Bougainvillea | Photos by the writer
Q. We have had a pomegranate tree in our Faisalabad garden for four years but the fruit does not reach full size. From afar, they look more like red lemons. What can be done to boost growth of the stunted plant so that it will fruit properly? Do I need to add new compost/fertiliser? I don’t know much about gardening.
A. Trees are stunted when growing conditions are extremely poor and space for roots is badly restricted. You haven’t mentioned if the tree is growing in the ground or in a pot but, either way, it obviously doesn’t have the root space or the nutrients it needs for healthy growth, let alone to develop full-sized fruit.
If it is being grown in a pot, it urgently needs re-potting into a very large pot or any suitable container, with completely a mix of new sweet earth and plenty of organic compost/old, well-rotted manure mixed in 70 percent new soil or up to 30 percent compost/manure should be fine. It will be even better if you place a handful of rusty iron (not stainless steel) screws and a thoroughly boiled (to remove all traces of meat/fat) beef bone in the base of the pot, before putting in the soil/manure, as these will feed the tree with essential iron and calcium for many years to come.
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If the tree is in the ground, perhaps there are large rocks restricting its roots. So, during this monsoon season, dig a new planting hole, removing stones/rocks in the process, placing screws and bone in the bottom of the hole and fill up with soil/compost/manure mix as detailed above. The hole should be deep and wide enough to spread out the existing tree roots in, and the base of the tree should be level with the soil surface and not below it.
After transplanting into a new pot/container or into a new planting hole, water well until the tree is nicely settled in. Watering can then be reduced, first to every other evening and then to twice a week. All going well, the tree should, in time, recover and grow to eventually produce the fruit you desire.