A thousand-year-old plant, which provides a fruit considered sacred for various religions, as it is synonymous with abundance, fertility and righteousness and celebrated and depicted with its vermilion red color in various human arts (literature, sculpture and painting), is experiencing a ‘rediscovery’ thanks to the changing tastes of consumers and to the growers, who have understood its potential.
This is the pomegranate tree, with the Latin botanical name Punica granatum, a plant of Middle Eastern and Asian origin also widespread in the entire Mediterranean basin and in Latin and Central America, while the fruit, which is a berry, is called pomegranate from the Latin words malum (‘apple’) and granatum (‘with seeds’). It generally ripens between October and November and is eaten fresh or transformed into juice.
Pomegranate: a fruit which is rich in antioxidants and vitamin C
In some territories the cultivation of pomegranate trees had become marginal and often relegated to private parks and gardens as an ornamental plant, but in the last decade it has been re-evaluated mainly due to at least five factors:
1) the qualities of its fruit, increasingly appreciated by consumers, since it is rich in minerals, vitamin A and above all vitamin C and antioxidant polyphenols;
2) the new manual squeezers, cold extractors and systems for shelling the arils (the seeds covered by a pulpy part), which make it easier to peel this fruit without getting dirty with the juice;
3) the modern cultivation techniques, which, starting from Israel, have become a model to imitate for intensive production;
4) the peculiarities of a plant which is rustic, but has a high yield;
5) the diffusion, together with the native ones, of more productive varieties that are now international, such as Wonderful, Acco and Parfianka.
When should pomegranate trees be pruned?
In nature the pomegranate tree has a shrubby and bushy shape and generally emits basal shoots. Also in the wild state it can reach considerable dimensions, assuming an arboreal shape, although it is not strictly a tree. This shape is given to it by pruning.
The bushy feature has a positive and a negative aspect at the same time. The positive side is that the plant itself continuously provides new branches to renew the foliage (or even the stem) in case of attacks by parasites, diseases or damage from winter cold and spring frosts; the negative side is that the continuous regrowth takes away light, energy and nourishment to the productive branches, hindering their fruiting and making harvesting difficult.
Therefore, pruning is essential to keep the plant and the cultivation method under control and in harmony, improving the quantity and quality of the fruit and facilitating harvesting. But precisely due to the bushy shape of the pomegranate tree it is necessary to carry out the interventions in two/three periods during the year (autumn or winter and at the beginning of spring/summer), since a too vigorous pruning would stimulate the plant to emit new branches.
How to prune the pomegranate tree: tools and PPE devices
Italians retain a childhood memory image of the pomegranate tree, since for them it is “The tree to which you held out your little hand…”, as stated in a famous poem learned at school (Pianto Antico, Giosuè Carducci), but it hides a danger: the apical bud of the branches transforms into a thorn (except in Japanese ornamental cultivars).
Therefore, to start pruning (or harvesting) you must first equip yourself with personal protective equipment (PPE), such as glasses or a visor to protect your eyes and face, as well as gloves and long-sleeved shirts to protect your hands and arms.
If pruning is carried out periodically, the diameter of the branches remains quite limited and the cuts can be carried out with shears (for the weaker branches), loppers (for the higher branches) and saws (for the thicker basal branches). The tools can be manual, or battery operated, or pneumatic, it depends on the dimensions of the orchard and the number of interventions required, so as to make the operator’s task less tiring, speeding it up.
However, it is necessary that the blades are of high quality and well sharpened, so that they can carry out clean and precise cuts, since torn edges make it more difficult for the plant to heal wounds and can also facilitate the entry of mycosis and pathogens. For the same reason, the cuts must be made at 45 degrees, so that rainwater and humidity do not stagnate. Furthermore, the tools must also be disinfected before and after use, better if this operation is repeated even after pruning each individual plant, using hydrogen peroxide or denatured ethyl alcohol.
