Harvesting Pomegranates

We were lucky enough to find a mature pomegranate tree on the property when we bought our house 6 years ago. The house had sat vacant for nearly 6 years with no one to water or prune the tree. By the time we moved in it had become a tangled bramble.

I have been slowly untangling the mess since we moved in, both for the health of the tree and because pruning is one of my favorite things to do in the garden. We still haven't watered the tree at all (if it ain't broke...), yet each year we have harvested a large tub full of delicious fruit.

Last year I removed a particularly troublesome section of lower branches which were struggling for survival. They were criss-crossing their way up to the sunlight, creating a nearly impenetrable thatch of thorny growth.

The downside to removing such a large section was a slightly smaller harvest this year.

We also share quite a bit of the fruit with the wild critters (raccoons, opossums, skunks, birds, etc.)

The critter's appetites don't diminish year over year and so, with the smaller harvest, we had to pull the fruit a little early if we wanted to keep much of it.

I think that we'll have more fruit again next year. The tree has really begun to fill out more evenly, which should mean that it will be more efficient and hopefully, more productive.

No matter what happens, the pomegranates we ate today were delicious.