This document provides information on the pomegranate plant. It begins with the scientific classification of pomegranate and mentions that its common names include pomegranate, granada, and grenade. It is native to Iran and adapted to semi-arid climates with hot summers and cool winters. The document then discusses the world and Indian production scenarios of pomegranate. It also provides details on the botany, cultivation practices such as propagation, planting, training, pruning, fertilization and irrigation of pomegranate plants. Finally, it describes the pests and diseases that affect pomegranate and their management strategies.

1. 1
Andrew L Myrthong
2014-12-126
Dept. of Pomology and Floriculture

2. 2
Scientific classification
Kingdom : Plantae
Division : Magnoliophyta
Class : Magnoliopsida
Subclass : Rosidae
Order : Myrtales
Family : Punicaceae
Genus : Punica
Species : granatum
Binomial name : Punica granatum

3. 3
Common Names: Pomegranate, Granada (Spanish), Grenade
(French), Anar (Hindi)
Origin: The pomegranate is native of Iran
Adaptation:
• Altitude – 1850m MSL
• Semi-arid with cool winter and hot summer
• Deciduous or Evergreen
• Hot and dry climate during fruit development and
ripening
• Optimum temperature – 380C
• Sweetness ∞ temperature
• Deep loamy to alluvial soil

4. 4
World Scenario
 Popular in Eastern as well as Western parts of the
world
 Mediterranean region, Spain, Iran, India, Turkey, South
East Asia, Afghanistan, tropical Africa, parts of USA etc
 It is grown for its fully luscious grains called ‘Arils’; the
fruits are very attractive with sweet acidic taste
 The fruits are mainly used for dessert purposes
 The fruits are also processed to make juice, syrup,
jam, jelly, wine, to flavour cakes, baked apples, etc
 Of late, its nutritional and medicinal values are given
ample importance

5. 5
Indian Scenario
According to the data published by
National Horticulture Board of India
 the area decreased from 109.00
thousand ha in 2008-09 to 107.00
thousand ha in 2010-11
 similarly, the production has
decreased from 807.00 thousand tons
to 743.00 thousand tons during the
same period

6. 6
Year Area in 000’ HA Production in
000’ MT
Productivity
(MT/HA)
2008-09 109.00 807.00 7.40
2009-10 125.00 820.00 6.60
2010-11 107.00 743.00 6.90

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.

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Two species:
 Punica protopunica
• found wild in Socotra Island(Yemen)
 Punica granatum: 2 subspecies
• Chlorocarpa - found in Trans Caucasus
• Porphyrocarpa - found in Central Asia

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Cultivars
Ganesh:
• Selection from ‘Alandi’
• Developed by Dr. Cheema at
Pune
• Prolific bearer, fruit very large, rind
yellowish red, pinkish aril with soft
seeds
• Commercial cultivar of Maharashtra
• The average yield ranges from 8-
10 kg per tree.

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Phule Arakta:
• Pre-released in the year 1989, now released as ‘Phule Arakta’ by
MPKV, Rahuri
• Heavy yielder, fruits are bigger in size
• sweet with soft seeds, bold red arils
• It also possess glossy, attractive,
dark red skin
• High yield (30-35 kg/tree)
• Fruits are ready for harvesting
within 120-135 days (Early variety)
·

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Mridula:
• Ganesh X Gul-E-Shah Red
• This variety has all the characters of the Ganesh variety
except the arils are dark red in colour
• The colour of the arils in 'Ambe' bahar and 'Mrig' bahar is
dark red in colour while it is pink during the 'Hasta' bahar
• The average fruit weight is 250-300 grams

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Bhagwa:
• The fruit is glossy red in colour with soft
seeds and high TSS

