Pomegranate Growth After First Pruning

Nearly three weeks ago, I pruned my pomegranate sapling from 12 inches down to 6 inches. Over the next few days, six buds began to swell, five low on the trunk, soon to become branches, and one at the top to take over as the main trunk (called the leader). 

Notice the two buds swelling just above where the bottom two leaves connect to the trunk. 

There are another two buds sprouting from the same spot, seen here on the left side of the stem. 

A small bud beginning to grow halfway up the main stem. 

This bud will take over as the main trunk, called the leader. 

After a week, the buds had tripled in size! I was surprised that there were so many buds lower down on the trunk, as opposed to how avocados grow more buds higher up closer to the pruning cut. 

The buds have tripled in size!

I stopped taking so many pictures because I got busy with work and school, but I got a chance to take some this afternoon. Look at how grown up it looks now! 

So now here's a shot of just the bottom portion. I can really start to imagine how it's going to look as it continues to fill out. 

New baby branches! 

Like I've said before, I plan to try to keep this little tree as compact as possible while I'm still in college and not settled down yet. I'm thinking, pruning-wise, every 12 inches in height, I'll cut her back six. Then for the branches, every 6 inches they grow, I'll trim back three. I may revise this as she continues to grow, depending on what works and what looks best. For now things are going well!

I'll post again about her when it's time for her next "haircut."

Until next time, 

- Jess

Planting Red Bell Pepper Seeds

As you can see, one of my favorite things is to collect seeds from food I'm eating and see if they will grow. Some time last week, I made stuffed peppers, an absolutely delicious meal. At home my mom uses green bell peppers, but I prefer more color, so I bought four red bell peppers. Yellow and orange are really good too.

Once the food was in the oven, I pulled a chair up to the table where I was working and started collecting the seeds from the four bell pepper tops.

I put them in a small tupperware bowl and set that in the window so that the seeds could dry before putting them in storage. Every so often, like once or twice a day, I would pick up the bowl and swirl it around so the seeds would dry evenly.

Once I assumed they were all dry, I poured all the seeds into an old pill bottle. I saw this on Pinterest, and it has worked out well so far. I labeled the bottle with what seeds were inside and when I harvested them.

That's a lot of seeds! I'm not sure if I'm ever going to use them all, but they sure are pretty to look at.

Once I had that established, I put some potting soil in a cup and put 5 or 6 seeds in the middle. Usually I would only use 2 or 3 seeds max, but you can never be too sure how well seeds from store-bought foods are going to germinate, especially if they are not organic. There are so many hybrid varieties out there in the grocery stores that you never really know what you're going to get. I don't expect to get a perfect red bell pepper from this experiment, but I'll be happy if I get something close.

Here's my cup of dirt with seeds inside:

Fast forward to last night: I decided to check on my cup of dirt and I saw two little sprouts pushing their way up through the soil!

I took a picture this morning:

The two bigger ones are what I saw last night, and since then a new baby with its seed still stuck on its head has popped up as well. 

I've noticed that when growing peppers from seeds collected from the fruit, some of the babies just don't ever escape from the seed hull. I suppose that's just all a part of natural/artificial selection. I'm assuming it has something to do with growing hybrids. 

Once these babies get bigger, I'll thin them down to just one plant, which I hope to be able to keep in this small pot/cup/thingy. I'll probably end up having to prune it to keep it small, which will delay fruit production unfortunately. But if I'm going to keep it small, it's going to need nice thick stems in order to hold up those big bell pepper pods! I'd really rather not have to stake the plant up or put it in a tomato cage. 

Of course, here I go counting my peppers before they flower... 

It's fun to imagine the possibilities, but for now I must remain patient. I will continue to post as things change. 

Until next time,

- Jess