Pomegranate Bonsai Progression (2016 – Now)

This is my Pomegranate that I started from seed. I am trying to grow as bonsai and I will be going through its progression below.

It is still has a lot of development as it is young, but I still think it’s coming along nicely.

If you want to watch it in video format, you can watch the YouTube playlist below. The videos show the progression every month throughout the year, sort of like a time lapse.

Just be aware some of my earlier videos are not the best quality, but just like my trees, the quality slowly improves over time, so stick with them and they both get a little better towards the end.

Pomegranates are small deciduous fruit tree from the Mediterranean. They are great species and are very easy to grow and care for.

You can read more about their suitability in Is Pomegranate A Good Tree For Bonsai?

2016

I started this tree from seed at the end of the year. It is from the same pomegranate fruit as my Pomegranate Clump Bonsai.

I had bought a pomegranate for 69p from the supermarket and I decided to germinate the seeds inside.

2017

The seeds grew extremely easily and quickly and when they where tall enough I plucked them out and potted them up into individual pots in the spring of 2017.

One of which is the tree we will be looking at here. I planted one into a small blue pot and it’s been in there ever since. There was not a lot of root work done; I just removed the tip of the tap root.

After this I just left it to grow wild all year.

2018

In 2018 I didn’t touch it all year. It was just allowed to grow like crazy.

2019

I give the tree a hard prune at the start of the year, taking it right back to a stump.

I then repotted it in spring when the buds began to swell. I rooted pruned quite hard, but the roots are actually pretty good for being so young.

It was then left untouched until mid summer. I was going away for a few days, so I was worried the tree would dry out while I was gone. I decided to defoliate it, to make it need less water, since it would no longer have any leaves. If I wasn’t going away for a few days I wouldn’t have done this.

It shot out again before the end of the growing season and it was left to just grow freely. It actually put a lot of growth on during this time.

2020

I cut the tree back hard at the start of the year, again back to just a stump.

I then repotted it when the buds started to swell in spring. It exploded with growth after the repot so I trimmed it back.

I was mostly trying to remove the branches I didn’t want. This species sends out a lot of new growth in some weird places, which you don’t want and will need to remove.

A few weeks later and it exploded again. It sent shoots out in every location, so I had to go and remove some of them again and just generally trimmed the tree back.

It was then left to grow out for the rest of the year, where it went crazy and put on a lot of growth.

2021

I started the year by cutting back the tree hard. I then repotted it when the buds started to swell in spring.

It exploded with grow in spring so I pruned it back, mostly removing the multiple branches that where growing in clumps.

After this, it pushed out very strongly again, so I pruned it again.

It then needed a 3^rd prune in early summer, followed by a 4^th prune a few weeks later.

The growth rate of this tree is crazy and I was actually able to give it a 5th prune by midsummer.

After this I then I let it just grow out, since 5 prunes in one season is kind of crazy.

It still managed to put on an extremely large amount of growth by the end of the season.

2022

I started 2022 with a hard prune at the start of the year. Once the buds started to swell in spring, I repotted the tree.

After this it was allowed to grow out.

It was then pruned back in late spring and allowed to grow freely after this until it started to shut down in autumn.

2023

2023 started with a very, very light prune in late winter. I literally shortened one or tow branches back. everything else was okay. Then when the buds started to push out I repotted the tree.

It was allowed to grow freely until early summer when I pruned it back. It was then allowed to grow freely for the rest of the year after this.

2024

and that is where we are with this tree.

The plan going forward is probably going to be similar to what I’ve been doing. I am just going to keep trimming it often. I probably won’t let it grow out like crazy any more. I think I will be more focused on the ramification as I am quite happy with the trunk so far.  

If you also have a Pomegranate and are wondering how I look after it, you can read my Pomegranate Bonsai Care Guide.