Pomegranates: easy to grow in the right climate

Hot summers, cold winters, and well-drained soil: these are the basic requirements to start farming pomegranates.

“It’s not a fussy, high-maintenance crop, although it does still need a bit of care. But someone who has never farmed before, for example, will likely succeed with pomegranates,” says Louis Swanepoel.

Swanepoel and his partner, Kobus van Zyl, who own Ubali Pomegranate Farm in Cullinan, Gauteng, are focused on producing pomegranate trees for farmers. The 3 000 trees in their mother block, used to produce cuttings, provide them with ample fruit and sound knowledge of what it takes to produce this crop.

When they moved onto the smallholding 13 years ago, they planted a test block of 100 trees to see if pomegranates were suited to the area.

“It is a Mediterranean crop, and while Gauteng’s climate can’t be classified as such, the trees did really well, so we started expanding,” explains Swanepoel.

Today, the nursery has capacity for 45 000 trees, which are supplied to farmers from Gauteng to the Western Cape. A key consideration for planting pomegranates is cold units.

“The temperature needs to drop to at least -5°C in winter to ensure the trees go dormant. If it doesn’t, the trees are unlikely to bear fruit,” he adds.

Swanepoel also cautions against tropical and subtropical climates, noting that areas suitable for apricot and peach production will likely be suitable for pomegranates, too.

Get the basics right

Pomegranates prefer sandy soil and can cope in poor soils but not clay. Swanepoel relates advice he received to determine if the soil is suited to pomegranates: “Dig a 1m³ hole and fill it with water. If there is still water in that hole after 48 hours, then the land is not suited to pomegranates.”

To prepare land for trees, he says farmers should rip the line in which the trees will be planted to loosen the soil. He then applies lime and manure and mixes them into the soil.

Irrigation pipes can then be laid and the trees planted into holes dug next to drippers. The orchard should be oriented in a north-south direction to maximise sunlight, which helps the fruit to colour.

A further benefit of pomegranates is that the water requirement is low compared with crops like pecan nuts or pome fruit. The Ubali farm receives around 700mm of rain annually, which means irrigation cycles can be significantly reduced in summer.

“Pomegranates are actually desert trees – they are more likely to die from too much water than too little. At the start of the season in spring, each tree trees receives around 15ℓ/day.

Once the rain starts, we can easily stop irrigating for two weeks at a time.

“After all the fruit has been harvested in March, the trees receive their last fertigation cycle, and then we close the taps until spring,” says Swanepoel.

A general guideline for fertiliser is to provide a 1:5 nitrogen and potassium mix
with the first irrigation cycle to boost the trees after winter and assist with flowering. For
the rest of the season, the trees regularly receive 2:3:2 NPK and guano boost.

Aside from false coddling moth, which are regularly combatted, the trees face few pests and diseases. However, Swanepoel notes that this is largely due to the Wonderful cultivar he plants, which is a hardy variety that is very resistant to pests. Phytophthora is also kept at bay due to the good genetics, which is not the case with other varieties, he cautions.

Pruning is an important function since the trees bear fruit on new wood. It is also an essential tool to obtain the bright red colour pomegranates are known for.

“The trees must be pruned to open them up to light. You need sun on the fruit or they will not colour. Branches on the inside of the tree must therefore be removed so that the tree is not dense and bushy,” says Swanepoel.

Since the shrub pushes out many branches from the ground, they are cut back so that there are only around seven branches per tree to allow enough space and light. The older, thicker branches are also removed every year to allow for new growth.

Pomegranate trees can live for up to 80 years and, if left, will grow in excess of 5m high, making them difficult to manage. Swanepoel keeps his trees at a maximum height of 2,5m to allow for easier harvesting and overall management.

Although bees assist with pollination, it is not a requirement. “Some 80% of the flowers on the tree are male, which mostly fall off, but in the meantime ensure that there is a constant flurry of pollen for the female flowers to absorb. The trees really produce a lot of fruit and even if only half of the 20% female flowers set, we still end up thinning out the fruit.”

Since pomegranates require low maintenance, their labour requirement is also low, coming in at one person per 5ha. Harvesting, however, requires additional labour.

