You could try top dressing and adding a drain mesh as Ryan suggests on top to the shape of the surface of the pot, the extra “shade” might be enough to allow the moss to grow. Even if the moss doesn’t grow, if you just use sphangnum as top dressing, the added cover will help maintain the surface a bit more moist than it would were it totally exposed. I would even suggest that you could have sphangnum + a white cloth on top that you remove when you want to expose your trees but reflects the sun and add one more layer in the surface to further keep the surface moist. A white cloth, like a cloth diaper may add sufficient protection that moss may grow under. Also, regarding the first watering: no submission. The whole top dressing would float away.
Thanks rafi, those are good thoughts. I will try to find another stream where Ryan discusses top dressing and the idea behind it (I’ll start with “Repotting Fundamentals!”). Moss grows on just about everything in the PacNW, but here in SoCal, it is quite difficult. That screen shade idea is a good one, but is top dressing even necessary? I shall investigate. I don’t have any top dressing on any of my trees at the moment.
A related thing I’ve seen here is a shade for the entire pot - soil temps inside a ceramic pot can be well north of 100º on the hottest days here, and surely that’s not good for the root system. Some use pieces of white styrofoam to shade the entire pot to keep the temp down. It results in 20 to 30º difference sometimes.
Yes, Ryan discusses the idea of putting ht mesh on top and he also discusses the idea of shade cloth over the whole bench, this might be the solution for you. Top dressing helps maintain moisture closer to the surface so that roots can occupy as much as possible of the pot. If your top 20% of the soil is always too dry, you’re loosing growing area for your roots that could otherwise be used.
The subject of leaf curl was mentioned during the stream. What is the treatment that you use to combat that?
After some research and talking with some people, the consensus seems to be a fungicide–in the stream Ryan says he likes Clearys, and you can also use diluted lime sulfur, applied before the leaves come out. My local teacher says “its never too late” to treat it, and he recommends diluted lime sulfur. A google search will pull up some info too. I think you need to spray the tree, and protect it from hitting the soil with a piece of plastic or the like. I will defer to people who have actually done it (I’m new to pomegranates). Hope this helps!
Thanks… I wasn’t sure of the name of the product he mentioned (my guesses for my searches were totally wrong lol)
I just watched the stream - absolutely amazing!
This video was super interesting and useful to me since I purchased a Spanish yamadori pomegranate two years ago, which I repotted in a John Pitt pot last year and performed its first styling this January.
Nevertheless, since I saw Troy´s pomegranate on the picture for the Live Stream I was hoping that Troy´s tree could also be discussed as special feature during the stream, specifically its design approach and development.
Could anyone explain how the live veins of the pomegranates develop? Do they tend to shrink quickly? I am having some issues on the branches that are at the edge of the live vein and almost touching the dead wood.
What I am observing is that these branches and its twigs do no grow as fast, as thick or with the same vigor as the ones that are positioned anywhere else and some are even experiencing dieback.
I am fearful that in the near future I could lose these branches. Would you recommend something to avoid this dieback and improve the growth on these areas/branches?
In the meantime, I am letting the new little grown untouched.
Below some pictures of the tree (sorry for their quality, this tree weights a ton and is not really easy to transport to suitable shooting locations)
Tree as purchased, April 2016:
Tree after repotting, May 2017:
Tree after first Styling, January 2018 (don´t worry, the heating radiatior was off 
)
I found some good strainers that were relatively cheap for anyone interested in the colander used in this stream:
I use these and they’ve been great. Probably will break down with sun exposure, so maybe not good for more than a couple years. But they are great and create amazing rootballs. No circling roots, tons of dense, fine roots.
WOW. Hope to follow as it develops.
Hi Guys,
so i just bought pomegranate that already started to push ++ it has nice movement in the bottom but the top is straight like a broom stick
can i chop it up ?
I leave in the middle east we have a worm weather over here most of the year.
also, after hard pruning like this ( leaving the tree with no leafs ) the tree need to be in the shade for recovering right ?
thank you
Sorry for the belated reply – hope you got this sorted!
Generally:
- Once a tree has started to leaf out, you don’t want to cut anything until its first leaves have hardened off; with poms, my experience is this happens relatively rapidly; I usually do my post-leaf-out pruning 30-60 days after initial leaf, and I live in a place that’s comparably hot (though more humid) than where you likely live;
- If you don’t like the movement on a minor branch (0-2 years old), pruning in late spring is fine; otherwise, I’d leave it for structural work in early fall or late winter;
- After a hard prune, yes, poms need to be in partial shade until they show signs of vigorous recovery – which should happen quickly, especially if it’s warm/hot outside.