Ty Thompson

Thekla McDaniels wrote:For anyone interested in the outcome of this pursuit:

http://theafghanseeds.org/ answered my inquiry, saying they did not sell seeds.

I searched for Russian pomegranates and found two commercially available varieties who are recommended for USDA 7-10 (Salavatski, and Russian, and Russian Giant) Most other named commercially available pomegranate varieties are quoted to be appropriate at USDA 8-10.

If I cannot get land race seeds from coldest pomegranate regions of Russia or Afghanistan, then my plan is to get trees of these varieties and cross them, germinate the seeds, and you can guess the rest.

I've contacted the Afghan American Chamber of commerce, and will also try for a Russian contact. Thanks for all the suggestions. It is amazing how my own thinking is catalyzed when I have people to "talk" to about such things. Maybe if I DO get a new variety I'll name it Permies Pomegranate........

Thanks again
Thekla's

Thekla, if you do have any success getting seeds, please do share your experience here! I've also talked with a gentleman here in Oregon who once planted Apricots from seed he obtained from Ladakh, India, which is a very arid, very cold mountainous region, and am pursuing the possibility of getting some seed from that.

Ty

Unfortunately and most regrettably when I was in Afghanistan I did not collect seeds. I did find a nonprofit which hopefully still has active sources in Afghanistan to get those seeds you desire (contact in bottom of page). http://theafghanseeds.org/

I tried to click on the email links from the website and none of them worked. That's a real bummer for me, since I spent a year in Afghanistan in ,
'06-'07 and the climate there is much like the high desert of Eastern Oregon where I will be living after I finish college. I was in Herat in the west for about 7 months. The climate there is very similar in terms of average temperature, humidity, precipitation, etc as Oregon's high desert, so any seeds I could get from Afghanistan, particularly the colder parts would be good. Kabul is postively arctic in the winter!