Pomegranate plant information. Precious berry - pomegranate: planting and care

Many of us are obsessed with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bbreeding indoor flowers in our apartment, and even more dream of having exotic plants in our collection. The lion's share of flower growers is of particular interest to crops that can bear fruit at home. These are papaya, avocado, lemon, orange, coffee, etc. This list should also include pomegranate. This plant is able to please its owner not only with tasty and healthy fruits of a ruby ​​​​hue, but also with lovely flowers of rich tones. Despite the seeming whimsical culture, in reality, pomegranate is quite easy to cultivate at home. It is only important to know the requirements for the conditions of detention and care.

General information about the pomegranate plant

The genus Pomegranate belongs to the Pomegranate family.. Some authors refer its representatives to the Derbennikov family. The genus is formed by fruit deciduous shrubs and trees of medium size and no more than 4 m high. All of them are flowering perennials. Distinctive features of these plants are the presence of thorny branches with dark green leaves that have a glossy surface, as well as funnel-shaped reproductive organs of an orange-red hue that appear at a certain moment. There are two types of pomegranate flowers: bisexual or fruiting, resembling a jug in shape, and sterile or asexual, similar to small bells. Stamens peep out from the mouth of the cup, framed by petals. In due time, pomegranate flowers are replaced by fruits called pomegranates. From a botanical point of view, these are berries covered with a leathery dense peel of red or orange. Each fruit contains more than a thousand seeds.

Homeland pomegranate - Asian and European subtropics. Representatives of the genus are common in the Caucasus, in Iran, in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. They can be found even in India and the Himalayas.

Varieties of pomegranate at home

The genus includes only two species: common pomegranate and Socotran pomegranate. At home, as a pot culture, the first variety is mainly grown. Common pomegranate is a small tree with thin branches, at the ends of which there are thorns. The shoots are strewn with opposite lanceolate elliptical leaves, collected in bunches. The surface of the leaves is glossy, the lower part is leathery. The reproductive organs of the culture are most often painted red, less often yellow or white. But this is about the calyx, the corolla has a reddish tint. Flowering plants are cross-pollinated.

From the common pomegranate by selection, a variety was bred - dwarf pomegranate. Compared to the original, it has a more compact size, reaches a maximum height of 1 m, blooms from mid-summer to early winter.

Conditions for growing pomegranate at home

• Lighting. Beautiful flowering exotic feels great in places lit by the sun. In other words, the culture pot should be placed on the southern, as well as on the southwestern and southeastern windows, with the plant shading at noon in the summer. To the direct sunlight of the daylight, after a long stay in partial shade, it is necessary to accustom exotics gradually.
• Thermal regime. The most optimal temperature for plant maintenance in summer varies from 20 to 25 ºС. With the onset of the autumn season, it is reduced and brought up to 5-10 ºС in winter. At the same time, exotics are kept in a well-lit and cool room.
• Air humidity. Its level is not of particular importance for the growth and development of indoor pomegranate. True, if the wintering of the plant is warm, it is recommended to regularly spray the culture with water at room temperature. The same goes for extremely hot summers.
• Soil and container for planting. Pomegranate is planted in loose, fertile soil with a neutral pH. You can make a soil mixture from the following components: sand, leaf, sod land, humus. The ingredients are taken in equal quantities. A medium-sized container is suitable for planting a pomegranate.

Pomegranate care at home

The plant we are considering during the growing season needs regular and abundant watering. The signal for the next soil moisture is the drying of the top layer of the substrate. Exot, which has entered the fruiting phase, it is advisable to water twice a day. In autumn, the frequency and intensity of this procedure is gradually reduced. In winter, after the leaves fall, the culture is watered extremely rarely.

You should take seriously such an event as plant nutrition. It is carried out throughout the growing season. In spring and in the first half of summer, nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers are applied, by the end of summer - potash fertilizers. From autumn and winter, feeding is stopped.

In order for the culture to look more well-groomed, pruning should be done. It is carried out in the spring, removing dry, old branches and trimming young shoots. Leave only a few pairs of leaves. During the summer season, excess shoots are removed. Once every 5 years, the plant needs to be rejuvenated: remove one of the old stems, keeping one strong, young shoot.

Every year in the spring, a young exotic needs a transplant. For adult, mature plants, this event is held every few years. For transplanting, take a container slightly larger than the previous one.

Pomegranate is propagated in three ways: cuttings, seeds and grafting. The first one consists in sowing freshly harvested seeds into the soil of sand and turf in the fall and keeping boxes with future plants at a temperature of 22-25º. Seedlings appear relatively soon, they are seated in separate pots, watered. Exotics obtained in this way bloom in the 5th - 8th year of life.

Cuttings are harvested at the end of winter, only mature shoots 10 cm long are taken. They are planted for rooting in the substrate and greenhouse conditions are created. After the roots appear, the cuttings are planted in separate pots, using soil for adults.

Mostly exclusively garden varieties of pomegranate are grafted.

