Talk Quesada forum

I have a 3 year old pomegranate tree in a pot on my solarium. It's variety is Granado Wanderful.


I bought it around June last year and planted it in a big pot up in a sheltered corner of the solarium. The garden centre told me it might produce fruit this year.

It was flourishing until suddenly half of the plant's leaves gradually turned brown and died. The suckers around the base and stem were always cut back so there was growth only at the top and it was fed as instructed. All the leaves dropped over winter.

Does anyone have any idea what might be the problem?

This year it started to push out new shoots and leaves as it should but once again, half the leaves have died, all on one side of the plant.

The only thing I can think of is maybe it's due to the neighbours cat, which kept leaving it's kaka buried in the soil last summer. This was always removed within a day or so. Yuk!

Thoughts anyone?

I dont think the cat will make just one side die ..more like cold wind on one side ..or damage on the joint of branch as it joins the main trunk ..you can get what is called die back on many trees and shrubs ..gently scrape back some bark on the affected stems and see if it is green if so you could get growth from the branchs in a few weeks ..if not cut out the dead bit ( all that are not green under bark..

Thank you Terry. It's affected a number of branches. The same branches had good growth again this year. Most odd.

The leaves do fall off in January to March, did you trim some in-growing branches off in November/December?
From April new buds start appearing which will grow into new branches.
If you're really worried you re-pot again.
These trees normally survive in the toughest conditions.
We lived in the mountains for 15 years and the only time the trees didn't provide fruit after I really have them a very strong haircut.

Hi. Thanks for replying. Yes I did some light trimming. No chance of repotting under the current lockdown as no new soils. Just don't understand why it's the same half of the tree died back again. The other half growing nicely

Possibly wind burn. You say it's a sheltered spot but you can get wind concentrating in unexpected places and trees don't like it. In the pic you show the tree is possibly exposed to wind coming through behind ( it is right beside the start of the open wall). Try moving it to another place. In the absence of any other solutions it would be worth a try, it is clearly just not happy where it is currently sitting.

Hi Shiva. Yes I wondered that too as I'm by the sea. Having said that I have tried different locations, against different walls but 2 floors up there is nowhere for the tree to hide from the wind. That's why it's in its current location so it hides behind the chimney. Thanks for your thoughts. Definitely food for thought!I've moved it again so let's see.