Pomegranate (Punica granatum ) is a very important fruit crops that grown in all over India. It main originated in Iran, and extensively Pomegranate farming is spread through completed within the Mediterranean countries like Spain, Morocco,Baluchistan, Egypt, Iran,and Afghanistan, And also it's cultivated to some extort in Myanmar, China, the USA, and India.

And India ranked as number one in cultivation of pomegranate within the world. In India, major pomegranate producing states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh , Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu Rajasthan, Karnataka.

Maharashtra is one of the leading cultivation with 90 thousand ha areas with an annual production of 9.45 lakh Mt tones and 10.5 Mt/ha productivity. Maharashtra state had 78 percent of India’s total area and 84 percent of its total production.

Pomegranate is one among the foremost favorite table fruits. The fresh fruits are used for table purposes. Pomegranate it will also prepare processed products like syrup, juice, jelly, squash, anar rub, juice concentrates, and anar dana tablets, acids, carbonated cold-drinks,etc.

Pomegranate fruit is nutritious, rich in proteins,minerals, and vitamins . The juice is beneficial for leprosy suffering patients.

Climate

For Successful pomegranate cultivation and it's need essentially dry and semi-arid weather, and also its need cold winter and high dry summer quality enables fruit production. Pomegranate plants can tolerate frost to some extent and should be considered drought-tolerant.

The accurate temperature for fruit development is 35 -38 ° C.

The region with 500 m above from water level is best fitted to pomegranate cultivation.

Soil

Considering the soil requirement, it are often grown under different soil types, from low-fertile to high-fertile soil. However, in deep loamy, it gives a superb yield. It can tolerate salinity and alkalinity within the soil to a particular extent.

Soil having a pH range between 6.5 – 7.5 is right for Pomegranate farming.

Propagation method

Pomegranate plants are often commercially propagated through hardwood cutting, air layering, and tissue culture.

Hardwood cutting propagation:

It easy method but its success rate is so lesser, so this method isn't popular among farmers. For Cutting you can selected from a one-year-old tree of 9 to 12 inches 25 to 30 cm hight, 4-5 buds are good for higher rooting and survival.

Air-layering propagation:

And It’s the common practice by indian farmers for raising new plants. For the air layering method, select 2 to three years old plants and air-layered followed by IBA (1,500 to 2,500 ppm) treatment for better rooting.

From one plant, around 150 to 200 rooted cuttings are often obtained.

The season is best fitted to layering. It takes around 30 days for roots. After 45 days the cutting layered plants should be detached from the mother plant.

Exprienced Pomegranate grower identifies and detach time by the observing colour of roots when it starts to show brown the layered cuttings are separated. Then these plant are grown in polybags and kept for hardening up to 90 days under a shade net or Greenhouse.

Tissue culture propagation:

Tissue culture is an advance and newly technique of the multiplication of plants. By using this system , you'll obtain diseases free planting material within a brief time span.

This plant available within the Pomegranate plant nursery; buy this plant from a reliable source.

These are the varieties that grow in India.

• Bhagwa
• Mridula
• Ganesh
• Jyothi,
• Jalore Seedless
• Kandhari
• Phule Arakta
• Phule Bhagwa Super
• Bhagwa Sindoor

Pit preparation and planting:

Ninety-days old Pomegranate plants ready for transplanting into the most field in pits.

Prepare an appropriate size of Hell is 60 cm x 6o cm x 60.

The ideal planting distance followed by farmers is 10 to 12 ft (3 to three .6 m) between plants and 13-15 ft (3.9 to 4.5 m) between rows.

During monsoon, pits are crammed with farmyard manure (10 kg), single superphosphate (500 gm), neem-cake (1 kg).

The optimum time for pomegranate planting is within the season (July-August) when sufficient soil moisture is out there for plants’ optimum growth.

Fertilizer management in Pomegranate farming

pomegranate are often grown even within the less fertile soil. Still, the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers should be incorporated within the pit for better production and quality of fruits.

The dose of manures and fertilizers varies consistent with sorts of soil fertility, genotypes, region to region. Chemical fertilizers for better growth and development should tend as per the subsequent recommendations:

FYM Fertilizers one year50-60 kg plant Five years 50-60 kg

Urea Fertilizers one year10-20 gm plant Five years 50-60 gm

SSP Fertilizers one year 150-300 gm plant Five years 900-1200 gm

MOP Fertilizers one year 90-120 gm plant Five years150 -200 gm

For Ambe Bahar fertilizers should tend in December, and for Mrig Bahar fruits, fertilizers should tend during May

Irrigation

Pomegranate may be a drought-tolerant fruit crop, which may sustain underwater scarcity to some extent.

Regular irrigation is additionally essential to scale back fruit splitting, which is that the major disorder of fruits.

During winter, irrigation should be applied at 10 to 12 days of interval, whereas during summer at 4 to five days.

Most of the farmers supplied water through drip irrigation, saving water, and convenient to use fertilizers.

Generally, Ambe Bahar is usually recommended where an irrigation facility is out there . Otherwise, Mrig Bahar is preferred.

Training and pruning in Pomegranate

It is a promising technique to regulate vegetative growth and maintain the form and size of trees to enable proper light penetration within the center of the tree, ease in cultural operations, spraying, and fruit harvesting.