Difficulties and secrets of successfully growing pomegranate at home

Pomegranate is affected by a mass of pests. This is aphid, and whitefly, and scale insects, and spider mites. If this happens to your plant, use the appropriate insecticides in the fight against insects.

Photo: pomegranate at home

Exot does not want to bloom? Remember that on an ordinary pomegranate, reproductive organs appear at the age of 5-7 years, and on a dwarf one, several years earlier. To push a plant that is fully ripe for flowering to fulfill its direct duty as an ornamental crop, give up pruning in the spring, which interferes with the laying of buds.

Branches can break under the weight of fruits. To avoid this, put props and tie shoots to them.

Poor fruit set, especially with a large number of flowers, is due to the presence of an excessive number of sterile reproductive organs on the plant. But brown spots on the leaves occur due to overdrying of the soil.

Another possible nuisance is fruit cracking. This is due to over watering.

The pomegranate fruit familiar to us is the fruit of the common pomegranate (lat. Punica granatum, granatus - granular, punicus - Punic, Carthaginian - at the place of distribution) plants of the genus Pomegranate, belonging to the Derbennikov family.

The pomegranate has been known to mankind for over 5000 years. The homeland of these plants is the lands of South-Eastern Europe and Asia, pomegranate trees were grown in Ancient Egypt, Babylon, India and Iran. Widely cultivated in Spain during the Middle Ages, the pomegranate moved with missionaries to Mexico and California.

To date, groves of wild pomegranate are found in the Transcaucasus: in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Pomegranates can grow in tropical and warm temperate climates. However, the pomegranates with the best characteristics are grown in regions with cool winters and hot, dry summers. Pomegranate is more frost hardy than citrus fruits and can tolerate temperatures as low as -12 degrees Celsius without major damage.

The common pomegranate plant is a deciduous, dense shrub reaching a height of 2-4 meters, with a usually flat central trunk and many prickly side branches. With proper pruning, a seven-meter plant can be grown from a pomegranate, i.e. it can be given the appearance of a standard garden tree, with a rather attractive decorative appearance.

Pomegranate leaves are smooth, shiny with a light green color, oval in shape, grow up to 3 cm in length. Pomegranates bloom from late spring to early autumn. The flowers are large, bright, orange-red, solitary up to 6 cm in diameter with many stamens in the center. The vast majority of flowers do not give ovaries and fall off. And only about 5% of them are pollinated and form ovaries. Due to the long period of flowering and fruiting, pomegranates are often used in landscape design as an ornamental plant.

Pomegranate fruits grow 5-12 cm in diameter, with a smooth skin and color from brown to purplish red. During the entire period of growth, the fruit does not change color, so it is quite difficult to determine the degree of maturity of the fruit without cleaning it. The fruit is filled with many seeds, each of which is surrounded by a pink or red edible pulp covered with a thin shell.

For agricultural and ornamental purposes, pomegranate trees are grown from cuttings taken after winter pruning. This is the only way to keep the purity of the variety.
Pomegranate can be grown from seed at home in greenhouse conditions. In the wild, pomegranate reproduction occurs by seeds, but they sprout rather reluctantly no earlier than a month and a half after entering the soil under favorable conditions.

Conditions for growing pomegranate.

Pomegranate trees are unpretentious to soils and can grow even on heavy loamy and sandy soils. On sandy soils, yields tend to drop significantly. On clay soils, pomegranate fruits lose their gastronomic qualities. The optimal conditions for pomegranate growth and fruiting are heavy, moist soils with acidity in the range of pH 5.5-7.0.

Requirements for humidity and watering in pomegranate are similar to the conditions for citrus fruits - 125-150 cm of precipitation per year. Trees should be watered every 7-10 days in the absence of natural rainfall. To reduce the likelihood of fruit splitting, it is necessary to maintain normal soil moisture in late summer and early autumn. Grenades are resistant to moderate flooding.

Pomegranate trees are recommended to be planted in early spring, but in the absence of severe frosts. Young trees for successful growth need top dressing with complex fertilizers of about 1 kg per tree in March and November. Excessive feeding contributes to a delay in the ripening of fruits, a decrease in their quality and flowering volumes.

Annual pruning of adult, mature trees significantly improves the quality of fruiting. Pomegranate trees are capable of self-pollination. However, artificial over-pollination and over-watering often result in a sharp drop in fruit quality. It turns out that the pomegranate peel contains toxic substances, and the use of pomegranate can harm some categories of people.

Tell your friends about it.

Pomegranate is a fruit tree about 6 meters high, but you can find pomegranate in the form of a shrub. It has thin thorny branches covered with grayish-brown bark. Its light green, glossy leaves form clusters. It can bloom from May to August with large, bell-like, red-orange, yellow or white flowers. There are a lot of such flowers on the tree.

Pomegranate fruits have rounded outlines with a diameter of up to 12 cm and a weight of up to 500 g. Fruit color may be yellow-red or red-brown. Inside it, in 9-12 cells in a juicy shell, there are many seeds of sweet and sour taste. This pulp contains monosaccharides, various acids, polyphenols, vitamins and tannins. From one tree you can collect up to 60 kg of fruit.

