The Pomegranate Tree as a Long-Lived Tree: Its Appearance, Planting and Years to Fruit

Pomegranate is a long-lived and highly adaptable tree species. To sustainably obtain high-quality, high-yield fruit and achieve relatively high economic returns year after year, it is essential to select excellent varieties and carry out reasonable cultivation and management according to the environmental requirements of the pomegranate tree species. So what does the pomegranate tree look like? How is it best planted? How many years until it flowers and fruits?

I. What does a pomegranate tree look like?

The crown is heavily branched, and young twigs are angular, mostly square in cross-section. The small branches are flexible and not easily broken. On vigorously growing small branches, the primary branches are alternately opposite, with small thorns. The length of the thorns is related to the variety and growing conditions. Vigorous trees have many thorns, while old trees have few. The colour of the buds changes with the seasons, appearing in three colours: purple, green and orange.

The leaves are opposite or clustered, long lanceolate to oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, 2-8cm long and 1-2cm wide, with pointed tips, a glossy upper surface and a raised midrib on the underside; they have short petioles.

The flowers are bisexual. Depending on whether the ovary is well developed, there are bell-shaped flowers and tubular flowers; the former have well-developed ovaries and are good at fertilisation and fruiting, while the latter often drop without setting fruit. Generally, one to several flowers are borne at the tips of the current year's new shoots and in the leaf axils below the tips; the sepals are hard, fleshy and tubular, with 5-7 lobes, fused with the ovary and persistent; the petals are obovate, equal in number to the sepals and alternating with them, arranged in an imbricate pattern. Flowers may be single or double. Double-flowered varieties have many petals and are sterile because the stamens and pistils are converted into petals, with as many as several dozen petals; the flowers are mostly red, but there are also white, yellow, pink, agate and other colours. The stamens are numerous, with hairless filaments. The pistil has one style, longer than the stamens, with 4-8 carpels and an inferior ovary. Fruit pomegranates flower from May to June, with blossoms like fire, and fruit from September to October. Flowering pomegranates bloom from May to October.

II. How is a pomegranate tree best planted?

1. Time: The best time to plant a pomegranate tree is from late March to early May in spring, when planted pomegranate trees are more likely to survive.

2. Soil: Pomegranate is not very demanding about soil. It can be planted in soil with a deep profile, a water table below 1m and a pH of 4.5-8.2. If grown in a pot, the soil should be loose, fertile and well drained; use a potting mix of leaf mould, garden soil and river sand, with an appropriate amount of decomposed organic fertiliser added.

3. Temperature: The pomegranate tree likes warmth, with an optimal growing temperature of 15-20°C; the minimum winter temperature should be above -17°C, otherwise it will suffer cold damage. In cold northern regions, it should be placed in a cellar in winter to protect it from the cold.

4. Light: The pomegranate tree likes light. Especially during the growing season it requires full sun, and the more sufficient the light, the more numerous and vivid the flowers. But if there is insufficient light, it will only grow leaves and not flower, affecting its ornamental value.

5. Planting: When all conditions are suitable, the pomegranate sapling can be planted. When planting, choose a large sapling, cover it with soil after planting, then gradually expose the sapling after it sprouts, and water it in to settle the roots.

After that, simply pay attention to pruning and water and fertiliser management.

III. How many years does a planted pomegranate tree take to flower and fruit?

The age at which a pomegranate tree bears fruit varies with the propagation method and the variety.

1. Seedlings grown from pomegranate seeds need more than 10 years to flower and fruit.

2. Saplings propagated by cuttings or division begin to fruit 3-4 years after planting.

3. Double-petalled red pomegranate or agate pomegranate, which are grown mainly for their flowers, can bloom in the same year they are sown.

The pomegranate flowers 3 times each year, hence 3 fruitings, and generally the first or second crop develops well. Harvest in stages and in good time according to the characteristics of the variety, the ripeness of the fruit and the weather conditions. The signs that the fruit is ripe are: the skin turns from green to yellow, coloured varieties take on full colour, and the fruit surface becomes glossy; the fruit ridges become visible; the red or silvery-white needle-like crystals in the flesh cells become fully apparent; the seeds are plump, and the soluble solids content of the fruit juice reaches the concentration inherent to the variety. Ripe fruit should be harvested before rain, and harvesting is prohibited in wet weather.

It should be noted that after ripening, the size of the fruit varies with the variety and age of the tree. Large-fruited varieties produce their first ripe fruit only slightly smaller, and by the third year the ripe fruit reaches its maximum size; while small-fruited varieties remain small fruits no matter how many years they are grown from young fruit to maturity. Whether large-fruited or small-fruited, as long as they are ripe they can all be eaten.

Of course, if your pomegranate tree's fruit is still very small from the second year through to maturity, you may have planted a flowering pomegranate grown for ornament.