Pomegranate, Punica granatum L., Buah Delima, 石榴. Part 2

I tried germinating Pomegranate from seeds from the fruits that we ate last December. Click here for link. I waited for days, weeks & months, non germinated. I dare not weed the raised bed as I've not see baby pomegranate plants before. Afraid that I may pulled off the baby Pomegranate.

Brought in just before Christmas 2013.

Lucky for me I brought back a Israeli Pomegranate plant (propagated via marcotting). This plant had been growing very slowly. Had been toying with it, hoping to propagate more from it. Trying to ID this plant and I think it could be Israeli Ruby.

Initially I tried shoring up the earth and this managed to induce rooting on the smaller lower branches. Managed to get 4 small plants. Unfortunately 1 didn't survived. At least I got 3 new plants.

Shoring up to earth to make the smaller branches root.

I then tried propagating via cuttings. It failed as the stem taken may be too young & small. I shall try cuttings again when I have mature stems of sufficient size.

2 of the new Pomegranate.

Am trying marcotting at the moment. Did a couple on the Mother plant. I think it is rooting. I damaged 1 as I was taking it out for inspection. I potted it anyway, hopefully it shall survive. Another 1 has a tiny little root. Hopefully shall have 2 more plants.

Another marcotting under way on the new Pomegranate plant.

Have 2 more air layering which I think should root early October. 1 from the mother plant & 1 from the new plant.

Another marcotting under way on the mother Pomegranate plant.

We now have 4 plants & am targeting 10 plants before I transfer them to field planting. Pomegranate also falls in line with one of our objective of planting health beneficial fruits, but most importantly, my wife loves it.


Pomegranate

A compound found only in pomegranates called punicalagin is shown to benefit the heart and blood vessels. Punicalagin is the major component responsible for pomegranate's antioxidant and health benefits. It not only lowers cholesterol, but also lowers blood pressure and increases the speed at which heart blockages (atherosclerosis) melt away.

Health Benefits of the Pomegranate

• Most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits
• Potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects
• Inhibits abnormal platelet aggregation that could cause heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease
• Lowers cholesterol and other cardiac risk factors
• Lowers blood pressure
• Shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque in human studies
• May have benefits to relieve or protect against depression and osteoporosis

Many studies show that the pomegranate is one of the most powerful, nutrient dense foods for overall good health. These clinical findings clearly show a correlation between pomegranate compounds and their positive effect on both human and animal cardiovascular, nervous, and skeletal health. This is one fruit that you can't afford to exclude from your diet! So, let's plant more Pomegranate.

Lime.

Starting to re-access Lime in our farm. Had started a couple of lime previously, but did not develop much on it. We have a fruiting Limau Kapas / Nipis, Key lime in our farm. It is being over shadowed by rubber trees now. I had planted 3 Key lime from seeds in our nursery for almost 3 years. It's growing, but still no fruit. Have a local Lemon, grown from cutting, which had started to fruit early this year. All of them were not carefully cared for.

Local Lemon, started fruiting in December 2013.

Planning to re-access Lime as I feel am better equipped (knowledge) to deal with it.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a non fruiting tree.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a non fruiting tree. Another graft that 'took'.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a fruiting local Lemon tree.

Had recently acquired a marcotted Limau Kasturi, Calamondin Lime. Also some cuttings of unknown Lime/Orange from Thailand. Preparing these for propagation in our nursery. Tried some cuttings & grafting on the Kasturi.

Calamondin Lime grafted on to a non fruiting Key Lime rootstock. Already took & starting to flower.

Re-sprouting again. I used to plant a Key Lime from seed at this spot about 2 years back and I though it had died. Maybe it's my calling.

Had started to top- work via grafting, 1 Key Lime tree & the local Lemon tree to Key Lime. With their established roots, I hope that the Key Lime shall grow fast & I can propagate more of them at the nursery. A couple of the graft were successful. I shall get more scion from our farm and do more graft into these 2 trees.

Pruned off most of the tree, leaving those that were grafted and a bit more for more grafting.

The other 2 trees I shall reserve for the Calamondin Lime / Limau Kasturi. This shall takes a while as I only have a small 1 1/2 feet plant. As for the unknown cuttings, if these root, then shall have to wait till they fruit and figure out what are these.

Lime is a power house in terms of Vitamin C, one of the most important antioxidants in nature. For more health benefits of lime, click here.

There are plenty uses of lime in our country, hence I guess market is readily available, just that we need to be efficient in our production.