Characteristic features of the plant, advice on caring for pomegranates, recommendations for the reproduction of a "granular apple", difficulties and ways to solve them, interesting facts, species. Pomegranate (Punica) is also called the Pomegranate or Pomegranate tree, which are a genus of plants, with a shrub form of growth or in the form of small trees. Somewhat earlier than all of them were attributed to the Punicaceae family, which has now been abolished and replaced by the name Lythraceae.
The rafts of these plants are popularly called "pomegranates", but their botanical name is somewhat different from the generally accepted one - "pomegranate". We are well aware of one of the brightest representatives of this genus Pomegranate (Punica granatum), and we will talk about him today. It's nice, because to surprise your friends and enjoy yourself from growing such an unusual representative of the green world of the planet.
The plant got its generic Latin name, pronounced as "Punica", thanks to the word in the same language - "punicus", meaning "Punic" or "Carthaginian", as it is widespread on the territory of this country, today it is the land of Tunisia. Well, the species received the name "granatum" from the word "granatus" translated as "granular", which naturally reflects the presence of multiple grains inside the fruit, which is surrounded by a juicy cover. In the middle of the century, the pomegranate was well known under the name Pomum granatum, which meant "seed apple" and, on this basis, Carl Linnaeus, who was engaged in the classification of the entire plant world known at that time, replaced it with the already habitually used "Punica granatum".
It is interesting that today in some countries the name of the pomegranate as a "granular apple" has survived, it was also in Ancient Rome - "malum granatum", but the Germans call it "Granatapfel", in Italy - "melograno", combining the words with the source "Apfel" and "mela", which translates unambiguously as "apple". The Italians also believed that it was with the pomegranate that the serpent seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden, and not with the usual apple. So, the pomegranate is a plant that is distributed in all lands where the subtropical climate prevails. Its lifespan is quite high, however, by the age of 50-60, the number of fruits ripening on a tree begins to decline and it is necessary to rejuvenate the plantings. The height of this shrub or tree can reach 6 meters. If the growth form is tree-like, then there is good branching. The branches are usually thin, with thorns.
The leaf plates are oval and light green in color; they can be up to 3 cm long. The surface of the leaves is glossy.
The flowers are funnel-shaped or bell-shaped, they can be either double or single. The color of the petals is orange-red and, when fully expanded, the diameter can reach 2.5 cm or more. The buds begin to develop at the ends of the branches.
Naturally, the whole value of a plant is not only in its appearance, but in useful fruits. Their shape is spherical, there is a leathery pericarp, inside there are multiple juicy grains, which are separated by 9–12 membranes. With the help of these whitish membranes, peculiar nests are formed, in which the seeds are attached in two rows. The pomegranate seeds are enveloped in an edible juicy pulp called pulp. The pulp can be colored in dark ruby tones or a little lighter, its taste is sweet and sour. Pomegranate peel can vary in color from orangey yellow to brownish red. The size of the diameter of the fruit varies between 8-18 cm. Up to 50-60 kg of fruits can be harvested from one plant.
How to grow pomegranate at home?
- Lighting. The plant loves bright light and can not be shaded by growing on the windowsills of the windows of the southern location. Only on summer days, at a particularly hot afternoon, will a little shade from direct sunlight be required. With the arrival of spring heat, you can take the pomegranate out into the fresh air, but gradually accustom you to the sun's rays.
- Content temperature. In the spring-summer period, the thermometer readings are kept within the range of 20-25 degrees, and in the fall they begin to decrease to 5-10 degrees. During this time, it is best to keep the pomegranate in a well-lit area. It is important to ventilate to protect the grenade from drafts. If the heat indicators in the autumn-winter period are above 15 degrees, then frequent spraying is carried out.
- General care. In order for the pomegranate to bloom well, it is necessary to properly form its crown; for this, dry shoots are cut in the spring, and the young are shortened, leaving only 2-3 pairs of leaves on them.
- Air humidity for a pomegranate does not play a significant role, only in extreme heat can spraying be carried out.
- Watering a pomegranate. As soon as the dormant period ends, the plant is moistened abundantly, and only with soft well-settled water as the top layer of soil in the pot dries out. If there are fruits on the bush, then watering is carried out twice a day, and at the end of summer, the moisture is reduced and it is not worth feeding the pomegranate. This is done to ripen young shoots. After the foliage has fallen off, the pomegranate tree is watered very sparingly, but the earthen clod must not be allowed to dry out. Filling the substrate will also negatively affect the plant.
