september & october 2011 fruit gardener10

It’s all the rage in the Desert Southwest...

The Pomegranate in Arizona

Story and images by Patrick Hallman

A s in the rest of the country, pomegranates have become all the rage in the Desert Southwest. For a rare fruit grower, finding opportunities to edu-

cate the public about pomegranate cultivation is never hard. Our members cannot propagate enough of these fruit trees to keep the public satisfied; we quickly sell out at our biannual plant sales and still have people looking for more trees! Go to any big-box hardware store in central Arizona, and you may be lucky enough to find the Wonderful, Sweet, or Utah Sweet varieties that haven’t yet flown out of the garden shop and into shoppers’ baskets. Better lo-cal nurseries may carry a greater selection of varieties offered by Dave Wilson Nursery, but those establishments are far and few between, and their supplies of fruit trees are usually exhausted by the end of spring. Thanks to Jeff Moers-felder, pomegranate expert and curator of the USDA pomegranate collection at Davis, Calif., the Arizona Rare Fruit Growers have introduced more than 60 different pomegranate varieties to the Phoenix-area public and to our members. The enthusiasm for pomegranates here continues to build momen-tum and appears to be here to stay.He

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The population of the Phoenix metro area has boomed in recent years and is an-ticipated to double in the next 20. Though the spirit of the Old Southwest still exists, a new progressive movement can be seen shap-ing the urban environment in architecture, the arts and music, and more recently in sustainability. Fruit trees are being planted faster than they can be procured as increas-ing numbers of people recognize the value of eating fruit grown in their own yards. Many newcomers want to grow fruits from the places that they formerly resided. Just the other day, a Persian family visited while we tending our pomegranate trial planting area. The words, Entekhabi Saveh, Shirin Pust Saveh and Alk Pust Ghermez Saveh, three Iranian varieties of pomegranates we have acquired from the USDA collection, created a level of excitement and emotion from this family that made us proud to be rare fruit growers. The trees were a bridge that allowed us to share a moment of happiness and dis-covery. I wouldn’t be surprised if that same emotion played out hundreds of years ago when the first Jesuit priest, Father Eusebio Kino, brought to the native people of the Sonoran Desert rare and exotic edible plants including the pomegranate.

Heirloom Pomegranates of ArizonaAlthough a seemingly new sensation

here and across the country, pomegranates have been growing in Arizona for 300 years, introduced through Mexico via Spain. Some came from the eastern US as settlers arrived to mine, ranch or farm. In fact this old stock still exists, and there is a movement among horticulturalists and ethno-botanists to visit old homesteads and mining camps in a quest to rediscover long-forgotten plants worthy of preserving. In 2009 our Arizona chapter was fortunate to have Jim Verrier, head hor-ticulturalist of Desert Survivors Nursery in Tucson, and Jesus Garcia, a founder of the Kino Heritage Fruit Tree Project, provide a presentation on the efforts being made to reestablish orchards of these trees at local historic sites. A truckload of these heirloom trees was procured for chapter members so that they could be spread around and thus saved. The pomegranate varieties growing in our Arizona chapter’s members’ gardens now include the following:

Papago Pomegranate This grove of pomegranate bushes has survived without care for many years at a desolate well in Organ Pipe National Monument. With pale white

seeds and russet green skin when ripe, the variety has been cultivated by Papago farmers for generations because of its ability to survive in very arid conditions. The taste is much like an early, blond-fruited type, with crunchy seeds. It makes a wonderful addition to morn-ing cereal or oatmeal. It has been suggested that this variety was among those introduced by Padre Kino at one of the nearby missions he established. Although the site is off-limits to tourists because of proximity to the Mexi-can border, a full-size tree can be seen at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

Sosa Carrillo Pomegranate Located at the Sosa Carrillo House Museum in the Old Barrio of Tucson, Arizona, this lone multi-caned pomegranate tree has thrived in the rear of the homestead for over 120 years. The fruit has reddish skin with dark pink, semi-hard seeds. The taste is sweet with a unique subtle overtone of fresh raspberry. This single tree is still growing well and is cherished by the museum’s patrons.

Josefina Pomegranate A white-green pomegranate with large white seeds. This variety ripens early. The parent tree has a long history of growing in a residential yard in Tucson’s Old Barrio. Although people in the Phoenix area have spoken highly of its taste and soft seeds, this season it will fruit here for the first time.

Ruby Pomegranate A red-skinned, red-seeded pomegranate discovered growing at an abandoned mining camp and ghost town, alongside a seasonal wash at Ruby, Arizona.

Herbert Pomegranate Growing at the homestead of Herbert Green in Phoenix, this forerunner of the Wonderful variety has red skin, crimson red arils and distinctly crunchy seeds. The medium-sized fruits are flat in shape and tend to be borne on the inside of the tree’s canopy.

The Arizona chapter continues to seek out old pomegranate tree stock that thrives in our extreme heat, bears exceptionally well-colored fruit, and grows well in our alkaline soil and salty water supply. Annually we pro-cure dormant cuttings from such trees, grow them out and then reintroduce them to the general public and our chapter membership.