Autumn/winter pruning and summer green pruning
As with other plants, the best time to prune pomegranate trees is after harvesting the fruits and before their vegetative rest: in autumn, between October and November. But it is also possible to carry out the main pruning in winter between February and March, at the end of the vegetative rest. The important thing is to eliminate the largest and most unproductive branches and keep the foliage within two meters of height, to facilitate manual or mechanized harvesting before the spring awakening.
Thanks to the autumn/winter pruning a sort of general cleaning of the plant is carried out. First of all, the suckers at the base are eliminated, then the dry and/or damaged branches, the vigorous dorsal branches born on the main branches and, in general, the excess vegetation, which tends to grow towards the inner part of the plant, stealing ‘air’ and ‘light’ to the productive branches. During this pruning phase, the supporting branches are also inclined and tied to the wires or spread apart using special tools.
With green pruning, at the beginning of spring, one tries to strengthen the growth of young pomegranate trees. In already adult plants, however, one tries to keep the foliage under control by eliminating any new basal and vigorous dorsal shoots especially inside the plant, but one also tries to stimulate fruiting by shortening some lateral branches, which are the productive ones, without exaggerating, since both fertile and sterile flowers and the fruits develop right in their terminal part.
Between June and July. The thinning of young fruits and/or red flowers is useful to obtain medium-large sizes, but trying to preserve those best protected from the sun rays, to prevent possible damage from sunburn on the skins of the future pomegranate.
During all pruning phases, however, it is essential to remember that the pomegranate tree bears fruit on two-year-old branches, so as not to risk making incorrect cuts, which would jeopardize the production of the current year and the following one.
Pomegranate tree cultivation systems and pruning methods
The type of pruning to be carried out can vary according to the age of the plant and above all the type of cultivation chosen. The pomegranate tree is, in fact, versatile.
For example, for a plant for personal and/or ornamental use in the garden, the traditional form of cultivation called open vase or even bush, which does not require any supports, may be fine. The plant is trimmed after planting at about 20 centimeters from the ground, and subsequently 3-4 main branches are left at a height of 80-90 centimeters. The same can be affirmed also about the pomegranate trees grown in pots. Its lateral branches can be trimmed if you are not interested in the fruit, but only in the ornamental beauty.
The tree shape is widespread: the stem is shortened to 50-60 centimeters from the ground, so as to become a well-developed trunk, capable of supporting the plant, when it is full of fruit, and favoring the development of 3 or 4 lateral branches.
However, for a highly productive breeding, especially with the new commercial cultivars, which are very precocious and begin to produce fruit as early as the second year of age, it is necessary to install support scaffolding in the orchard. The young branches of the plant are tied to it, to help them support the weight of the fruits. The traditional horizontal wires supported by pilings have recently been joined by the so-called transversal Y-shaped variant adopted in the Israeli system.
At the end of the breeding pruning the pomegranate tree in the transversal Y system, , will have from 6 to 12 main branches arranged like an inverted umbrella on the trunk, and its foliage will be tied to the horizontal wires, a technique that involves more work, but guarantees good shading of the fruits against burns and facilitates harvesting.
The bonsai and the giant pomegranate
Among the various varieties of pomegranate trees there is no shortage of curiosities. For example, there are dwarf (bonsai) or semi-dwarf cultivars, to be pruned only before their vegetative growth, which generally also produce miniature fruits, while there are cultivars that produce fruits weighing well over a kilogram, such as the Italian Grossa of Faenza (1.7 kg/fruit).
Pomegranate tree pruning: the Campagnola tools
In the Campagnola catalog there are three product lines (Professional, Green and Smart) which differ in the more or less intensive use expected of the tools. Manual, battery operated and pneumatic shears, loppers and pruners are available. They are all extremely reliable and fitted with high-quality blades. Accessories and original spare parts, which allow to extend the lifespan of the tools, are also available thanks to the extensive network of our local distributors.