Pomegranate is an excellent plant for home growing. With proper care, it will delight you with a beautiful view and delicious fruits. In addition, this plant is unpretentious and suitable even for beginner gardeners. You will learn how to grow a pomegranate at home and how to care for it from this material.
Choosing planting material
Growing fruit from grains is best in late February or early March. Then shoots will appear within 2-3 weeks after sowing. At other times, you will have to wait several months.
To grow a pomegranate from seed at home, it is important to choose a viable material. Purchase seeds only in specialized stores. And be sure to check the quality of the grains. They should be white or cream, firm to the touch and smooth. Soft and green seeds will not germinate, so avoid buying such planting material. Choose from these varieties:
- Uzbekistan. The variety at home reaches 2 meters in height and 1.5 in diameter. So sortsuitable for owners of spacious apartments. The pomegranate has spherical, bright red fruits, weighing 120 g. They have a sweet and sour taste and a burgundy color of the grains.
- Baby. The variety reaches 1.5 meters in height. It has yellow-brown fruits with a red blush. They ripen by the middle of winter and reach 5–7 cm in diameter. The variety requires artificial pollination.
- Carthage. The tree grows up to a meter in height. It has dark red or orange fruits that differ in taste from ordinary pomegranates. Most often, the variety is grown for decorative purposes.
- Nana. Dwarf hybrid, reaching 70 cm in height. It blooms in the first year after planting with large orange-red buds. Sweet and sour fruits reach 7 cm in diameter.
Is it possible to grow pomegranates at home from fruits purchased in a store or on the market? Of course you can. But keep in mind that most of these fruits are hybrids. And the trees grown from them do not retain the taste of the variety. For cultivation, choose ripe fruits with a bright red skin without signs of rot and mechanical damage.
Seed preparation
Before you grow a pomegranate at home on the windowsill, it is important to properly prepare the seeds. Thoroughly clean them from the pulp and rinse well. Please note that if even a little sweet shell remains on the grains, they will become moldy. Fill the peeled seeds with water with the addition of 2-3 drops of "Epin" or "Zircon". The liquid should cover half of the seeds.
Place the container in a cool place where there are no drafts, and leave for 12 hours. Make sure the moisture doesn't evaporate. If this happens, then the grains will dry out, their shell will crack, and they will not germinate. Therefore, add water as needed.
How to grow a pomegranate in a pot at home
Plant your seeds in an all-purpose potting soil designed for flowering plants. If you want to make the substrate yourself, then mix equal parts peat, fertile soil and sand. Before growing pomegranates at home in this soil, be sure to disinfect the mixture. To do this, bake it in the oven or hold it over steam. So you protect the seedlings from pathogenic bacteria that live in the soil. How to plant seeds:
- Pour a layer of drainage into the bottom of the pot. For these purposes, use expanded clay, broken brick or pebbles.
- Fill the drainage with disinfected soil.
- Dry the seeds with a paper towel and deepen them into the substrate by 1-1.5 cm.
- Spray the planting with warm water from a spray bottle and cover the pot with polyethylene or glass.
Place the greenhouse in a warm, well-lit area. Keep the room temperature within +25 °C. Ventilate the greenhouse regularly and do not allow the soil to dry out. To do this, spray the substrate from a spray bottle with settled warm water.
Seedling care
Seedlings when planting in winter appear already in the second, third week. When this happens, start removing the cover. First remove the glass for an hour, then for two, and so on. When the sprouts get stronger, anda pair of true leaves will appear on them, dive the seedlings into separate containers, shortening the roots of the plants by a third. For planting, the same soil mixture that you used to germinate the seeds will do. Make sure you have good drainage.
When the seedlings form about three pairs of leaves, pinch their top. This stimulates the branching of the tree. Once again, pinch each of the shoots when three pairs of leaves appear on the branches. Then the pomegranate will grow into a lush tree.
Cultivation
Pomegranate is an undemanding plant. But in order to achieve rapid growth and fruiting from it, you will need to create comfortable conditions for the tree. To do this, perform the following agrotechnical measures:
- regular watering;
- support for optimal temperature, humidity and light;
- frequent feeding;
- transplant;
- pruning and crown shaping.
For more information on how to grow a pomegranate at home and create comfortable conditions for it, read on.
Temperature
Pomegranate is a thermophilic plant. And for normal growth in the spring and summer, he needs a temperature of + 20 … + 22 ° C. In the heat, it is advisable to take the pot out to the veranda or balcony. If this is not possible, then spray the foliage more often to "cool" the crop. Otherwise, the tree will lose leaves, and this will slow down its development.
During the fruit ripening, which occurs in autumn, keep the room temperature at +14…+16 °C. From November to March, it is desirable to arrange a dormant period for the tree. To do this, transfer the pot toroom with +10…+12 °C.
Lighting
Homemade pomegranate is a very photophilous plant. And for development, he needs good lighting. Therefore, install the pot near the east, south or west window. But do not forget to cover the culture from the midday sun.
Can I grow pomegranates at home on the north side of the room? Such placement of culture is possible only if you provide the tree with additional lighting with a phytolamp. Daylight hours for a plant should last at least 12 hours.
Irrigation
Regular and abundant irrigation is the basic rule of how to grow pomegranates at home. In spring and summer, water the plant 4-5 times a week so that the soil is barely moist. But make sure that the water does not stagnate in the substrate. When the tree blooms, reduce watering, but do not let the soil dry out. After the buds move away, moisten the substrate well. Then next year the tree will give more flowers. In winter, keep watering to a minimum and moisten the soil no more than once a month.
