The pomegranate is one of those fruits that looks as though somebody designed it specifically to make ordinary fruit seem inadequate. Open one up and there is no simple interior of pulp and a few seeds. Instead, there are hundreds of little ruby-red arils packed together like somebody’s idea of edible jewelry. It is a strange, beautiful, ancient fruit, and fortunately for those of us living in Southern California, it is also remarkably well suited to growing in the backyard.
The pomegranate, Punica granatum, has been cultivated for thousands of years. Its origins are generally traced to a broad region extending from Iran and Central Asia toward northern India, although its exact birthplace is difficult to pin down. From there it spread throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean region, North Africa and eventually much of the world. The fruit was well established in ancient cultures and became wrapped up in mythology, religion, medicine and folklore. Spanish settlers eventually brought pomegranates to California, where the combination of hot summers and relatively dry conditions turned out to be almost perfect for them.
Growing one at home is considerably easier than growing many other fruit trees. Give a pomegranate plenty of sun, reasonably good drainage and enough water while it is getting established, and it will generally take care of itself. Once established, it is quite drought tolerant. It can be grown as a large shrub with several trunks or pruned into something more resembling a small tree. The choice is largely a matter of how much space you have and how much pruning you are willing to do. Pomegranates can also sucker aggressively from the base, which means that a tree you thought you were planting can gradually develop ambitions of becoming a thicket.
The flowers are another reason to grow one. They are usually brilliant orange-red and appear against the green foliage during the warm months. If pollination and growing conditions cooperate, those flowers eventually become the familiar round fruits. Watching a pomegranate develop is actually one of the more interesting things you can do with a camera in the backyard. The flower appears, the little fruit begins to swell, the leathery skin develops, and eventually the whole thing starts looking as though it has been inflated just slightly beyond what the branch can reasonably support.
The fruit itself has plenty of uses. You can eat the arils straight from the fruit, assuming you have the patience to get them out. They can be added to salads, desserts, oatmeal, yogurt and all sorts of savory dishes. The juice can be used for drinks, sauces, syrups and marinades, and pomegranate molasses is particularly useful in Middle Eastern cooking. Historically, the fruit has also been used for juice, jellies, sauces and fermented beverages.
There are some obvious advantages to having a pomegranate in the backyard. It is attractive, relatively drought tolerant, productive in the right climate and doesn’t require the constant attention demanded by some fruit trees. It gives you flowers, interesting foliage, fruit and a generally Mediterranean-looking plant all in one package. It is also one of those plants that can survive a certain amount of neglect without immediately filing a formal complaint.
But there are disadvantages. Pomegranates can get larger than you expect, their branches can be thorny, and the plants can produce unwanted suckers. The fruit can split before harvest, particularly when watering is inconsistent. Birds and other wildlife may discover the fruit before you do, and getting the arils out of a ripe pomegranate can turn a perfectly respectable kitchen into something resembling a crime scene. The fruit also has a remarkable ability to stain anything it touches. Clothing, countertops, cutting boards and fingers should all be considered potential victims.
And then there is the question of whether growing your own pomegranates actually saves money. Probably not. If your objective is simply to obtain pomegranate arils as cheaply and efficiently as possible, the grocery store remains a formidable competitor. Growing the tree requires space, water, pruning, patience and several years of putting up with the thing before it really gets going. But that misses the point. A backyard pomegranate isn’t just a food-producing machine. It is a plant to watch, photograph and fuss over, and eventually it gives you something you can actually eat.
That, to me, is the real appeal of growing fruit trees. There is something satisfying about looking at a pomegranate hanging from a branch and remembering that you didn’t buy it, order it or have somebody deliver it to your house. You planted a tree, waited, watered it, pruned it, watched the flowers appear and eventually ended up with a strange little red globe filled with hundreds of edible jewels.
The pomegranate has been doing this for thousands of years. I am simply continuing the tradition in my backyard, one slightly overripe fruit at a time.