- Fertilizers introduced in the spring-summer period, as soon as growth begins to intensify. Nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers are used to build up foliage, and at the end of summer days it is necessary to use fertilizers with a high potassium content.
- Transplanting a home pomegranate. Such an operation is carried out in the spring, after the rest period ends. When the plant is young, then it is transplanted annually, but for adult specimens, the soil and pot are changed every 2-4 years. It is not worth picking up a large pot, since the abundant flowering of a pomegranate tree will occur in a cramped flowerpot. Therefore, it is not worthwhile to greatly increase the diameter of the container during transplantation. A drainage layer must be placed on the bottom of the pot. The soil should be loose and nutritious. Usually they mix sod soil, humus and leafy soil, as well as river sand (in a ratio of 1: 0, 5: 1: 1).
Tips for breeding pomegranate at home
In order to get a new pomegranate tree, cuttings, grafting or sowing of seeds are used.
Sowing seed should be done in the fall or spring. For sowing, a soil mixture is made from equal parts of sod soil and river sand. If it is necessary for the seeds to germinate faster, it is recommended to heat the substrate, keeping the heat values within 22-25 degrees. The container with crops should be covered with a piece of glass or wrapped in plastic wrap. It is important not to forget about regular soil moisture and airing. As soon as the seedlings grow up, and they have a pair of real leaves, they pick one plant at a time into a separate pot with a diameter of 5–7 cm. The same composition of the substrate is poured into the container. Further, young pomegranates are watered, with the arrival of the winter months, moisture is reduced, especially when the leaves fall. When spring comes, transshipment is carried out (without destroying the earthen coma) into pots with a diameter of 7-9 cm. You should not expect a pomegranate tree to grow rapidly in the first years, such a seedling will bloom only after 5-8 years (if it is grown as pot plant).
When grafting, it is necessary to cut branches from February to March. The length of the cutting is cut to about 10 cm, and the shoots from which the branches are taken must be ripe. They are planted in a seedling box or the planted cuttings are placed under a glass container or wrapped in a plastic bag to create the conditions for a mini-greenhouse. When the twigs take root, they are transplanted into pots with a diameter of 7 cm, filled with a mixture of sod soil, humus soil, leafy soil and river sand (in proportions 1: 0, 5: 1: 1). If a decision is made to reproduce in the summer, then semi-ripe cuttings are used.
When a garden variety of pomegranate is cultivated, then such a variety can be propagated by grafting, and the role of the rootstock is played by seedlings. Flowering in this case occurs 3-4 years after the vaccination.
Difficulties in cultivating a pomegranate tree
If the conditions for caring for a pomegranate are violated, then the following problems may arise:
- Pomegranate does not bloom. Usually, common pomegranate begins to bloom as early as 5-7 years from the time of its planting. If the variety is dwarf, then even faster, practically in a year or two. When the crown is molded during the beginning of the growing season (the ends of the branches are cut off, on which the flower buds are located), it is natural that there will be no buds.
- The leaf plates acquire a yellow tint and begin to fall off when winter comes, because the plant is a deciduous representative of the flora. You will need to rearrange the pomegranate pot to a cool place.
- If the leaves become covered with a mottled brown tone, and they begin to fall off during the growing season. Then, apparently, there was a drying out of the substrate in the pot. It is necessary to establish a moisturizing regime and wait for the appearance of new shoots.
- To reduce the fragility of the branches, and in the pomegranate tree they are very thin and flexible and they break off under the weight of the fruit, you will need to use sticks to create props or tie bending shoots to them.
- When the pomegranate fruit cracked, the soil was too waterlogged, it is better to water the plant moderately during the ripening period.
- If the planted seed material does not germinate in any way, then either the grains were not freshly harvested or the substrate in which they germinated was too dry.
- Many flowers were formed, but the fruits practically did not set. Usually, the fruits begin to ripen only from flowers that have a long pistil, all the rest will wither and fly around.
In the home, the pomegranate tree can be affected by spider mites, aphids, scale insects or whiteflies. If harmful insects have been detected, then it is recommended to carry out an insecticidal treatment.
