Key Management Techniques for Pomegranate Before and After Fruit Set
I think everyone is very familiar with pomegranates. There are many varieties of pomegranate, and each variety has a slightly different flavor. There are also many techniques and skills involved in growing and cultivating pomegranates. Let's take a look together below!
How to manage pomegranates before and after fruit set
When a cultivated pomegranate flowers but fails to hold its fruit, there are three reasons:
First, during its vegetative growth and flowering period. Insufficient light or coinciding with rainy weather; insufficient light causes the plant's vegetative growth to be relatively excessive, which is not conducive to the accumulation of nutrients within the plant, thereby affecting reproductive growth, so the flowers drop immediately after blooming; if continuous rainy weather occurs during flowering, the pistil cannot be properly fertilized, causing it to bloom without setting fruit.
Second, improper fertilizer combinations. For ornamental-fruited pomegranates, when applying supplementary fertilizer, the three elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium must be properly balanced; if there is too much nitrogen fertilizer and too little phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, the plant lacks the necessary nutrients for fruit set, which may also cause it to fail to hold fruit.
Third, during and around its flowering period. Overwatering the potting soil or the potting soil being too dry; if the potting soil is overwatered, the branches and leaves grow rampant, or the nutrient fibrous roots rot, and even if it blooms it cannot hold fruit; if the potting soil is too dry, the nutrient fibrous roots shrivel, and the flowers cannot get enough water and nutrients, so they will inevitably drop, let alone pollinate and set fruit. If it is a fruiting pomegranate that blooms once a year, it will be very difficult for it to set fruit again this year; the only option is to prune the plant, increase light, and control water and fertilizer supply, and you can still hope for good flowers and good fruit next year. If it is a “monthly pomegranate” that can bloom multiple times a year, then by increasing light, applying supplementary phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, shortening and pruning vigorous shoots to suppress vegetative growth, removing thin and weak branches, and improving ventilation and light penetration, you can encourage the potted pomegranate plant to bloom and fruit again.
Pomegranate Propagation Techniques
1. Short-branch cuttings: Before pomegranate budding, cut disease- and pest-free one- or two-year-old branches from a vigorous mother plant as propagation material, cut the material into short cuttings with 2 to 3 nodes, trim the lower end of the cutting near a node into a smooth slant, and after cutting, soak it in a 300-fold dilution of 40% carbendazim or a 300-fold dilution of 5% junduqing for 10 to 15 seconds for sterilization. Then soak the lower end of the cutting in a rooting powder aqueous solution for 5 seconds, or in a 0.05% indoleacetic acid solution for 2 seconds, or in a 0.05% naphthaleneacetic acid solution for 3 seconds, and then insert it for cuttings.
2. Long-branch cuttings: Mostly used for directly establishing an orchard or for small-scale propagation in a courtyard. At the planting point, dig a planting pit 60 cm to 70 cm in diameter and 50 cm to 60 cm deep. Outside the pit, mix about 5 kg of decomposed farmyard manure with topsoil for later use. Insert 2 to 3 one- to two-year-old cuttings 80 cm to 100 cm long per pit, at an angle of 50 to 60 degrees to the ground, inserted 40 cm to 50 cm deep into the pit, then fill the soil while firming it step by step, and finally irrigate and shape the tree basin, covering with plastic film or grass to conserve moisture.
3. Layering propagation: Before budding, ring-bark the base of the larger suckers at the base of the mother tree to wound them and encourage rooting, then mound soil 8 cm to 10 cm high and maintain soil moisture. After autumn, separate the rooted plants from the mother plant to form seedlings. Alternatively, in spring bend the sucker shoots and press them into the soil 10 cm to 20 cm deep and score them in several places with a knife to encourage new roots, leaving the top shoot exposed and upright, then cut the connection with the mother plant, dig up the seedlings with roots, and plant them.
4. Seed propagation: In August to September when the fruit is ripe, pick it, take out the seeds, rub off the outer seed coat, dry them, and store them. Sow in spring from February to March. Before sowing, soak the seeds in 40°C warm water for 6 to 8 hours, and sow after the seed coat swells. Sow the soaked seeds in the growing medium at a row spacing of 25 cm, cover with 1 to 1.5 cm of soil, cover with grass on top, and water thoroughly once. Afterward keep the potting soil moist, control the soil temperature between 20-25°C, and after about one month new shoots and new roots will emerge.
