
has grown about 1 foot it does not bloom and certainly does not bear
fruit.

Any suggestions?

I am in Austin, TX, on the eastside of town in what is called
blackland prairie.

hella.wagner@texmed.org

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

would they do well in amarillo, Tx ?

I recommend opening up the pomegranate in a bowl of water.  The
seeds will fall to the bottom and the yellow pith will rise and
float to the top.  This technique should also prevent stains on your
clothes.

I picked up a dodad at a flea market (which I  now know is called a
ricer).  It is like an overgrown garlic press where the holder of
the fruit is the size of two tuna cans, with holes in the bottom as
well as the sides.  Here is one I just found on a website.  I froze
the juice, and plan on making Pomme Martinis on Christmas.  There
are several recipes on the net.

http://www.goantiques.com/detail,vintage-handy-things,379887.html

I only had three pommes this year on my two year old "Wonderful"
tree pomme.  I am wondering how to prune it though. The leaves are
droppping now and it should be bare in another week.

Hi Alice,

Can’t give them away--with all the media about their great
anti-oxidants you’d think people would snap them up! Gila
woodpeckers love them here, they cling upside down on the fruit
while it’s still on the tree, so sharing them with the birds is a
nice option. As for splitting, usually when fruit rinds split it’s
because of insufficient water earlier in the growing season. The
rinds get tough and/or sunburned in summer and then can’t expand
when the fruit enlarges towards full size. We see that happen here
when we have a particularly brutal summer, like this year. Even
though trees may be irrigated, the intensity of the heat, lack of
any humidity,  etc. add up to stress the tree. 

I’ve never tried juicing, but this came from the California Rare
Fruit Growers website http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html.
Also, see Mark’s comment below for a nifty juicing tool.

“Pomegranate fruits are most often consumed as juice and can be
juiced is several ways. The sacs can be removed and put through a
basket press or the juice can be extracted by reaming the halved
fruits on an ordinary orange juice squeezer. Another approach starts
with warming the fruit slightly and rolling it between the hands to
soften the interior. A hole is then cut in the stem end which is
placed on a glass to let the juice run out, squeezing the fruit from
time to time to get all the juice.”

Hi Helia,

Most fruit trees don’t bear immediately, often taking 3 or 4 years
up to even 8 years to set a decent crop. Pomegranates take about 3
years. Yours does seem to be growing very slowly, though. Are you
sure you don’t have ‘Nana’, the dwarf variety, which would stay
small? The California Rare Fruit Growers website has a page of
detailed growing info. If you have more questions, feel free to
write back with info on your tree’s growing condions and culture and
we can try to figure it out.
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html

Hi Martha,

Pomegranate trees take heat, sun, alkaline soil and ‘Wonderful’ is
cold hardy to 10 degrees in the Phoenix area, so if your location in
Amarillo doesn’t get colder than that, it should work for you.
Pomegranates don’t need a lot of chilling hours, about 200. (Chill
hours are the total number of hours under 45°F during the winter.)
You can check with your Potter County Extension office to be sure:
806-373-0713. Also, there is a variety called Plantation Sweet that
is cold hardy to minus 10 degrees.  The following info came from a
Texas Cooperative Extension page:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/pomegranate.htm

“Pomegranate is common to the tropics, subtropics and subtemperate
regions and is well adapted to areas with hot, dry summers. It is
considerably more cold hardy than citrus; some can tolerate
temperatures as low as 10 degrees but others may be damaged at 18
degrees. For best results, pomegranate should be grown in full sun.

Because of its variance in cold hardiness, some types may well
survive typical winters in north central Texas, especially the
ornamental types which produce only small fruit, if any. The
fruiting types should survive most winters throughout south, central
and southeast Texas.”

Hi Christine,

Thanks for the idea--I tried it and stayed amazingly clean! It
reminds me of author Marjorie Rawlings in Cross Creek writing about
eating mangos. She says there are those who say that mangos are best
eaten while wearing a bathing suit near the ocean or in a bath tub.
She disagrees, saying that tying a towel around the neck and leaning
far forward will suffice. I think any of the above would also apply
to pomegranates!

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your flea market score. Nothing like finding a
doodad that works! Regarding pruning, there are 2 schools of
thought, lots of pruning to control and shape, or a more laissez
faire approach. I know people who don’t prune at all, letting the
tree spread at will and it still flowers and fruits in quantity. It
depends on the “look” you want.

The following was taken from the California Rare Fruit Growers
website: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pomegranate.html

“Pruning: Plants should be cut back when they are about 2 ft. high.
From this point allow 4 or 5 shoots to develop, which should be
evenly distributed around the stem to keep the plant well balanced.
These should start about 1 ft. from the ground, giving a short but
well-defined trunk. Any shoots which appear above or below should be
removed as should any suckers. Since the fruits are borne only at
the tips of new growth, it is recommended that for the first 3 years
the branches be judiciously shortened annually to encourage the
maximum number of new shoots on all sides, prevent straggly
development and achieve a strong well framed plant. After the 3rd
year, only suckers and dead branches are removed.”

The following info came from a Texas Cooperative Extension page:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/pomegranate.htm

PRUNING AND TRAINING

“Because pomegranate suckers profusely from the crown, frequent
sucker removal will be necessary to train the plant into a tree
form. The process must be started soon after planting to maintain a
single trunk, otherwise too many suckers will have developed that it
will be difficult to change. Unless there is a strong desire for a
tree-form, the bushy, free-growing shrub develops naturally.

Annual pruning of bearing pomegranates is not really necessary--but
dead or damaged portions should be removed as time permits, and some
thinning of suckers or branches may be necessary from time to
time.”