Pomegranates in Your Yard. 3 Things to Know

We love pomegranates.  Our chickens love pomegranates.  The wild birds and bees love pomegranates.  Introduced to California by Spanish Settlers in 1769 there are now thousands of acres planted and Pomegranate is considered a Super Food.  Good news for all of us...it is  easy to grow.

Pomegranate Trees are pretty landscape trees

Three Great things to know about Pomegranates

1.  Pomegranates have thorns.  So they are a great barrier plant.  We planted a row of them along a fence where deer were determined to come in daily.  We didn't want a huge deer fence so pomegranates did the trick.  Because they have thorns and spines on their limbs deer gave up jumping over, into or through these... but be aware there will always be those ripe particular pomegranates that are just out of reach... oh well .. when they fall they are good for the critters.   WE also like them because they are easy to propagate.  They really prefer to be a bush and spread as a clump with new sucker starts so you can dig out a clump, split it, stick it in a bucket of water and replant it along the fence.  It does need water to get it started so run a little drip.

Pomegranate is a winter fruit that stores for weeks

2.   Chickens love pomegranates.   Pomegranates are long lived and tend to get to a place and stay there.  As we said we use them as a barrier plant along a back fence to keep deer out.  Which means after 10 years or so we now have a LOT of pomegranates.   Good news.  Chickens love them... we pick the ones we want and let the others fall.  Crack one open and the chickens come running.  They store  well, the  outside will get hard but you can still split one with a hammer and let the chickens at it.   Between the cherry tomatoes that have gone wild and the pomegranates we save on chicken feed for a good part of the year. 


3.  Pomegranates are good for you.   Studies say they are the best source of antioxidants of any juice. The primary source of pomegranate's benefits come from its  ellagitannin compounds like punicalagins and punicalins, which account for about half of the pomegranate's antioxidant ability.  It's also an excellent source of the antioxidant vitamin C, with one pomegranate providing about 40 percent of the daily requirement for this vitamin.     We juice ours with a few fresh organic blueberries.    You can also eat the seeds which are a source of fiber.  Since pomegranates are an early winter fruit they are a good source of food for the wild birds and drop fruit well into winter.

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