Interesting facts about pomegranate
In ripe pomegranate, the number of seeds can reach more than 1000 units, it is because of this feature in ancient times that the fruits of the pomegranate tree were considered a symbol of fertility, as well as a means in the fight against infertility. When the fruit is ripe, if you touch it, it seems hard, and the skin is completely uniform in color and completely dry. Usually the taste of ripe pomegranate is sweet (this is provided by the monosaccharides that make up the pulp), but there is some astringency, and this effect is given by tannins.
You can see trees and thickets of pomegranate bushes in the wild on the territory of the Caucasus and the lands of Central Asia, where he likes to settle on rocky slopes, along salt marshes or in the undergrowth of pine or oak forests.
Since pomegranate flowers contain a large amount of a pigment with a bright red color called anthocyanin punicin, it is customary to make dyes from petals to dye fabrics from silk, cotton or linen and woolen fibers.
If choosing a pomegranate, you noticed that its "bottom" (the place where the flower grew) is green, then the fruit has not ripened to the end. Also, the crust of a ripe fruit, as it were, wraps around the grains, and it is slightly dried in appearance. When the peel strikes with its gloss and smoothness, then you have an unripe pomegranate in front of you.
We know a lot of interesting information about pomegranates and the juice of these fruits that speaks about their usefulness, but there are also contraindications:
- you should immediately brush your teeth after consuming juice and grains, in order to avoid damage to tooth enamel;
- if the child has not reached the age of one year, then it is not recommended for him to drink the juice of the guarantor;
- since the peel of the fruit of this plant contains up to 15% of poisonous alkaloids, it is also not necessary to thoughtlessly use decoctions based on it.
Pomegranate juice contains up to 15 different amino acids, and it is curious that half of them are found only in meat products. Therefore, if a person is fond of vegetarianism, then he can replenish his body with vegetable proteins by drinking juice, so similar to animals.
The peel of these fruits has long been familiar to folk healers as a good hemostatic agent, and if you dry it, and then grind it to a powder state and fry a little in butter or olive oil, then with such a remedy, in the presence of oily skin, you can get rid of acne or purulent rashes. This drug works well to relieve burns or to heal skin cracks and scratches.
The white bridges separating the grains in the pomegranate fruit also have properties useful in traditional medicine. When dried and added to teas, they relieve insomnia, relieve agitation and anxiety, and help balance the nervous system.
Types of pomegranate
Here are the varieties of common pomegranate suitable for growing in rooms.
- Variety "Nana" has a tree-like form of growth and reaches one meter in height, but it is considered a dwarf species. The flowering process for this variety begins from 2-3 years after planting, and it is quite abundant. Fruits ripening on a tree do not differ in large sizes, their diameter reaches 5 cm. Fruiting is very early, since if you grow a plant from seeds, then it begins to bloom already at 3-4 months, ripening of fruits can be rejoicing already after 2- x years. On such specimens, the number of fruits can reach up to 20 units. There is also a feature not to shed their leaves for the winter period, which other varieties cannot "boast" of. This variety perfectly tolerates the dryness of the air in urban areas and it is customary to grow it as an indoor culture. Fruiting is extended for almost the entire year, especially when its height exceeds 40 cm.
- Variety "Uzbekistan" has a bushy form of growth and can reach up to 2 meters with shoots. It is customary to grow this variety both in open ground and in indoor conditions. Fruits have spherical outlines, bright red hue and their weight can reach 100-120 grams. The peel covering the grains is thin, the seeds are colored in burgundy tones and have a sweet and sour taste.
- Variety "Baby". Often this variety is grown in rooms, and its sizes can vary in height in the range from 30 cm to half a meter. Flowers appear both singly and form an inflorescence of 5-7 buds. Fruit color is yellowish-brown, with a small ruddy side. The diameter of pomegranates ranges from 5-7 cm. They ripen at the end of December days or early January. To obtain a crop, artificial pollination will be required.
- Variety "Rubin" It is also customary to grow indoors, since the maximum height to which the shoots stretch is 70 cm. The flower petals are cast in a beautiful bright ruby color scheme, which greatly distinguishes this variety from others. If the care is good, then when ripe, the fruits can reach up to 6-8 cm in diameter with a weight of up to 100 grams. The grains in the fruits are colored red.
How to grow pomegranate from seeds at home, see this video:
