Developing Dwarf Pomegranates

[theta]

I just bought 2 dwarf pomegranates from this local nursery near me. I have no experience with them at all, but they're about 3-4 feet tall and need to be cut down. They've already leaved out, so I'm thinking I need to wait until the leaves and new stems harden off, and then can I cut back?

If I missed the window of cutting them low before bud break, when's the next time I can do that?

 

[BunjaeKorea]

I just bought 2 dwarf pomegranates from this local nursery near me. I have no experience with them at all, but they're about 3-4 feet tall and need to be cut down. They've already leaved out, so I'm thinking I need to wait until the leaves and new stems harden off, and then can I cut back?

If I missed the window of cutting them low before bud break, when's the next time I can do that?

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/dwarf-poms.26473/page-2#post-545844

 

[milehigh_7]

One major thing to be aware of is that dwarf poms develop trunks VERY SLOWLY. However, as was pointed out in the thread above, they do bud back fairly well. Now, don't cut back past an active node. It might work, it might not. Whatever you do, I would not trunk chop until the trunk is the thickness you want. Otherwise, you will die of old age waiting for it to regrow.

I don't know what your low temps are there in N. GA but I suspect you may be able to drop them in the ground. However, I get pretty fast growth by sticking mine in a 8" terra cotta pot with a REALLY fast draining substrate. A few other things to note is they like it fairly acidic so get yourself some elemental sulfur (the little beads not the powder) and sprinkle about a half teaspoon on every three or four months.

They don't like wet feet. About the only thing that will slow them down is fungus. Let's see some pics.

 

[theta]

OK thanks guys for the info. I think I'm happy with the trunk thickness and really just want to focus on making some big chops on the branches to regrow everything lower.

 

[Cristian D.]

Hi,
Any updates about the trees?
Thanks!

 

[theta]

I haven't done much this season. I made a cut halfway through the trunk on one of them, sealed it and will finish the cut next season. Both will be repotted next spring also and chopped down.

 

[theta]

So today I decided to repot one of these. I pruned back the other one too, but haven't had a chance to repot it yet.

Cut down the big branches and bare rooted it cutting back as many of the bigger structure roots that I could. I've been reading some people say to never cut past a node as they can be hard to back bud on old wood, other people say they back bud without a problem. So hopefully I didn't do too much with this one, it was the healthiest thing last year so I'm really hoping I didn't screw myself over here.

On the right side I cut a notch out last season and this season it healed over pretty good, so I took the rest off to help with the taper. I need to clean up the cuts and apply cut paste, as soon as I can find it. We moved recently and Spring just came out of nowhere it seems like.

Thinking I like this as a front, maybe rotated to the right a little more,but we'll see. Right now I just wasn't this thing to recover and hope I didn't kill it.

 

[leatherback]

This is a very nice trunk!

 

[theta]

Today I repotted the other one into a pond basket. I have no idea how long these trees were in the nursery containers, but there wasn't even hardly any soil left in it, it was just nothing but old little roots packed together, it was the weirdest thing.







I love this feature on the trunk, its starting to hollow out, on the back side its starting to hollow out too.




This is the backside where you can see another hollow starting to develop, I'm wondering if sometime in the future they will meet and create a completely open trunk through the center???






After looking at this for a while I'm thinking of cutting the main trunk lower, like at the red line? Just curious how well, if at all it will backbud.




Does anyone know if this is a good idea to chop this again into old wood?

 

[pweifan]

I would ask @bonhe if you haven't yet. He's who I would trust on this type of material.

 

[akhater]

It's a pomegranate, I wouldn't worry about it. They are as tough as they get. It will probably not skip a beat

 

[bonhe]

I love this feature on the trunk, its starting to hollow out, on the back side its starting to hollow out too.

This is the backside where you can see another hollow starting to develop, I'm wondering if sometime in the future they will meet and create a completely open trunk through ?

This phenomenon is commonly seen in pomegranate. It is actually two trunks fused together. If you want to open it up, you can carve it out a little. Don’t do it too much, otherwise it does not look good.
Yes, you can cut it down to the old wood to get new buds out, but you must do it when the tree is strong and in the end of winter.
By the way, they have very nice trunk lines
Thụ Thoại

 

[sixemkay]

@akhater How is your pomegranate doing now? Did it fill out again after your lost pruning?