Ruud Kleinpaste: Troubleshooting pomegranates

It seems pomegranates are now planted all over New Zealand.

Some people encounter some troubles when these fruits ripen around this time of year. Here are some things that might be the causes of those troubles and how to prevent them:

Cold and wet summers, resulting in a pretty mediocre ripening of the fruit from late summer till now-ish. The fruit can split or rot inside. A hot, sunny site with good drainage might reduce such troubles.

Splitting of fruit is often caused by irregular watering or huge rainfalls followed by long, dry conditions. Regular watering might reduce those fruit-splitting troubles.

Splitting fruit can also be the result of some fungal diseases (such as Anthracnose) when the fruit becomes quite black in colour. Botrytis is a grey mould that can start causing mishaps too – keep the foliage dry as much as you can.

Temperatures of the site may also change the development of that fruit. If it’s often too cold, the fruit may not ripen in a nice, sweet way. A lovely intense warm area often ends up with sweet fruit.

Plant them in a warm sheltered spot; prune them in winter, so that the next generation of foliage will thrive with good airflow. Be aware that it sometimes takes two or even three (four!?) years for the pomegranates to start producing fruit in “full swing”. 

Sometimes birds are getting into the developing fruit in autumn… just be aware that some netting might avoid that.

Sap-sucking insects (scales, mealybugs, and aphids) really love the softer skins of the developing fruit. Some simple organic sprays (oils, neem oils, etc) will give these sucking bugs a run for their money.

I have heard of rodents climbing the shrubs and trees – a good rat trap would be handy, especially when baited with Selena Gomez Oreos!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Rude Climb passes our men in the garden. Good morning, sir, A.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Very good morning to you. And you're the man in
your garden at the moment with your one little thing, magic.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
My one, my lonely pomegranate with the with the ants
coming out of the they seem to have I've seen
you a photo. You've seen it seem to be down
the business end of things, which I think is not
a great sign.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
No, it's not a terribly great sign. But you have
to remember those And I identified that thing as one
of these introduced species that likes really sweet things. So
that means that you do have sweet fruit.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Right, Okay, well that's good, that's a positive. Yeah, But
then I can tell any sweet fruit left.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I guess, well, next next year is fine. Remember we
are talking about four to three to four years at
least of mucking around, and so this is really important.
You know. Sharel Cridge gave you a call or gave
you an email so she can hear. Now if it's
in kayapoi, I think you're in a really cool place.

(01:16):
Of course, you're on water level if you like, and
you might have the odd the odd year that it's
not that great. So here comes to thing. It takes
about three to four years length for a plant to
become literally okay and starts to produce stuff. Takes a
long time patience. Okay, that's number one. So hot, sunny site,

(01:39):
good drainage and that sort of stuff that reduces most
of the troubles. That is very very important. Here on
the porthills. We're fine, no problems at all with it basically,
and it still can work. So you've got to really
look at that now. And then there's this double trouble
you can get with splitting fruit. I don't think your
fruit was splitting as yet, but that's no. But that

(02:03):
is often caused by irregular water and huge rainfalls. Splitting
fruit fruit is also fungal diseases, you know, and threatnos
and potritas and all that nonsense. Quite a different gig.
But if you are going for three or four years,
you'll find that you will get it much better because
you get much better at looking after the plant as well.

(02:23):
Every every winter by by, you know, getting it smaller
and all that and and all that sort of stuff. Yeah,
that's really important right now. If you get this one
and there is I would try it out in a
couple of weeks time, you know.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
You think it's time to pick up, well, no, give it.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Another give it another couple of weeks, and especially now
it's been quite nice and warm, mate.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't love warm as how I described things. It
hasn't been quite as wet as it was. I mean
it was it was a relatively warm summer. But then yeah,
I don't know that it's it wasn't crazy hot. Yeah,
but you'll get that sort of an autumnal bite now though.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
You know, yeah, I noticed that because it is getting chili. Yeah,
but this plant can actually do that. And I think
it's quite a nice plant because it does go from
very hot to pretty chilly as well. But if I reckon,
give it a couple more weeks, cut it open, and
you might find that even if you do a bit
of control of these these these ants, that would be good,

(03:23):
you know, with handbad and things like that, you can
get that going. But step sucking insects, media bugs, a fits.
I didn't see any example of that on your plants.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
No, No, I don't have any of those. I don't
think at the moment.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
No, no, you'll be fine that otherwise you use some oil's,
kneem oils, all sorts of soft material organic materials, not
a problem at all. And I reckon, you know, between
you and I and the next three years, we can
do this.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, okay, okay, So when you when it comes time
to peck it, I feel like the shape of the
pomegranate goes from a spherical shape until it kind of
becomes a little bit more boxy, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, and that is probably not a great idea because
that boxing as could become that there is there's things
not happening very well that will probably get better in
the next few years. I got your point. If that's
the case, if it becomes boxy, try and cop and
get it out in about a week or two times

(04:22):
and cut it in half. See whether is there anybody
that can cope with it with the sweetness and awhere
you go.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Okay, well, of course I will be reporting back. Thank
you very much.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
You can do it for more from Saturday Morning with
Jack Tame. Listen live to news talks that'd be from
nine am Saturday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.