[gardeners] Pomegranates
Carol J. Bova (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 21 Oct 2000 16:00:09 -0700
Hi Everyone!
It's a bit cloudy today here in the foothills of Sunland-Tujunga, on the
east end of the San Fernando Valley. Looks like we might have another
shower before the day ends. Had a real live thunderstorm the other day.
Before we get any more water, I wanted to find out if my pomegrantes are
ripe enough to pick, because two of them have split open. There are at
least 45 fruits on the two trees, and this is my first experience with
them outside a grocery store! The sizes are from a tennis ball to
softball! The trees were flowering for months after the first fruits
formed, so I guess the little ones were the last to start? One of the
ones that split is 4" across and high! I tasted it, and it's ripe for
sure! But how do you tell without cutting them all open? (Ron, is this
one up your alley?)
I found this site from UC Davis,
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Produce/ProduceFacts/Fruit/pomegranate.html
but it's very technical for commercial growers. I have neither a copy of
the Munsell color chart, nor a way to measure the acidity of the juice,
so their instructions aren't very helpful for me! The one piece of info
that got my attention is that the fruit does not ripen further after
being picked... so I could use some practical advice on how to tell if
the fruit is ready to pick.
(I also found another site that has instructions and pictures on how to
prepare pomegranates, and freeze and juice them:
http://www.pomegranates.org/preparation.html
page.)
Look forward to hearing from you!
Carol
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| Carol J. Bova bova@bovagems.com |
|http://www.bovagems.com & The Eclectic Lapidary|
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