Growing Black Pomegranate Fruit

I am wondering if anybody has a black pomegranate? I looked up and found the variety called "Nana pomegranate", but it is considered an ornamental pomegranate. I would like to see if someone knows of a black pomegranate that taste great. If anybody has one, I would love to get cuttings?

Thanks,

Shane

Hi,
I have a black pomegranate tree and it has some fruits available. I cut and tried one this weekend and it was sweet. This type I have has white arils.
I live in the Riverside CA area.

Black pomegranate

Victor,

Wow, beautiful fruit! Thanks so much for sharing your pictures. I was surprised to see the arils white, but love that the fruit is sweet. I live on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Very humid here, but some pomegranate trees will produce here in my climate while some will not. If you would not mind, I would love to get a few cuttings from you this winter to see if this variety would produce here? Thank you so much for sharing your photos. This is really cool to see an edible black pomegranate.

Hi Shane,

Thanks, the black pomegranate picture was taken back in April, now the fruits are much bigger. I think that in a humid climate it would do better. Here in California the climate is hot and very dry. One thing I can tell you about this cultivar is that when winter comes the leaves don't fall off like the other pomegranate trees, this one stays green all year. Send men your address to my email Galahad@yahoo.com and I will gladly send you some cuttings at no cost.

Victor

Victor,

Thank you so much for your kindness in regards to sharing with me! Very exciting! By the way, I would be happy to reimburse any shipping cost. I will send you an email with my address. I have a friend that has a commercial mist bed Propagator. Since they stay green, I'll ask him to help me root them.

Thanks,

Shane

I couldn't send the email to you. Here's my cell if you want to text me? 1-251-725-2184

Victor
I would suggest that you remove your email from the above post and send it in a purple message instead otherwise you will end up getting lots of spam

David

Victor,

Is your black pomegranate a family heirloom tree. Just curious how you got it and also how old is your tree?

Thanks,

Shane

How does it taste compared to classical Pomegranates?

Victor,

Today I was talking to a man originally from the country of Jordan. He told me black pomegranate fruit is very common in the Middle East. He also mentioned that they do not call them black pomegranate over there, but instead they call them a "Dark Purple Pomegranate". He was surprised to see yours Victor with white arils. He said it was more common to see the inside either dark red or dark purple. Maybe I can eventually find one like that also.

May be "Black" and "Dark Purple" Pomegranata are different cultivars ?? This in the photo seems Purple

My tree is 13 years old...it grows very slow compare to the other varieties.
the taste for this particular one is sweet but a little tart. this is the second year that has yield fruit big enough to eat. I fertilize it with some manure, fish fertilizer and chicken fertilizer through out the year since it doesn't drop the leaves when winter comes.

also I was reading an article that if the temperature is extreme (90's-100's F) for more than 3 weeks then the arils turn white/grey blue. I live close to the high desert/mountain region in southern california so it is very hot during the months of august and september.

Victor, I just "met" Shane today and he turned me on to this forum. I got started with a 18 acre homestead here in SC and am currently growing 4 varieties of pomegranates (among other things with plans for quite a few more). I would LOVE to get a cutting or Two from your black pomegranate! Be willing to pay for shipping and something for your time. , trey

Hi Trey,

Sure no problem, send me a message with your info and I will ship them this weekend.
I will be happy to send you some cuttings.

Regards,

Victor Vasquez

I just tried. 😕 it said user id unknown

Maybe send me a message I can reply to...? Sorry

Victor,

Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful cultivar. It is such a beautiful fruit. I am excited to root these cuttings. Here's a picture

Victor,

I think I might know of a possibility where your black pomegranate came from. I am in 50-60 convenient stores 5 days a week. I get to see many people from different countries. I've been showing them the pictures you sent me. So far Jordan, Portugal, & Iran have seen black pomegranates, but they are black or red on the inside.

Today I finally met someone who had seen and eaten a pomegranate just like yours. Some of my customers from Pakistan has. Most people want red arils, but I had forgotten that the guys I know from Pakistan had told me that in their country they prefer pomegranates with white arils. They told me if a pomegranate has white arils, it is sweeter. As soon as they saw the picture of your black pomegranate with white arils, they immediately said "that's a sweet pomegranate. We grow that kind in Pakistan." Victor, maybe your fruit is a Pakistan Black Pomegranate.

Victor,

I talked to Mack today at the West Florida Research Station. He said the cuttings you sent me are starting to get small roots on them. Fingers crossed, hopefully they continue to root.

All this interest in pomegranates, wow. Now I'll be looking for a purple or black pomegranate, but I don't want the white insides. I look for the deepest pigment in food that I can find, often at the expense of sweetness. To me, the pigmentation represents all those phyto-compounds they keep finding and naming and researching to find out they are health promoting and protective. Maybe it's not true across the board, but it's my rule of thumb, and I like things tart and bitter too, not just sweet sweet sweet.

Thekla

shane jennings wrote:I am wondering if anybody has a black pomegranate? I looked up and found the variety called "Nana pomegranate", but it is considered an ornamental pomegranate. I would like to see if someone knows of a black pomegranate that taste great. ...

Do not have cuttings yet, but "Ink" is very tasty (hard seed), perhaps the best tasting pom I've ever tried. "Purple Heart" is supposed to be as well but I have not tried one. More purple on the inside than out I suspect. DPUN's are ref numbers for the USDA ARS Davis, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Wolfskil repository from which you can obtain cuttings if in the USA for free, but you need a UPS or FedEx account (easy to obtain). The annual deadline however is either about to expire or just past. Poms need appropriate weather to color up, flavor up.
From "The Incredible Pomegranate" by Richard Ashton (2006):

Asmar (black) – Dark purple almost black fruit. White hard
seeds. [Israel]

Romman Chouall – Medium dark almost black fruit. Sweet-tart
flavor also grown in IRAQ. [Arabian Peninsula]

Aswar (black) [Arabian Peninsula] no info

Kandahar Large Black – Dark purple (looks black) extra large
fruit with sweet-tart flavor. Also these make very large plants. [Afghanistan]

DPUN 154 Chernaya Roza – Name means ‘black rose.’ Fruit small, tart with normal seed. The skin is very dark. Very high in Vitamin C. This would be a good variety for hybrid efforts.

