Content
Proper care of the pomegranate tree from the first days of planting allows you to get a healthy tree, annually delighting its owners with fresh fruit. Pomegranate blooms with lush buds for almost the entire warm season. The lack of flowers can become a serious problem and deprive all future crops.
When the pomegranate blooms
Home-grown pomegranates usually bloom twice a year. The first flowering occurs in the spring months - April and May. At this time, ovaries of future fruits are formed from female flowers. The reappearance of ovaries and buds is found in August - it lasts until about mid-September.
If the tree is planted outdoors, then in warm climates it can bloom continuously. In Iran, in its historical homeland, the plant blooms all year round, pleasing with its appearance and an abundance of fruits. In central Russia, the flowering of an adult pomegranate tree begins in April and ends by mid-August. The southern regions boast a longer flowering period. In northern latitudes, pomegranate trees are not planted - the cold climate is not suitable for their cultivation.
How the pomegranate tree blooms
It takes only 3-4 days from the moment the flower appears to its disappearance. However, new ovaries will appear the very next day. Thus, flowering does not stop even for a day, the pomegranate tree is in bloom almost all the time. And if we take into account that at the same time budding and swelling of fruits occurs, in the summer months the plant pleases with an incredibly beautiful appearance.
The flowers can be white, scarlet, yellow or crimson. Moreover, each of them can contain two or even three of these colors at once. This play of shades and a variety of color options allows you to achieve a stunning picture. Blooming pomegranate looks great both in the photo and in life.
What is the name of the pomegranate flower
Pomegranate is a bisexual plant, so both male and female flowers can be found on it. Most often, both sexes are represented on the tree in approximately the same proportion, however, depending on the cultivated variety, the ratio may change in favor of more fruiting female flowers. Also, the climate and the agricultural technology used can play a certain role in the ratio of female and male specimens. Pomegranate flowers are very easy to distinguish from each other. Their name is generally accepted based on their appearance.
Female flowers are called jugs. This is due to the resemblance of a bud to a small vessel. Male pomegranate inflorescences are called bells. At the same time, male flowers are necessary only for pollination, so they do not bear fruit by themselves.
What does a pomegranate flower look like?
The female bud has a rather large and stable base and looks like a fleshy tube. Its scalloped edge will remain on ripe fruit in the future, forming a kind of crown. The pistil of female pomegranate flowers is long and is located even just above the anthers.
Female flowers appear only on strong shoots of past years.A multi-celled ovary is formed from several accrete stipules. Inside, it is divided among themselves by parts of the stipule, forming small chambers, which in the future will be filled with grains.
Male bells do not bear fruit in the future. Their appearance is a cone with a short pistil inside and high anthers. They can form on fresh shoots. It is these flowers that amaze people with their splendor. True, after flowering, they die pretty quickly.
Why pomegranate does not bloom
There can be many reasons why the pomegranate refuses to bloom. When planted outdoors, the tree can be damaged by a variety of pests or diseases. In addition, there is a risk of damage to the grenade due to inappropriate climate. Also, the appearance of flowers may be associated with improper processing of the pomegranate itself.
Do not forget that any tree is a living organism, which decides for itself how much fruit it can bear. If the root system and shoots are not fully formed, the tree will refuse to bloom, despite all the care and concern for it. As soon as the plant is ready for fruiting, flowering will not take long.
Adverse climatic factors
One of the most serious problems for flowering pomegranates is recurrent frost. When a plant grown in an open field comes to life and dissolves buds and flower ovaries, a sudden cold snap can completely destroy them. In the event of such events, pomegranates will either not bloom this year, or their flowering will be postponed to later months and will not be as abundant and lush.
Pomegranate is a very light-loving plant. An adult plant is believed to need about eight hours of direct sunlight a day. If the right amount of sun is not received or the tree grows in a shaded place, the pomegranate will refuse to bloom and delight a person with its fruits.
For active flowering and fruiting, the pomegranate needs a fairly high relative humidity. It is quite easy to get ideal conditions in an apartment. When growing a tree outdoors, in order to make it bloom, you will need to make a number of additional agronomic measures. In strong winds and long-term droughts, pomegranate leaves and flowers are sprayed with water using a spray bottle. It is also worth taking care of the neighboring trees - the more plants are around, the more moisture they can store.
Improper care
To stimulate the appearance of fruits and make the pomegranate bloom, some experienced gardeners practice insufficient watering of the plant. The fact is that with a lack of moisture, the pomegranate begins to fulfill the program of accelerated reproduction inherent in each living creature, therefore the number of new ovaries in such a plant increases significantly. The disadvantage of this method is that even a healthy adult tree can be ruined by inexperience. In such cases, not only new flower ovaries dry out, but even the shoots and root system.