There are two methods of coaching system followed in pomegranate.

first one within the single-stemmed method

In this method, just one main shoot is kept by removing other shoots of the Pomegranate plant.

second one Multi-stemmed method

In the multi-stemmed method, the Pomegranate plant bush shape is maintained by keeping 3-4 shoots at the bottom .

This method is extremely popular and commercially adopted by Pomegranate farmers because, even after shoot borer, one shoot may provide yield rather than the entire loss.

Plant-protection

Pests :

first one Pomegranate butterfly (or) Fruit borer. (Deudorix Isocrates)

It is a serious pest that bore into the developing fruits, feeds inside, and makes fruit vulnerable to fungal and bacterial infection.

Control

It are often controlled by bagging young fruits at the first stage with polyethylene bags, spray phosphamidon 0.03 %, or sevin @4 gm.

second one Caterpillar

It makes holes within the main trunk and forms networks of tunnels inside it.and Feeding on bark during nights and fill it with excreta.

control

It are often effectively managed by plugging the opening with cotton dipped in petrol or kerosene, chloroform, carbon bisulphide, followed by covering it with mud.

Nowadays, bagging of fruits is additionally practiced by the farmers. This helps up to a particular extent and also improves fruit quality.

Diseases

Bacterial leaf spot or oily spot Xanthomonas axonopodis punicae:

And this characterized by the formation of small-dark brown water-soaked spots on the leaf, twig, stem, and fruits. And Cracking are often observed with the shining appearance at a different stage of infection. it's most severe within the season

Control

It are often measured to some extent by spraying of streptocycline at the speed of 0.5 g/ liter and mixing with copperoxychloride at the speed of two g/ liter on three consecutive days.

Fruit cracking or fruit splitting

And it is one of the foremost severe disorder thanks to the irregular irrigation, boron deficiency, and sudden fluctuation in nocturnal and diurnal temperatures; fruits are cracked, which may be a common problem in pomegranate.

Control

Spraying of boron at the speed of 0.1% and GA3atthe rate 250 ppm disease are often reduced to some extent. Besides, maintaining good soil moisture level; selecting cracking tolerant variety are some preventive measures.

Sunburn

It is also a serious problem if fruits aren't harvested at the right stage. A blackish round spot appears on the side of fruits. It reduces the cosmetic appeal of fruits.

Control

And bagging of fruits are maintains colour and attack of fruit flies.

Harvesting

Pomegranate fruit may harvesting is starting after 150 to 180 days from flowering to fruit maturity. It depends upon genotype, climatic condition, and growing region.

When harvesting of fruits should be done at the right maturity stage because early harvesting results from the dull, immature, and improper ripening of fruits. In contrast, late harvesting results in more susceptible to the attack of disorders. However, Pomegranate a non-climacteric fruit that ought to be harvested after at proper ripening stage.

There are several harvest signs wont to assess the maturity and harvesting of pomegranate fruits. Dark bitter floom colour should be develop on the surface and dark pink aril mostly liked by the consumers.

The calyx at rock bottom of Pomegranate fruits gets turn inward side is additionally a maturity index. Aril should be turned in crimson or pink. Fruits of pomegranate shouldn't be over-ripened.

Fruits should be harvested with secateurs or clippers’ help because manual picking may cause damaged fruits in clusters.

Yield

A healthy pomegranate can produce up to 12 to fifteen kg/ plant yield during the primary year. From the second year onwards, the yield per plant is around 15 to twenty kg.

Postharvest handling

It follows the given steps.

Cleaning and washing:

After harvesting fruits should be selected out because of diseased and cracked by fruits should be removed, and healthy fruits are selected for further treatment.

After sorting, fruits should be washed with solution hypochlorite at the speed of 100ppm in water. This treatment are going to be helpful to scale back microbial contamination and to take care of a extended shelf-life.

Pre-cooling:

It is an important operation before storage of fruits, so It helps to get rid of vital heat and field heat of produce which results in shelf-life enhancement of fruits.

For pomegranate fruits, the forced air cooling system is employed for precooling. Hence it should be maintained around 5ºC with 90% ratio .

Grading of fruits:

Graded fruits attract and appeal to the consumers, which helps get a better price from domestic and international markets.

Their size and weight generally grade pomegranate fruits. However grading standards are differ from country to country.

• Supersize 750 gm
• King size 500-700 gm
• Queen size 400-500 gm
• Prince size 300-400 gm

Pomegranate Packaging

Pomegranate fruits are packed in wooden boxes, plastic crates for domestic and native markets.

For the international market, mainly corrugated fibreboard boxes are used, and therefore the capacity of the box should be 4 kg or 5 kg.

And AGMARK dimension of the 4 kg capacity box is 375×275×100 mm3 and for the 5 kg box is 480×300×100 mm3.

Temperature is that the most vital factor for pomegranate shelf-life because pomegranate fruits are perishable in nature, so an optimum temperature is required for long-term storage.

The very coldness may induce chilling injury in fruits, so a perfect temperature for storage of fresh pomegranate fruit is 6° to 7°C and 90 to 95% ratio . At this temperature, Pomegranate fruits can store up to three months.