My Problem Pomegranate

For the 8 last years I've not been able to harvest any pomegranates for one reason or another. Usually what happens is that the 13 foot high, 10 foot across tree puts out flowers, a big wind comes along and knocks all but a handful of blooms off. those remaining start to develop but before they even get to half the size they should be, they are cracked open on the tree, not red inside at all and the whole tree is covered in a variety of flying beetles, and in many cases those beetles are all over/inside the remaining fruit....

This year during the winter i weeded under the tree, got rid of all of the tree's competition which i had not realized it had so many things under it competing with it.. i threw most of my winter's produce scraps under the tree trying to help build better soil for it. Just yesterday I was under it weeding again and i planted about 150 onion and garlic bulbs under it in the hopes to discourage bugs as well as fertilized it with organic fertilizer.. The tree has never looked so healthy, nor has it ever bloomed as much as it is right now. I'd guess it has between 300 and 400 blooms on the tree right now and about 100 that have already just fallen off without turning into fruit... 

So What I'm asking is if there is more I can do to both help my tree keep it's blooms and help keep beetles away so the fruit actually make it to full ripeness. o_o

I learned about pomegranates from my landlord here in Alabama.

To set fruit they need to get hot enough -- he had his planted  on the South side of his house with wind protection.

And they need to be cross pollinated.  Do you have the right insects?  Are you chasing the pollinators away along with the beetles?

  Dont proffessional fruit grower pick over trees or bunches of grapes reducing the amount of fruit so that the fruit they leave will grow bigger.

  If the pomegranite had lots of plants growing underneath it sounds as if its a good companion tree. agri rose macaskie.

I've read that younger pomegranate trees don't always hold fruit very well. Hopefully, fruit drop will be less of a problem in the years to come. Just got two Russian pomegranates and they are blooming ... lovely plants.

I was just outside watering my fruit trees. Around the citrus the onions and garlic are growing well. under the pomegranate i don't see a single onion or garlic. The flowers do get pollinated. i even saw a bee doing just that a week ago. The tree isn't young since I think my mom planted it when she moved in over 30 years ago. There seems to be more blooms staying on the tree then in past years too. I'm not sure why. o_o

through correspondence with a pomegranate "expert" in Texas, I was told that many cultivars of pomegranate are sensitive to humidity during flowering.  if the humidity is high at that stage, it may not set fruit well.

there are varieties that were developed in humid climates like florida that can supposedly tolerate the humidity.

I underplanted our pomegranite tree with a mixture of native wildflowers i.e. California Poppies, Desert Lupine, a drought tolerant Tohono O'odham pea (from Native Seed Search), borage, nastertium, and Etoi onions. Also foliar sprayed with EM's every month and it just popped.  Doubled in size in a year after lanquishing earlier and setting countless fruit. I am in a very dry climate and hot climate so no humidity issues. 

Have you considered that the fruit splitting might be due to inconsistent water availability? If the fruit develops some, then there is less water and the skin hardens, then there is more water and the fruit tries to expand more, it could split. Just a thought.