In order for an adult tree to bloom and bear fruit effectively, it is worth taking care of the correct formation of its crown. If the pomegranate is not cut on time, the roots will not have time to meet the needs of each shoot, as a result of which flowering will be delayed until the next season. Pruning should be done in early spring before the period of active bud swelling. It is important to cut the main branches of the pomegranate by about 1/4 - this will stimulate the active growth of the crown. Also cut off the shoots going to the trunk. A 3-4-year-old plant, deprived of unnecessary branches, will begin to bloom from April and delight its owners.
Diseases and pests
Pomegranate, like other plants, is susceptible to many diseases. They cause the greatest loss of ovaries in spring, during the first flowering period. Among the diseases that contribute to a decrease in the number of pomegranate buds, there are:
- Powdery mildew... The leaves of the pomegranate and its flowers are covered with a white bloom and fall off rather quickly. The disease requires immediate treatment at its earliest stages. Spraying with Fundazol helps to get rid of damage to leaves and flowers.
- Gray rot... Causes damage to flowers, shoots and pomegranate fruits. Caused by the excessive development of especially dangerous fungi. For treatment, fungicides and antimycotic agents are used.
- Fomoz... With this disease, skeletal branches die off. The pomegranate blooms, but the female buds become sterile. Treat with Horus fungicide as soon as possible.
Do not discount insects, whose periodic forays on fruit trees interfere with their active flowering and fruiting. One of the most dangerous pomegranate pests is the whitefly. These insects stick around the leaves and branches of the tree, drinking all the juices from it, causing irreparable damage only to the emerging ovaries.
Another dangerous insect for the plant is the pomegranate moth. She begins to destroy female buds when they begin to bloom, and also spoils the already poured fruits. The best remedy for insect control is the use of special insecticides. At the same time, it is better to give your choice to trusted manufacturers in order to be sure that the use of such poisons will not cause further damage to human health.
What to do if the pomegranate does not bloom
A plant's lack of new ovaries can upset any gardener. Experienced farmers are advised to refrain from special chemicals aimed at increasing their quantity. These concentrates contain chemical compounds that can damage neighboring plants.
There are several simple agrotechnical techniques aimed at ensuring that the pomegranate tree begins to bloom as abundantly as possible. The first number among such measures are natural organic fertilizers with a small addition of complex additives for plants. To prepare a nutritious fertilizer, you will need:
- 15 liters of water;
- 1 kg of cow dung;
- 15 g of nitrogen fertilizers;
- 7.5 g of potash fertilizers;
- 12 g superphosphate.
All ingredients are mixed in a small barrel. Watering is carried out every 10-15 days from late March to mid-August. At a time, about 1 liter of finished fertilizer is poured under each bush.
In order for home pomegranates to bloom, an important task for a person is to select the optimal soil. The plant absorbs nutrients and blooms only in favorable conditions. The mixture should be light and consist of turf and humus. You can use old plaster and some bone meal as an additive. Dry cow dung can also be used as drainage.
To speed up the flowering of pomegranates at home, farmers practice the technology of periodic pomegranate transplanting. The new pot should be 2-3 cm larger than the previous one. At the same time, you need to understand that traditionally pomegranate blooms better in cramped conditions. If the roots have a lot of space and nutrients, the plant will only increase its green mass.
A very important technique for increasing the number of flowers on the future tree, however paradoxical it may sound, is to provide the plant with rest. When a young plant begins to bloom, the ovaries are torn off so that the roots and branches become stronger and can increase their yield in the future.
If none of the methods has brought the desired result, you can use the last resort. From a healthy pomegranate, which has been blooming for several years, a shoot is cut off and grafted onto the trunk of a young tree. This method can also make it possible to combine several varieties in one plant.
How many years does a pomegranate bloom after planting
The beginning of the flowering period largely depends on the correct planting and care of the plant in the first years of its life. It is believed that the pomegranate planted from the stone for the first 2-3 years is actively gaining green mass and only at the 4th year of life begins to delight the owners with abundant bright flowers. For pomegranate trees planted with seedlings, this period is slightly reduced - on average, they begin to bloom from the age of 3.
Young plants may experience abnormally early flowering. The first buds may appear as early as the 2nd year of the pomegranate's life. As a rule, such single specimens fall off rather quickly, since the tree is not yet ready for fruiting.
Conclusion
Pomegranate blooms in comparison with other fruit trees for quite a long time. Amazing flower shapes delight the eye with a riot of bright colors. The absence of ovaries in a plant indicates possible problems that need to be solved as quickly as possible.