DPUN 154 Chernaya Roza – Very tart. High seed volume.
Hard seed. Very tart. Sweet/Sour. 5/10 too sour. I like. A little
seedy. A little tart.
First place –1 Honorable mention – 2 = 5
This is one that we got because the name was evocative. It means “Black Rose”. We had no taste data. Fruit was small but very dark. Even the spongy tissue inside was purple. Flavor was okay. But seeds were harder than Wonderful.
However they were a crunchy hard as opposed to woody/fiberous hardness in some varieties. Extra high vitamin C content, but I won’t grow it. [Silverstein eval]

DPUN 155 Kara Gul – Purple nearly Black. Kara means black.

DPUN 167 Ink – A very dark purple nearly black fruit.

DPUN 056 Purple Heart – Good sweet-tart taste. Normal seed. [Marketed by DWN as "Sharp Velvet"]

PI 599119 Purple Heart – Very good taste. Hard seed though. [Silverstein eval]

Hey, Shane

I was looking for black pomegranates, cold hardy ones, and look what I came across, a nursery in Florida that has pomegranet varieties adapted to high humidity. I thought you might be interested

Thekla

Just Fruits and Exotics (On site and mail order)
30 St. Frances St.
Crawfordville, FL 32327
850-926-5644
Justfruits@hotmail.com
Website: www.justfruitsandexotics.com
This nursery has some local varieties that are better adapted to humid
conditions.

While looking for some cuttings of some of the obscure ones I ran across this University of Florida site that has been pretty active the past 5 years trying to develop pomegranates as a commercial crop. Very interesting reading on this and associated links:

http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/pomegranates/propagation.shtml

If you look at the taste test results remember they are a slice in time; some are ripe others not yet or not quite sure plus fruit harvested that year. Different years can produce different outcomes and young fruit can produce better tasting over the years or vice versa. Plus different people have different tastes and tastes change as we age. Still some exciting cultivar results. None I am afraid are black however.

Hello Thekla & Powel,

I have been driving. Great advice guys! Believe it or not, I just went to the Florida Pomegranate Association annual meeting today. I got to taste over 20+ varieties. Great experience! I'm glad I went.

Victor,

One of the speakers was John Preece. He works at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Davis, California. They have a lot of pomegranate varieties there. I showed him a picture of your black pomegranate with white seeds. He said he had not seen anything like it before. He wanted me to ask you if he could stop by and look at your tree. By the way, this guy knows a lot about pomegranates. It was cool getting to talk to him and going to the taste test.

John Preece is in charge of the Davis NCGR. You made a good friend today, and BTW John Preece knows a lot about a lot of things. I listened to a talk of his a couple of months ago on grafting failures and learned a couple of things I did not know. I was looking at the collection and realized that Kara Gul is really the darkest fruit they have (purple), not black so Victor Vasquez's fruit is really something.

I am glad. The FPA is fairly new. If they allow you to join it can help in getting accession to the NCGR's cuttings.

Powel,

You must like pomegranates too! Very cool that you mentioned the germplasm on the day I heard him speak. Really awesome!

Victor,

John also mentioned that in 2 weeks from today they are having a free pomegranate taste test at the National Germplasm Repository in Davis California. Maybe it's close enough you could go. That would be fun if you could.

I have been working too much overtime that i have been missing on all this new and exciting information!! I cut a 18 inch branch (black pomegranate) and place it in water for about 3 weeks, the leaves stayed green and it did not dry out. now I have planting it and hoping it will root. =)
please let your friend know he can stop any day to see my tree and take some cuttings, he is welcome. my tree still has some black pomegranates that he can take or taste.

This year's yield. 10/2015

arils

Victor,

Thank you so much for sharing these photos! Absolutely beautiful! One other thing to mention about this weekends trip the Florida Pomegranate Assoiciation annual meeting and taste test. One of the guys let me tour his farm after the meeting. I showed him pictures of your fruit. He told me he had visited a friend in South Carolina. While there his friend told him he had an heirloom pomegranate that is dark purple on the inside & outside with sweet, soft seeds. He gave me a small cutting he had rooted. Small plant like the yellow one I sent you. In time we will see what this dark purple one does.

Shane, the yellow pomegranate you sent me. all the leaves fell off, I was worry that something had happened to it during the trip, so I replanted it and now it is coming back to life again. UC Davis in California is too far away from me, it is close to Sacramento and I live near Los Angeles.. =(

Victor,
Did you ever mention where you got your black pomegranate tree from? Did it come from the Middle East?

Hi Julie,

I can't recall who gave us this tree, it was along time ago, about 13 years ago. we have no idea where it came from. strangely i have one and my dad has a second one.

I stopped by West Florida Research Center this afternoon. There are five rooted. They are looking pretty good now. Here's some pictures.

I also talked to one of my Pakistani customers today that's been out town. He said this black pomegranate with white seeds is one he use to buy in Pakistan. He said people paid more money for this variety than other varieties. This one cost more, but people were willing to pay more for it.

Hi Victor, I'd love to try rooting some cuttings from your black pomegranate tree, if you're still offering! I sent an email to the address you mentioned above, but it bounced back, so I've sent you a purple message here. Thank you for your generous offer!