14. Dholka: Popular variety of Gujarat with fruits of large
size, rind greenish yellow, flesh aril pinkish white seeds
soft, juice acidic, suitable for processing
Jodhpur Local: Medium sized fruit with hard rind, fleshy
aril light pink, sweet, juicy, seed moderately hard
Bassein Seedless : from Karnataka. Flowers throughout
the yearFruit medium to large in size, rind brownish
green, fleshy aril, TSS 16-17 0 Brix
Ruby: Multiple Hybrid from IIHR, yield 16-18t/ha
In South India, ‘Paper Shell’, ‘Spanish Ruby’, ‘Muscat Red’
& ‘Velladu’ have shown promise
14

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 Balegal
 Cloud
 Crab
 Early Wonderful
 Fleshman
 Green Globe
 Home
 King
 Phoenicia:(Fenecia)
 Sweet
 Utah Sweet
 Wonderful
 Francis
 Granada
 Green Globe

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Botany
 Shrub with multiple trunks and has a
bushy appearance
 Grows upto 5m when domesticated and
more than 7m under wild condition
 Deciduous tree
 Young branches are polygonal
(quadrangular) and round when mature
 Stiff angular branches often spiny
 Leaves oblanceolate, obtuse and
acuminate

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 Flowering occurs 1 month after bud break
 Bears in both season growth on spurs
 Terminal flowers are in cluster while flower on spurs are mostly
solitary
 Flower are red in colour with 5-8 crumbled petals
 Three types: Hermaphrodite flowers (vase shaped) , male flowers
(bell shaped) and intermediate
 Cultivars with higher vase shaped to bell shaped ratio will have
higher yield potential
 Stigma receptive one day before anthesis and continues upto the
second day. Anthesis completed in 3-5 hours
 Self pollinated and cross pollinated
 Heterostyly- hermaphrodite (pin) and male flowers (thrumb)
Flowers

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Fruit
 Develops from the ovary and is a fleshy berry
 Fruit is crowned by a prominent calyx
 Connected to the tree with a short stalk
 After fruit set, sepals change colour from orange red
to green
 In later stage of maturation colour changes again
until final characteristic colour is obtained

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• The multi-ovule chambers (locules) are separated
by membranous walls (septum) and fleshy
mesocarp
• The chambers are organized in a nonsymmetrical
way
• Usually the lower part of the fruit contains 2 to 3
chambers while its upper part has 6 to 9 chambers
• The chambers are filled with many seeds (arils)
• The arils contain a juicy edible layer
• Colour of the edible layer vary depending upon the
variety
• The arils vary in size and the seeds vary in
hardness
• The fruit ripens in 5-8 months

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Propagation
Seedlings:
 Variation in
characters
 Low yield
 Poor quality fruits
Air layering:
 treatment with
10000ppm IBA
in lanolin as
carrier was
found to improve
rooting.

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Cutting:
 Hardwood cutting is most common
 One year old fully mature wood are utilised
or
 Suckers which arise from the base of the
stem
 Cuttings are 20-25cm long
 IAA 200ppm or IBA 50ppm increased the
rooting percentage
 Set in beds with 1-2 buds above the soil for 1
year

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Micropropagation
 Depends on factors such as genotype, explant,
season, media and growth regulators
 Mahisi et.al. (1991)- shoot tip as explant
 Drazeta (1997)- apical vegetative bud as
explant
 Yang and Ludders(1993)- nodal leaf and stem
as explant
 Complete protocol for in vitro regeneration
using cotyledonary nodes reported by Naik
et.al. (2000)

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Planting and Plant density
 Square or hexagonal system
 Pit size: 60cm3
 Spacing: 5 x 5m
 Planting density is the yield contributing factor
 Investigation at MPKV, Rahuri showed that
increased plant density also increased yield per
hectare without affecting fruit quality
 1000 plants(4x2.5m) gave 2.30 time higher
yield and 2.44 times more profit than normal
density of 400 plants(5x5m).