The pomegranate is distributed in the Middle East, Greece, Italy, the Caucasus, the Crimea, etc. It is rare in the wild, mainly cultivated in the countries of the tropical and subtropical zone.

Growing a pomegranate fruit tree

This tree can give a good harvest if properly grown. The main condition is heat and a sufficient amount of light. Pomegranate propagates by seeds, cuttings and layering. For planting, seeds that are inside the fruit are used, but they must be prepared before planting. To do this, the seeds are dried for 24 hours, and then placed in the refrigerator for 5-6 days.

For planting, you can use small pots with ready-made soil, which is used for growing flowers in room conditions. The pot must have a drainage system. The earth is poured into the pot and watered abundantly. In this soil, at a depth of 1 cm, a seed is placed ready for planting. To speed up the growth process, the pot is covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm place in the sun. After the sprout appears, the plastic film can be removed. A small but well-established seedling can be planted in the ground.

Planted in the ground in spring or autumn on a site well lit by the sun. By adhering to these recommendations, the pomegranate will develop normally and begin to bloom and bear fruit.

For propagation by cuttings, annual shoots of a healthy tree are used. Before planting, they prepare a place for this: they fertilize the earth and make sure that it warms up well enough. For the reliability of the engraftment of the cuttings, they are covered with plastic wrap and slightly shaded so that the cuttings do not overheat and die.

In the first years after planting, the young tree needs watering as the soil dries. In this case, you do not need to overdo it, since the presence of excess moisture can lead to decay of the root system. In addition, in the trunk circle, it is necessary to loosen the soil and do not forget about feeding the plant, if you want to get a good end result. In June, organic fertilizers should be applied, and potash and phosphorus fertilizers are applied closer to autumn. To obtain a good harvest and proper crown formation, it is necessary to constantly trim the pomegranate.

Before the onset of cold weather, the pomegranate produces the formation of buds for the future crop. So that labor is not wasted, the tree is protected from cold and frost, covering it with any suitable material. The surviving buds will bloom in the spring along with the leaves. Pomegranate begins to bloom in the 2nd-3rd year of life, and bear fruit - in the 4th year.

Useful properties of pomegranate

The pomegranate fruit has excellent taste characteristics, in addition, it is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, P, E, C, it contains organic acids and organic (tannins) substances. Due to the large amount of vitamins and trace elements, this fruit is widely exploited in folk medicine. It tends to have many different characteristics that can streamline the work of the internal organs of a person, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system and the nervous system, restores the blood formula.

With low hemoglobin, it is recommended to drink pomegranate juice, which has a positive effect on the blood. To prevent atherosclerosis, you need to eat this fruit regularly. It should be used for high blood pressure. For people with diabetes, this fruit is almost indispensable, as it can replace insulin. People with problems can add dried partitions to tea to relax and relieve increased excitability.

The peel and fruits can be used for diarrhea, to normalize the digestive system and digestive tract.

Modern medicine uses pomegranate peel to make drugs that inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli and tubercle bacillus, cholera vibrios and other viruses and bacteria.

This fruit is contraindicated in people suffering from gastritis and stomach ulcers. You should carefully use concentrated pomegranate juice, which can destroy tooth enamel.

Pomegranate varieties

This fruit has many varieties that can be distinguished by size, color, ripening time, taste characteristics, cold resistance. We offer the following varieties of pomegranate:

• Crimean striped. The result of the selection of the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. It is a low growing tree with a round crown. The average weight of fruits is somewhere around 250-300g, but there are specimens weighing up to 450g. The fruits have dark cherry grains, sweet-sour taste, covered with a thick peel. Average term of maturing.
• Gulyasha pink. Semi-shrub with large oval-shaped fruits. The juice is sour in taste, but has a pleasant aroma.
• Gulyasha is red. Prickly tree with greenish fruits, rounded, inside which are very large grains. Juice is very tasty with sourness.
• Nikitsky early. Shrub not tall, with very large pomegranates. It has a sweet, very tasty juice with sourness.
• Achik-don. It grows in regions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The pulp of these fruits is immensely tasty and sweet. A fairly productive variety with fruit ripening around mid-October.
• Bala-mursal. It grows in regions of Azerbaijan. The height of the tree of this variety is about 3 meters, on which grow large (400-500g) fruits of dark crimson color, sweet and sour in taste. Under favorable conditions, 30-50 kg of fruit can be harvested from a bush.

Naturally, not all varieties are on this list, and it is especially worth highlighting the dwarf pomegranate.

Despite its small growth (about one meter) and small fruits (within 70 grams), it does not differ in taste from large-fruited varieties. Growing a dwarf is a real pleasure. This tree can bloom already in the first year of life, barely reaching a height of 20-25 cm. Its flowering continues for six months with beautiful orange or bright red flowers. It has a number of useful properties, for example, anthelmintic. If you brew a few sprigs in half a liter of water, evaporate to half, strain and take in small sips for an hour, then you can forget about worms. This is just one small example of the miraculous properties of pomegranate.