For irrigation, use only filtered and settled water for at least a day. Fluid temperature should be 1-2° higher than room air.
Pomegranate loves high humidity. Therefore, from spring to autumn, regularly spray the leaves of the culture. In hot weather, this procedure is carried out 1-2 times a day. In winter, especially if you keep the tree in a cool room, stop spraying.
Feeding
Importantthe rule of thumb for growing pomegranates at home is regular fertilization. From early spring to autumn, feed the tree once every 2 weeks. Use for this complex preparations intended for indoor plants. If you grow a crop in order to get fruits, then instead of mineral fertilizers, apply organic ones - a solution of chicken manure or manure liquid. But remember that by overfeeding the tree with nitrogen, you will not wait for the buds and, accordingly, the fruits.
Transfer
The pomegranate tree grows better in cramped containers, because the larger the pot, the more the culture produces barren bell-shaped buds. But the plant needs to be repotted. Carry out the first event using the transshipment method a year after planting. Then transplant the pomegranate when its roots completely fill the pot. It is better to do it in the spring. Choose a container with a diameter of 2-3 cm larger than the previous one. Do not replant mature trees, but change the top layer of the substrate annually.
Cutting
To make the pomegranate fruit better, do not forget to trim the crown. Carry out the procedure in February, when the tree begins to form buds. Form the plant as a bush with 3-4 skeletal branches, or in the form of a tree with a low trunk, on which there are 4-5 skeletal shoots. In the future, on each of them, leave 4-5 processes of the second order. Cut off extra branches, choosing weak shoots, and those that grow deep into the crown. Remember that pomegranate bears fruit only on the shoots of the current year. Therefore, remove old shoots. And don't forget to cutroot growth.
How to grow a pomegranate from a cutting at home
Start the event in the summer, when the non-lignified shoots of this year appear on the tree. For cuttings, choose growths 10 cm long. And you can also use basal shoots for propagation. So, how to grow a pomegranate from a twig at home:
- Put the cuttings with the lower cut into a solution of a root formation stimulator, for example, "Kornevin". Soak the twigs in the liquid for 6 hours.
- Before planting, rinse the cuttings under running water and bury them 2-3 cm in a container filled with a mixture of peat and sand.
- Moisten the soil and cover the plants with polyethylene or cut plastic bottles.
- Place the greenhouse in a bright, warm place.
Regularly moisten the soil, preventing it from drying out. When the cuttings take root, after 6-10 weeks, plant them in separate containers filled with soil for citrus crops and always with drainage. Or use a mixture of humus, leafy, soddy soil and sand.
Growing problems
Pomegranate is an unpretentious plant, but with improper care, the tree is capricious. Often inexperienced flower growers are faced with such problems:
- The leaves are turning yellow. A similar phenomenon occurs if the culture is hot. Move the tree to a cool location or increase the foliage spray with cool water.
- Leaves turn yellow and dark spots appear on them. So the plant reacts to the lack of moisture. Tocorrect the situation increase watering.
- Pomegranate leaves are falling. If this happens in the fall, then don't worry. So the plant prepares for wintering. If the leaf fall began in spring or summer, then most likely the tree suffers from heat and insufficient watering.
- The leaves of the culture are drying up. Insufficient humidity in the room leads to a similar phenomenon. But the leaves also dry up due to a violation of the irrigation regime, which led to the decay of the roots. Smell the soil, if it smells like mold, then immediately transplant the crop into a new land. Be sure to inspect the roots of the tree and remove rotten shoots. Treat the cuts with crushed charcoal.
- The bark cracks, and wounds with spongy swellings appear on the shoots. This leads to cancer of the branches. At the first sign of illness, clean the damage to he althy tissue and treat the wounds with copper sulphate, and then with garden pitch.
Often pests start up on neglected plants: spider mites, scale insects, whiteflies, aphids, mealybugs. To get rid of insects, treat the tree three times with insecticides such as "Aktara" or "Aktellika" with an interval of 5-6 days.
Now you know how to grow a pomegranate at home and how to care for the plant. Stick to these rules and keep your crop comfortable and it will thank you for its fast growth and delicious fruit.
Exotic Momordica
Some stores offer Indian Momordica pomegranate seeds. This plant is an annual vine. And with the usual pomegranate it is connected only by the name andthe presence of red sweet grains. Otherwise, these cultures are strikingly different. Therefore, if you are offered such a variety, passing it off as a tree, refuse to buy. If you want to replenish the collection with a new exotic fruit, then feel free to purchase seeds. After all, it is not so difficult to get fruits from them.
How to grow Indian momordica pomegranate at home? Sow seeds in containers filled with loose, fertile, neutral soil. Suitable peat tablets. Start the event in late March - early April. Soak the seeds in a honey solution (1 teaspoon per cup). Wrap them in a napkin and put them in a warm place on wet sawdust. Keep the planting material in this state for 10–12 days, remembering to moisten the cloth regularly.
Prepared seeds deepen the edge by 1-1.5 cm. Moisten and slightly compact the soil. Then put the landing in a warm, draft-free place. Water the soil regularly, preventing it from drying out. At the end of May, transplant the seedlings into separate pots, keeping the earth ball. In the future, provide momordica with regular watering and periodic feeding, and it will bring tasty and he althy fruits.