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Training and pruning
Training:
 Multiple stem training
 Main stem is pinched at a height of
about one metre from the ground
surface
 4-5 well distributed branches are
allowed to grow on all sides
 The desired shape is obtained within 2-3
years

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Training on a single stem is not advocated since
 Tree produces suckers
 Highly susceptible to stem borer
Plants are allowed to grow as a bush with a
number of main shoots arising at ground level
 Too many stems also hinder interculture
operations
 Maintenance of 3-4 stems per plant is
recommended

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Pomegranate orchard

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Pruning:
 Removal of suckers (water sprouts),
dead and diseased branches
 Developing a sound framework
 Limited pruning of the bearing tree
 Annual pruning during winter should be
confined to shortening of the previous
season’s growth

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 Pruning delays bud sprouting, flower
appearance and harvesting
 Highest yield from unpruned trees
 Pruned trees gave-
Better quality
Increases fruit size,juice content and TSS
Reduced sun scorched and internal
breakdown

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Irrigation:
 regular irrigation during initial phase
 Also from flowering to ripening of fruits
 Drip preferred over traditional check basin system
Manuring and fertilization:
 FYM – 20kg per tree at the onset of monsoon
 N- 1000g, P2O5- 1000g K20- 1500g per tree
 Foliar spray of 0.25% ZnSO4, FeSO4, and MnSO4
and 0.15% boric acid increased yield

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Mulching:
 Black polyethylene mulch resulted in
the best plant growth, earliest flowering
and highest yield
Intercropping:
 Desirable since crop takes 4-5 years to
come to good bearing
 Low growing vegetables and pulse
crops

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Crop Regulation:
 Withheld watering two months prior to
normal flowering season
 After two months, applied manures and
fertilizers and give light irrigation
 3-4 days later, heavy irrigation at
normal interval

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Three flowering season:
 Ambe Bahar (February-March)
 Mrig Bahar (June-July)
 Hasta Bahar (September-October)

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Flower thinning:
 Sevin (carbaryl) and NAA
Fruit growth and development:
 Single sigmoid growth pattern
 Linear increase in size, diameter, volume and
weight except specific gravity which
decreased gradually
 Color changes from greenish to deep pink
with red and yellow patches at maturity
 Aril/rind and TSS/acidity ratio increases

37. 37
Effect of Growth Regulators:
Desai et al. (1993)
 NAA(250ppm) + carbaryl(0.7%) = large fruits(≥200g)
 Manual removal of flowers + GA(20ppm)= Large fruits with
highest mean weight(224.2g)
 2,4-D @ 20ppm on cv. Ganesh at flowering and 45 and 90
days later increased fruit length, girth, weight and volume
 Glutathione @ 25, 50 or 75 ppm applied 3-4 weeks after
anthesis improved the TSS:Acid ratio and decreased the
percentage of fruit cracking

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Effect of Bagging:
Hussein et al. (1994) reported
 Bagging reduced the percentage of fruit fly (Virachola
livia)
 Increased fruit yield per tree, individual fruit weight and
size, TSS:acid ratio
 Improves the rind colour and reduced the rust patches
 Reduced fruit cracking

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Harvesting and Yield:
 Ready in 5-7 months after the appearance of blossoms
 Skin turns slightly yellow
 The fruit gives a metallic sound when tapped
 Tree starts yielding from 4th year onwards giving 20-25 fruits per
tree
 10th year 100-150 fruits per tree
 Average yield : 200-250 fruits per tree
 Economic yield : 25-30 years

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Ripening and storage
 It is a non climacteric fruit
 Can be kept well for 2 months at 0oC, one month at 4.5oC
and 15 days at room temperature
 Bavistin @0.2% enhanced shelf life upto 30 days at room
temperature and prevents post harvest fungal rot
 RH: 80-85%
 CA storage with 6.0:3.0%(CO2:O2) showed minimal quality
and weight loss

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Pests
Pomegranate butterfly or fruit borer:
 Virachola isocrates; V. livia
 Most important and widely distributed
 Symptoms: Offensive smell, excreta of caterpillars
come out of the entry holes
 Apply metacid 50 EC 1ml/l at fortnight interval
 Foliar application of synthetic pyrethroids @ 150g a.i/ha

