Pomegranate

Year-round

Pomegranate isn't native to Georgia, it's native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Pakistan, but it grows well in Atlanta yards as a large shrub or small tree with full sun and well drained soil. The fruit itself isn't on the ASPCA's toxic plant list for dogs or cats, though the hard seeds and rind can upset a pet's stomach if they eat a lot of them.

• Give it at least six hours of direct sun a day. Full sun is what keeps the fruit color and the harvest good.
• Skip low spots in the yard. Pomegranate can handle a little standing water for a short time, but it sets fewer flowers and struggles if the soil stays soggy.
• Train young plants to two or three main trunks in an open, vase-shaped form instead of one single trunk. If a hard freeze kills one trunk, the others usually carry the plant through.
• Expect the first fruit about two to three years after planting. In the Atlanta area harvest generally runs from late summer into November, depending on the variety.
• Go light on fertilizer. Too much nitrogen, especially late in the season, pushes soft leafy growth instead of fruit and leaves the plant less prepared for winter cold.

The open, vase-shaped, multi-trunk form UGA Extension recommends also reads as a tidy, intentional small tree from the street, rather than a sprawling shrub.

Fall

Fall is harvest season for pomegranate in the Atlanta area, with fruit ripening from late summer into November depending on the variety, right up until the first freeze.

• Pick fruit as it ripens rather than all at once. Pomegranate doesn't keep ripening after it's picked, and one plant can have two to four separate harvest windows since the flowers don't all open together.
• Ease off heavy watering as fruit nears harvest. A sudden soaking right before picking is a common reason ripe fruit splits open.
• Rake up dropped or rotting fruit from under the plant regularly instead of letting it sit. It draws yellow jackets and other pests and can carry disease over into next year.
• Atlanta's average first freeze lands around November 13. Get the last of the harvest in before then, fruit left on the plant through a hard freeze won't be usable.

Keeping dropped fruit cleared from the ground through fall is what keeps a front yard planting from looking abandoned or drawing pests near a walkway.

Winter

Winter is the highest risk season for pomegranate in the Atlanta area. The plant is dormant, but a hard freeze can still kill it back hard, especially while it's young.

• Do the main structural pruning in late winter before the buds break, shaping the multi-trunk, open form and cutting out any wood the last freeze damaged.
• Watch the forecast for hard freezes each winter. Most pomegranate varieties start taking damage below about 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and Atlanta has had winters cold enough to reach that mark, so a young, unprotected plant is at real risk.
• For a young or newly planted tree, piling a few extra inches of mulch around the base before a hard freeze helps protect the lower trunk, the part most likely to resprout from if the top dies back.
• Painting the lower trunk with white latex paint, a trick UGA Extension notes, reflects sunlight and cuts down on the temperature swings that split bark on the south facing side during cold snaps.

Winter pruning into a clean, open form is what keeps a dormant pomegranate looking like an intentional small tree instead of a tangle of bare stems out front.

Spring

Spring is when pomegranate breaks dormancy in the Atlanta area, usually leafing out and starting to bloom by April. New growth is tender, so a late cold snap can still set it back.

• Feed with a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 once new growth starts, roughly one ounce per foot of plant height spread in an 18 inch circle around the base for a young plant.
• Keep an eye on the forecast into early spring. A late cold snap can still nip the season's first flush of blooms even after the plant has leafed out.
• Pull off root suckers at the base as soon as you see them, to keep the multi-trunk shape you're training toward instead of letting the plant thicken into a hedge.
• Hold off on heavy watering until the topsoil actually dries between waterings. Atlanta's clay holds moisture, and pomegranate roots don't like sitting wet through a rainy spring.

Pulling suckers as soon as they show up in spring keeps the base clean and the plant reading as a small tree, not a spreading thicket, which matters most for a front yard planting.

Summer

Georgia's hot, humid summers actually suit pomegranate well, the plant needs heat to ripen its fruit, but the humidity also brings more disease and pest pressure than a drier climate would.

• Water deeply during dry stretches, especially as fruit is filling out in July and August, but water the soil, not the leaves or flowers. Overhead watering raises the odds of fungal problems and can knock young fruit off in Atlanta's humidity.
• Finish up fertilizing by mid to late summer, then stop for the year. Nitrogen applied late in summer pushes soft new growth that doesn't harden off before Georgia's first cold snaps.
• This is the main mid-summer window for pulling root suckers, alongside the light removal you do in spring.
• Watch for leaf spot and fruit rot on the developing fruit, both more common in humid summers, and thin out crowded interior branches so air can move through the canopy.