Pomegranate Trial Plantings.In 2010 we had a wonderful meeting with

Dr. William Feldman, an esteemed botanist in our area. He had visited Gregory Levin in the 1990s to collect plants for the USDA, including the pomegranates we cherish. One morning Feldman shared wonderful stories about the trip into the Soviet Union during the days of Perestroika with four of us, Jeff Moersfelder, Harvey Correia, Monty Palmer and me. Who knew that

From left: Monty Palmer, Dr. William Feldman, Jeff Moersfelder and Harvey Correia

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collecting plants could be something akin to an Indiana Jones movie as one dealt with custom agents, cold weather and transporta-tion problems! We certainly took away a great appreciation for the pomegranates Dr. Feldman brought back to the United States and for the the continuing pride and enjoy-ment they have brought to our chapter.

In early 2008 our chapter received its first shipment of pomegranate cuttings from the USDA/ARS facility located on the UC Davis campus. From their beginnings as dormant cuttings we nurtured these young plants for an entire year, until we had young trees in five-gallon pots. A year later, members began preparing the plant-ing area for our pomegranate trial group. We grubbed, tilled and added a truckload of well-composted manure to the soil,

then let it stand a month before planting. Varieties included in the initial planting were Rosa Mia, Sosa Carrillo, Ink, Mae, Sakerdze, Entekhabi Saveh, Shirin Pust Saveh, Nikitsi Ranni, Kain Anor, Gissarski Rozanovyi, 15/4 Paymati Rozanova, Golden Globe, Al Sarin Nar, Salavatski and Alk Pust Ghermez Saveh.

This planting group has been a tool for educational purposes in addition to a means of judging the performance of each variety under our harsh desert climate. At the time I write this, we have every indication that a bumper crop will be harvested this fall.

At other locations and in the yards of members who have the space for additional trees, we have set out other varieties for preservation and to understand their per-formance. Members Doug Jones, Randy Yavitz, Patrick Hallman and Scott Friesche, Phoenix Zoo horticulture curator, all have

impressive collections of pomegranate trees. Festival of Fruit attendees will see these and much more on the local tours that will be conducted during the event. Dr. Al Falken-stein, a speaker at the festival and longtime crfger living in Phoenix, purchased trees of several pomegranate varieties from the leg-endary American father of pomegranates, John Chater. All of them fruit extremely well in our climate.

Recently we heard from University of Arizona agriculture researchers that a pome-granate trial project, much larger than the one initiated by our chapter, was underway in three locations. Plantings in Yuma’s low desert, a bit higher in Tucson near the U of A, and in an even higher elevation desert area on the eastern side of the state would provide for conducting evaluations in the most significant climatic areas for growing pomegranates in Arizona.

We believe these plantings will help researchers and rare fruit growers find or develop a pomegranate suited to our spe-cific climate and its difficulties. Everyone has high hopes that the existing 20 acres of commercially grown pomegranates in Ari-zona will one day grow to be much larger!

Cultivation, Pests, DiseasePomegranates thrive in the heat of Ari-

zona’s Sonoran Desert. Our alkaline soil, salty water, and 120-degree (f ) days are no obstacle to its growth and fruit bearing. Al-though some varieties exhibit fruit splitting characteristics that are more pronounced than others, heavy mulching to balance soil moisture between watering periods seems to alleviate the problem. The trees are fairly drought tolerant once established, making pomegranate a perfect specimen for tradi-tional as well as more contemporary xeri-scape plantings. Texas root rot is a problem

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A Soviet Botanist’s Exile from Edenby Dr. Gregory M. Levin

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ARIZONA POMEGRANATES (from page 11)

A pom called Sweet, ready to eat in Arizona

Dr. Gregory Levin

Levin’s Garrygala agriculture station in USSR

Levin in vineyard with international botanists

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in certain parts of the state, but it is not an issue on available arable lands and in the metropolitan areas.

The main obstacle to attaining a good harvest of fruit are leaf-footed bugs (Lepto-glossus phyllopus). Left uncontrolled, these insects will become quite numerous on each plant. I have shaken many pomegranate trees to watch the pests fly away like swarm-ing wasps. They damage fruits by boring holes into the rinds, allowing bacteria to invade and spoil the flesh while the pome-granates are still hanging on the trees. With good maintenance, spraying the nymphs

with soapy water, and especially bagging of the fruit, the insects seek out other food sources and become a non-issue. We pre-fer this regimen over the use of pesticides. Bagging also extends the harvest and can eliminate sunburn, which can be a signifi-cant problem with our relentless, pleasantly overabundant sunshine and heat!

Enthusiasm for the pomegranate made it a timely choice by the crfg local leadership as the theme for the Festival of Fruit—thus 2011 is “The Year of the Pomegranate.” The pomegranate’s almost effortless, long-standing success here in the desert pointed

strongly to Arizona as a logical host for con-gregating and celebrating the fruit’s future. We members of the Arizona chapter look forward to sharing with you not only the projects we have begun with pomegranates, but also to share with you—and possibly surprise you with—the many other kinds of rare fruit that our members are successfully and enthusiastically growing in the extreme climate of this arid, yet uniquely lush, desert landscape. Viva la Granada!

Patrick Hallman is an architect and pomegranate enthusiast residing in Phoenix, Ariz. He has been an active member of the Arizona chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers since 2007.

Pomegranate plants readied for Arizona trial planting

Arizona chapter founder Dick Gross at trial plantingPomegranates and other fruit plants outside of Arizona chapter greenhouse

Pomegranate plants for Arizona trial

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With hands gloved like those of a surgeon, a volunteer at the 2010 Wolfskill pomegranate tasting prepares a fruit for extraction of its arils