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Symptoms of fruit borer

43. 43
Bark eating
caterpillar:
 Inderbela tetraonis; I.
quadrinotata
 Bores the bark and feed inside
old trees
 10-12 holes in a badly infected
tree
 One caterpillar in each hole
 Injecting quinalphos @0.05%
and fenvalerate @0.01% along
with petrol and kerosene

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Stem borer:
 Olenecampetus bilobus
 Common in neglected orchards
 Makes hole and bore through the
branches
 Main trunk is mostly affected
 Control same as bark eating
caterpillar

45. 45
Leaf footed plant bug:
 Leptoglossus mambranaceus
 Adult bugs damaga the fruits
 Pierce the rind of the ripening fruits with their
strong proboscis
 Infested fruits drop down
 Spray malathion @ 0.1%

46. 46
Sap sucking insects:
 Mealy bugs, scale insects, white flies, thrips,
aphids, mites
 Prune the affected parts
 Spray malathion @ 0.1%
 Bag worm: Clania cramen
 Carob moth: Ectomyelois ceratoniae
 Nematode: Meloidogyne Incognita and M.
javanica

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Diseases
Fruit spot:
 Dreschslora rostrata
 Small irregular spots surrounded by greenish
yellow border
 Infestation extends to inner tissues causing
browning of the aril
 Pruning the dead and diseased branches
 Spray dithane M-45 or captan @ 500g in 200l of
water

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Fruit rot:
1. Glomerella cingulata
 Discoloration of fruits from lower part or the sides
 Discolored areas become brown to black
 Whole fruit rots in a week
2. Phomopsis sp
 Rainy season
 Flowers fail to set fruit
 Young fruits drop
 Yellow to black spot all over the fruit
 Pruning affected twigs and fruits and burning them
 Bavistin @0.5%, Dithane M-45 @ 0.25% spray

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Leaf spot:
 Bacteria- Xanthomonas punicae
 Fungi- Pseudocercospora punicae, Curvularia lunata, Colletotrichum
gleosporoides
 Indefinite black color spots on upper surface of the leaf extending rapidly
 Blackish or brownish spots on the fruits
 Spraying dithane M-45@ 0.2%, Captan @ 0.1% at 15 DI or Copper
oxychloride @ 0.2%

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Postharvest diseases
 Aspergillus rot - Aspergillus nidulans
 Internal rot – Aspergillus clavatus
 Soft rot – Rhizopus arrhizus
 Spicaria rot – Spicaria spp.
 Black mould – Aspergillus niger
 Bortrydiplodia rot – B. theobromae
 Penicillium rot – Penicillium expansum
 Control by preinfection dip in 500ppm 2,4-D or spraying of
sulphur compounds on packing straw

51. 51
Botrydiplodia rot Black mould
Aspergillus rot

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Disorders
Fruit cracking or splitting:
 Frequent in dry atmosphere of the arid regions
 Cause: (i)Due to sudden change in soil moisture
content (ii)Deficiency of Ca or B
 Fruits though sweeter lose keeping quality and unfit
for shipment
 Adequate and regular
irrigation and interculture

53. 53
Sun Scald:
• Causes: Fruits on trees mainly facing
direct sun rays reveal sun scald.
Improper pruning is one of the reasons
• Nature of damage: Peel of affected fruits reveal sun
Burn symptoms reducing market value of such
fruits
• Detection and diagnosis : Affected fruits reveal sun
burn particularly on the fruit surface

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Internal break down of arils:
• Causes: Complex (Exact cause to be established) Delayed
harvesting, Varietal character, Nutritional deficiency etc
• Nature of damage :blackening and rotting of arils and the
fruits become unfit for consumption
• Detection and diagnosis : Mainly
affects fruits which appear healthy
but when cut, reveal disco loured ,
rotten and shrivelled arils. Studies
on diagnosing the disease are
inconclusive

55. 55
Pomegranate
decline:
 Cause: sudden drop in
temperature in late
autumn and early
winter when the trees
are not fully dormant
 Detection and
diagnosis: yellowing,
wilting and death of
some branches

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Breeding and Improvement
Three methods:
1. Collection of superior germplasm
from indigenous and exotic sources
2. Improvement by selection
3. Controlled hybridization

