The botanical name of Pomegranate is Punica granatum L.; it belongs to the family Punicaceae
Varieties: Jyothi, Ganesh, CO 1, YCD 1, Araktha, Rudhra and Mirudhula.
Soil and climate: It is grown in a wide range of soils; drought resistant and tolerant to salinity and alkalinity. Cool winter and dry summer are necessary for the production of high quality fruits. It performs well upto 1800 m elevation.
Planting: Rooted cuttings or layers of 12 to 18 months age can be planted during June to December in pits of 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm at 2.5 to 3 m spacing either way.
Irrigation: Copious irrigation is essential during fruiting season.
Application of fertilizers: (per plant)
Training and pruning: Fruits are borne terminally on shoot growth emerging from mature wood. To promote new shoots on all sides annual pruning is done after harvest is completed during December by shortening of past season shoot by removing one third of the shoot. Besides,
dried, diseased and cross-cross branches and root suckers are removed. The tree is trained to get a single stem upto 60 cm with 3 or 4 scaffold branches. Thinning of flower clusters ensures better size of the fruit. Spraying liquid paraffin at 1 % concentration at 15 days interval twice
during June reduces fruit cracking.
Plant protection against Pests
Aphids: Release of first instar larvae of green lace wing bug Chrysopherla carnea @ 50 grubs/flowering branch four times at 10 days interval starting from flower initiation during April.
Fruit Borer:
1) Bag the fruits with polythene covers during flowering period to prevent egg-laying when the fruits are upto 5 cm diameter. Spray neem oil 3 % or NSKE 5% at the time of butterfly activity. Repeat it if necessary twice at an interval of 15 days.
2) Adopt ETL (5 eggs/plant with bearing capacity of 60 fruits)
3) Release T. chilonis @ 1 lakh/acre.
Apply endosulfan 35 EC 2 ml/lit or malathion 50 EC 2 ml/lit
Yield: 20-25 t/ha/year.