Bountiful harvest

Another benefit of pomegranate production is that the trees are quick to bear fruit. One-year-old trees bought from the nursery will start producing in year two, although Swanepoel advises that this fruit be removed before it matures. This ensures the trees can focus their energy on growth, producing a better harvest the next year.

This first proper harvest should produce around 6t/ha and the second harvest around 12t/ha, reaching full production in year five when around 18t/ha should be achieved.

Swanepoel aims for fruit that is around 250g each. Anything bigger becomes difficult to pack. If the trees produce too much fruit, sizes will be smaller, so it is important to thin out the fruit before they mature, aiming for less than 45 pomegranates per mature tree.

While the trees are not necessarily alternate bearing, Swanepoel says differences in yield from one year to the next can be seen.

“Pomegranates have a mind of their own and don’t follow a steady trend in terms of yields. One year, some trees in the same block will have high yields while others don’t. The next year, it will be different.”

In Gauteng, the harvest takes place around March. Care must be taken during the harvest to keep the crown intact, as this is an important aesthetic element that consumers look for.

But the fruit does not bruise easily, which makes it easier to handle than many others.

Pomegranates’ easy production and increasing demand among consumers is spurring growth in the industry. Swanepoel says farmers in Gauteng and surrounding areas are expanding production. “Many start with a few trees to see how it goes but quickly return for large orders of trees. Some are part-time farmers to which pomegranates’ low maintenance is suited.

“Others plant pomegranates on headlands or fields that fall out of their centre pivots’ range. It’s a good cash crop, bringing in around R250 000/ha.”

The added benefit of farming in or near Gauteng is that farmers are close to OR Tambo International Airport to serve the export market. “The export market is very attractive because we are counter-seasonal to the Northern Hemisphere, which is where the biggest market for pomegranates lies.”

While Ubali is focused on tree production, the 3 000 trees in the mother block provide an ample harvest that must be sold.

Swanepoel and Van Zyl have taken a different approach to marketing their fruit, leaning into agritourism.

Festive marketing

For one week in March, Ubali hosts a pomegranate festival, welcoming over 1 000 people per day. City dwellers flock to Ubali to soak up the farm atmosphere and fresh air and load up on pomegranates.

“Social media is the main marketing tool, but since the festival has been going for so many years, it has become a tradition for many to return year after year,” says Swanepoel.

The farm is geared towards visitors. A building has been erected where produce is sold and meals served during the festival. There are also walking trails that can be accessed once a month when the farm opens its gates for nature lovers and those wanting to stock up on pomegranate-based products.

While running a festival is not easy, Swanepoel says it offers the business far greater benefits than simply sending the fruit to market.

“Serving local or export markets involves a lot of labour to pack the fruit, a packhouse, handling fees, commission to agents, and transport. And this still leaves you with blemished or cracked fruit that can’t be sold.

“The festival, on the other hand, means we can sell most of our fresh fruit at export parity prices of around R25/kg, and the rest is processed into juice, vinegar and jelly. The festival also serves as a marketing tool for the nursery, exposing this kind of farming to a wider audience.”

The 10% of the fruit that needs to be processed is done so by Van Zyl and Swanepoel, with the juice being hand pressed. “Our customers prefer hand-pressed juice and are prepared to pay a premium for it. It contains less tannins than mechanically pressed fruit since the process is softer when done by hand,” says Swanepoel.

The juice is free of preservatives and is immediately frozen. The juice, vinegar and jelly are available from the farm throughout the year, although juice is quickly lapped up by the health-conscious market.

“Pomegranates are high in antioxidants, so the juice is highly sought after and we can’t keep up with demand.”

Swanepoel believes that pomegranates have a bright future in South Africa, not only because of a good export market but because local demand is also growing.

“South Africans have only recently started discovering pomegranates. It was always an obscure fruit that grew in your granny’s backyard, but now consumers are seeking it out. There are still a lot of consumers who haven’t ever tasted one and those who don’t even know how to eat one.

“If tree sales and returning customers are anything to go by, then pomegranates are on the rise,” he says.