57. 57
Objectives
 To obtain suitable types which produce small soft seeds with
attractive red (pink) aril
 To develop easily manageable upright growth habit of the tree
 To develop thornless twigs, a desirable character as it helps in
cultural management of the tree
 To develop varieties resistant to fruit borer (Virachola isocrates)
and fruit rot (Phomopsis spp.)
 To develop varieties free from fruit cracking

58. 58
Biotechnology
 The problem of stem borer can be tackled by using Bt
genes
 Protocols for somatic embryogenesis are available
 Biochemical and molecular markers can be use for
characterizing wide amount of variability and genetic
resources
 Anther culture shown promising

59. 59
Grade Grade requirements Grade tolerances
Extra class • superior quality
• shape, and colour typical of
the variety
• free of defects
5% (no. or wt.)not
satisfying the
requirements of the
grade, but meeting
those of class I grade
Class I • good quality
• a slight defect in shape,
colour and skin (i.e. scars,
scratches,scraps and
blemishes) not exceeding
5% of the total surface
area
10% of pomegranates
not satisfying the
requirements of the
class, but meeting
those of class II
Class II Defects as above not
exceeding 10% of the total
surface area
10% by of
pomegranates not
satisfying the
requirements of the
grade, but meeting
the minimum
requirements

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Provision concerning sizing

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Packaging
• For export purposes, a cardboard corrugated fibreboard box of
4.0 or 5.0 kg capacity is used
• The dimensions of such boxes depending upon the capacity are:
S.No. 4 Kg Box 5 Kg Box
1 375 x 275 x 100 mm 480 x 300 x 100 mm

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Packed pomegranates ready for shipment

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Exports and export potential
A. Domestic Strengths for Exporting Pomegranate:
 India is the largest producer of pomegranates in the world
 India produces finest varieties of pomegranate having soft seeds,
very less acids and very attractive colour of the fruits and grains
 With adoption of different “bahars”, India can supply
pomegranates almost throughout the year
 Maximum cultivation of pomegranate is in states of Maharashtra
and North Western Karnataka which are very close to the western
port of Mumbai for exporting to Gulf and European countries

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 Agri Export Zone for enhancing exports of pomegranate has
been established in Maharashtra state
 There is strong research support for scientific cultivation of
pomegranate like Nrc for Pomegranate Solapur, MPKV, and
IIHR
 Bhagwa variety has high acceptance in European market
 Farmers have been trained for export quality production and
have registered with GLOBALGAP certification

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B. Exports:
The major Markets of India’s pomegranate during the year 2011-12
were UAE, Bangladesh, Netherlands, UK, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

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C. Measures for enhancing competitiveness for
export
 Our efforts needs to be towards lowering production cost by
increasing productivity
 Setting up special production areas in east zone for export to
SE Asian countries through eastern port
 Packhouse facilities need to be established
 Popularising the brand
 Manipulation of flowering to avoid competition from other
exporting countries
 Endorsing to other countries by holding fruit fairs, exhibitions
etc

69. Health Benefits of Pomegranate
 Super food
 Rich in antioxidants
 Good for heart
 Reduce blood sugar levels
 Reduce blood pressure
 Eliminate free radicals
 Harmonize immune system
 Slows down ageing
69

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References
 Bose, T. K., Patil, A. V. and Karale, A.R. 2002. Pomegranate. In: Bose, T.
K., Mitra, S. K. and Sanyal, D. (eds), Fruits: Tropical and Subtropical
Volume-II(3rd Ed.).Naya Udyog, Calcutta, pp. 125-162
 APEDA. Pomegranate [On-line]. Available:agriexchange.apeda.gov.in/Mar
ket%20 Profile/MOA/Product/Pomegranate.pdf (1 march 2015)
 Holland, D., Hatib, K. and Bar-Ya’akov, I. 2009. Pomegranate: Botany,
Horticulture, Breeding. In: Janick, J.(ed.) Hortic. Rev. 35:127-191

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