Received a Granada Pomegranate cutting today and turned it into a number of smaller cuttings and put them in some water.

This cup is now hosting Fleischman and Granada Pomegranates and the Black Stain Blackberries.

3 of 6 cuttings have just started budding. 18 days after putting them in water.

Granada cuttings transferred from water to pot of soil outside today.

All 5 cuttings looking healthy and strong.

About half the cuttings are suffering with the new heat in the 90s. The others hanging in there.

Repotted from a 1 gal pot to a 5 gal pot. Also relocated it to under the shade cloth in the sub-tropical orchard and over the drip line for the Thai Sapodilla so that when it's watered any excess water will feed the roots of the Sapodilla. This is the only surviving cutting - survival of the fittest I hope means that it will continue to thrive.

Still alive and growing. The birds are loving digging around in the dirt in the pot.

Removed shade cloth from sub-tropicals.

Difficult to see the Granada in this image. Still doing well in its pot. That's a Sapodilla to the left of it and up and to the right is a Tahitian Pomello.

Today the Granada Pomegranate graduated from pot to ground. Here are the images in order.

• Spent the summer in the pot (the one on the far right) along the dripline of a Thai Sapodilla. The idea was that the nutrients and water that left the pot would benefit the tree it was under.
• Roots are growing through all the holes in the bottom so it's definitely time for it to leave this pot.
• The tree in isolation.
• Lots of healthy roots as I'm putting it into its new hole.
• It's occupying a spot that previously had a Moringa in it. I'm keeping the 0.5 GPH eight emitter irrigation ring in place around it that was already there.
• After the mulch has been pulled back.

What influenced the timing the transplanting of this tree from pot to ground?

Unfortunately it was nothing scientific. I would love to say that now was the perfect time (it might be) but the real reasons I did it now where:

• My friend Christine gave Lauren and I cuttings from her Granada Pomegranate. Lauren and I have independently successfully rooted these cuttings in pots. Yesterday I got a message from Lauren asking how mine was doing and alluding to a "competition" to whose would do better. Not wanting to shirk from the hint of a competition and not wanting to lose it either I wanted to get this tree into the ground to give it a head start and the best possible chance of taking off.
• I'm also not working this week so I've been able to spend a bit more time in the yard working through my list of items that need to be taken care of and this is one of them.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 3'2"
• Girth (inches only): 1.3"

Sprayed with copper fungicide and all seasons horticultural oil. Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water + Bonide Horticultural Oil - 3.75 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

First bud

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Sprayed with 3 Fluid Ounces per gallon of Pyrethrin mixed with 1 Fluid Ounce per gallon of Neem Oil. Purpose of this is to combat the influx of Glassy Winged Sharpshooters that have suddenly been observed and also to hopefully suppress Peach Borers.

Strong growth and lots of leaves.

Healthy.

New growth.

Almost at the point where it's big enough to have that tomato cage taken away and let it grow on its own.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

First Bud

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Spread 50 lbs of Arizona's Best Soil Sulfur at the bases of these trees.

• The height has changed by 1' over the last 523 days.
• The girth has changed by 0.5" over the last 523 days.

First ever flowers are starting to appear.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 4'2"
• Girth (inches only): 1.8"

First blossom

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Removed around 20 blossoms today because I want this tree to focus on growing this year and not producing fruit.

Removed more blossoms.

Removed the protective tomato cage from it today. Been removing flowers from it every other day. It really wants to fruit.

Staked this tree today and trimmed off a long lower branch.

I sprayed the encroaching Bermuda grass at the base of this tree with vinegar to kill it and some got on the lower trunk of the tree. Hoping that this doesn't damage the tree.

• The height has changed by 1'1" over the last 250 days.
• The girth has changed by 1.6" over the last 250 days.

Some damage on the lower part of the trunk. Might have been a weed wacker from the landscapers.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 5'3"
• Girth (inches only): 3.4"

Monterey Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water. Made a total of 8 gallons for these trees.

Bud break

Metrics:

• First Bud: ✔

Spread 320 pounds of Arizona's Best Ammonium Sulfate around yard. Includes all trees tagged on this note which is about 95% of the trees in the orchard.

