This year we finally harvested….wait for it….ONE pomegranate! It seems less, but when I tell you the care it took to get to this point, it will be a big deal.
Year 1: We bought the plant in 2012 summer, hence, it was too small for any flowers or fruits.
Year 2: In 2013 summer, we saw a couple of flowers. The flowers are quite pretty and look fantastic against the green leaves. However, those did not last long and fell off before the weather became hotter.
Year 3: In 2014 spring, we saw many more flowers than the previous year. Initially, we were pretty excited and expected fruits that season. But Melbourne is pretty windy (or maybe the plant was still too young), so the flowers started falling off. However, this year the tree continued to flower. With the second batch of flowers, I gave hand-pollinating a try. It did not help and those flowers fell off too. The tree taunted us with continuous flowering till late summer.
Year 4: This was THE year, the year we got a fruit. The plant followed its cycle of flowering-falling flowers-more flowers-more fallen flowers from 2015 spring. But, unknown to us, a flower near the foot of the tree had stayed on and was turning into fruit. We did not notice it till it was quite well settled, due to the Daisy growing around it. Maybe that is what kept it on the tree when the winds blew. It took an awfully long time for the fruit to ripen. The variety we have is Ben Hur, with fruit expected to be as large as the size of one’s hand. The fruit we got was not quite that large, but bigger than I have seen in India. I was waiting for the skin colour to change to red (like it said it would), but it didn’t. Finally, I saw that the skin had split, indicating that the fruit was ripe. We had it for an evening snack that day. The seeds were really large and tended to be a bit chewy, but the flesh was really sweet and juicy. Perhaps this variety is better for juicing.
Year 1: We bought the plant in 2012 summer, hence, it was too small for any flowers or fruits.
 |
| April 2012 |
 |
| Oct 2012 |
Year 2: In 2013 summer, we saw a couple of flowers. The flowers are quite pretty and look fantastic against the green leaves. However, those did not last long and fell off before the weather became hotter.
 |
| Sep 2013 |
 |
| April 2014 |
Year 3: In 2014 spring, we saw many more flowers than the previous year. Initially, we were pretty excited and expected fruits that season. But Melbourne is pretty windy (or maybe the plant was still too young), so the flowers started falling off. However, this year the tree continued to flower. With the second batch of flowers, I gave hand-pollinating a try. It did not help and those flowers fell off too. The tree taunted us with continuous flowering till late summer.
 |
| July 2014 |
 |
| 2 Nov 2014 |
 |
| 3 Nov 2014 |
 |
| 6 Nov 2014 |
 |
| 8 Nov 2014 |
Year 4: This was THE year, the year we got a fruit. The plant followed its cycle of flowering-falling flowers-more flowers-more fallen flowers from 2015 spring. But, unknown to us, a flower near the foot of the tree had stayed on and was turning into fruit. We did not notice it till it was quite well settled, due to the Daisy growing around it. Maybe that is what kept it on the tree when the winds blew. It took an awfully long time for the fruit to ripen. The variety we have is Ben Hur, with fruit expected to be as large as the size of one’s hand. The fruit we got was not quite that large, but bigger than I have seen in India. I was waiting for the skin colour to change to red (like it said it would), but it didn’t. Finally, I saw that the skin had split, indicating that the fruit was ripe. We had it for an evening snack that day. The seeds were really large and tended to be a bit chewy, but the flesh was really sweet and juicy. Perhaps this variety is better for juicing.
 |
| Sep 2015 |
 |
| Jan 2016 |
 |
| Feb 2016 |
 |
| April 2016 |
 |
| April 2016 |