Pomegranate Cultivation Techniques
1. Planting: Pomegranates can be planted from after leaf fall in autumn to before budding the following spring. For field planting, choose a sunny, wind-sheltered, slightly elevated spot, and the soil should be loose, fertile, and well-drained. For potted planting, use a growing medium mixed with leaf mold, garden soil and river sand, and add an appropriate amount of decomposed organic fertilizer. When planting, keep a soil ball, appropriately shorten and prune the aboveground part, water thoroughly after planting, and keep it in a shady place for care; after it sprouts and survives, move it to a ventilated place with ample sunlight.
2. Light: Light and temperature are important conditions affecting flower bud formation. During the growing period, full sun is required, and the more abundant the light, the more numerous and vivid the flowers. A wind-sheltered, sunny, dry environment is favorable for flower bud formation and blooming. When light is insufficient, it will only grow leaves and not bloom, affecting the ornamental effect. The suitable growing temperature is 15-20°C, and the winter temperature should not be lower than -18°C, otherwise it will suffer cold damage.
3. Water and fertilizer: Field-planted pomegranates must be given a heavy application of organic fertilizer once a year, and potted plants need repotting and fertilizing every 1 to 2 years. During the growing season, supplementary fertilizer should also be applied 3 to 5 times, and attention should be paid to loosening the soil and weeding, keeping the potting soil moist at all times, and strictly preventing drought and waterlogging.
4. Pruning: Pomegranates need pruning every year. They can be trained into a single-trunk round-headed form, or a multi-trunk clump form, or heavily pruned into a dwarfed flat-topped crown. Once they enter the fruiting period, vigorous shoots should be pinched in summer and shortened in autumn to prevent secondary and tertiary shoots from forming at the top, so that they store nutrients and form fruiting mother branches for the following year; at the same time, suckers emerging at the base should be cut off in time.
5. Harvesting: Pomegranate seedlings propagated by cuttings or division begin to bear fruit 3-4 years after planting, while seedlings propagated by seed take more than 10 years to bloom and bear fruit. Pomegranates bloom 3 times each year, hence 3 fruit sets, and generally the first or second fruit set develops well. Harvest in stages and in a timely manner according to variety characteristics, fruit maturity and climate conditions.
The Effects of Pomegranate
1. Deworming: Pelletierine has a strong killing effect on tapeworms and can act on the worm's muscles, causing them to go into sustained contraction. At a concentration of 1:10000 of pelletierine hydrochloride, tapeworms are killed within 5-10 minutes. Clinical evidence shows that alkaloids combined with tannic acid have a better deworming effect, because tannins can turn the alkaloids into poorly soluble and poorly absorbed compounds, thereby allowing them to fully act on intestinal parasites.
2. Antibacterial: In the test-tube dilution method, the decoction at 1:2560 has an inhibitory effect on Corynebacterium diphtheriae, and at 1:1280 on Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella dysenteriae and Shigella flexneri, and Proteus vulgaris, etc. It has a clear inhibitory effect on Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, etc.
3. Antifungal: In the test-tube dilution method, the water infusion at 1:4 has an inhibitory effect on 10 kinds of dermatophytic fungi such as Trichophyton violaceum, Epidermophyton rubrum, Microsporum audouinii and Nocardia asteroides.
4. Antiviral: Tests have proven that the pomegranate peel decoction diluted to 1:10000-1:100000 still has an inhibitory effect on influenza virus (type A PR3 strain).
5. Other effects: Female rats or guinea pigs fed with fruit peel powder may have a reduced conception rate. Rabbits given the root bark water infusion by gavage may have promoted blood coagulation.
It can be seen that pomegranate has many effects, so in daily life we can reasonably make use of the value of pomegranates. In the process of growing pomegranates, its cultivation and propagation as well as its management before and after fruit set all involve certain techniques. Only by mastering these techniques well can the yield of pomegranates be increased.