First flowers popping out.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Fruit developing fast.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

Some of these got a very light spray as they'd just been sprayed a couple of days earlier.

Sprayed with Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron diluted at the recommended rate of 1 tablespoon with 1 gallon of water.

This note is about the Backwash Box that's been installed just to the west side of this tree. The images in order:

• The box is half way between the Granada Pomegranate and the pool pump. It's 2' by 2' width/length and 4' high.
• The backwash pipe outlets into the top of it.
• And the pipe is connected to the backwash section of the filter.
• I filled box almost to the top with wood chips.
• In testing this the wood chip level dropped quickly and ...
• ...afterwards there was the expected hole in the middle. Water drained from the bottom but flowed towards the pump and away from the pomegranate which is what I wanted. I'm expecting to have to add absorbent material to this on a regular basis until this compacts.

• Lots of Bermuda grass growing at the base of this tree.
• Trimmed away the lower branches to make working here easier and removed the grass and ...
• ... removed 3 very healthy looking fruit.
• I put in a new large stake to pull the tree more vertical and closer to the wall.
• Spread lots of cut up cardboard around the base to try and suppress further grass growth. I'm also hoping that this will be heat insulation.
• Piled mulch on top of all the cardboard.

Still producing flowers.

A new flower on this bush. The fruit is growing well.

Holding its fruit. Looking much happier tied up.

The fruit is looking beautiful on the outside and ready to harvest but not sure if it's ripe yet.

Found a couple of intact fruit at the base of this tree. No astringency. I don't think that they're fully ripe yet. The flavor was mild. The seeds of medium hardness.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 2
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 8 oz
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Average Weight: 4 oz

These have a bit more flavor and softer seeds that the previous one.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 2
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 10.1 oz
• Average Weight: 5.1 oz

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 2

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 1
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 6.5 oz
• Average Weight: 6.5 oz

Picked the last 3 fruit today. They were very small. Very tasty, seeds were a bit harder than usual because I've gotten used to the soft seeded varieties now.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 6.1 oz
• Harvest End: ✔
• Average Weight: 2 oz

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed Start: ✔

Going into dormancy.

Metrics:

• Leaf Shed End: ✔

• The height has changed by 1' over the last 445 days.
• The girth has changed by 0.6" over the last 445 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 6'3"
• Girth (inches only): 4"
• First Bud: ✔

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Fruit developing

Doing well with lots of fruit.

Photo by Sonali.

Picked 3 poms ready to eat. One was too small. One had cracked and had gone bad. The 3rd was perfect.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 6.8 oz
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔
• Average Weight: 2.3 oz

Spread 42 lbs of Monterey's Dr Iron product around the yard under every tree. Product is 55% sulfur and 22% iron.

Put 0.5 fluid ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron in a gallon of water and poured at base.

Leaf footed bugs on this pomegranate.

Leaning heavily out from wall so tied it back. Before and after pics.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 22
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 3 lbs 7.7 oz
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Harvest End: ✔
• Average Weight: 2.5 oz

Spread Fertizona Furst Class 15-15-15 around the trees today. Used a handful for small trees and up to six handfuls for the larger trees. In total used 100 lbs.

Put 0.5 fluid ounces of Southern Ag Chelated Liquid Iron in a gallon of water and poured at base.

Looking spectacular with tons of flowers and leaves.

A quarter to half of each pomegranate was brown and the arils inside on those sections were partly brown. I think that part of the fruit was going bad. The other part of the fruit did not appear to be ripe yet. These fruit were picked from the north side of the tree that has the most sun exposure and hangs over the lawn. I'm wondering if the excessive sun exposure is causing the drying and rotting.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 3
• Harvest Weight (lbs only): 1 lbs 3 oz
• Harvest Start: ✔
• Average Weight: 6.3 oz

Spread Fertizona Furst Class 15-15-15 around all the trees today. Used a total used 200 lbs of which about 25 lbs went on the grass.

Used the Chapin 20 gallon lawn sprayer to spray Southern Ag Chelated Iron at the base of these trees today. Diluted mixture 50/50 with water.

Picked the first pomegranate of the season and it was delicious. Many of the fruit have been hollowed out by (presumably) rats. This one survived.

Metrics:

• Harvest Count: 1
• Harvest Start: ✔