My Pomegranate Trees Have Only One Or Two Fruits

Q: My wife and I have three six-year-old pomegranate trees. One of them has full of orange flowers but only one or two fruits. Most of the flowers are single but there are many double flowers too. 

A: I think poor pollination is the root problem of insufficient fruiting. Double-flowered pomegranates usually have small fruit or none at all because it is too hard for insects to get inside the petals and move the pollen around. Single-flowered types are pollinated by bees but if you are not getting fruit, that tells me you don’t have enough bees working the flowers.

It is easy to pollinate pomegranate flowers by hand. Get a small artist’s paint brush and gently probe inside a flower until the tip is covered in yellow pollen. Move to another flower and do the same. Do this once a day as new flowers open. You can stop when there are no new flowers. You should see round pomegranate fruit forming where the flowers fall off. If you enjoy eating pomegranates, look online for Russian varieties. They are more cold-hardy than the common ‘Wonderful’ cultivar.