When do i pick pomegranates

What are your favorite ways to prepare pomegranates? Share some recipes or prep tips with us in the comments below, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about picking your crop.

And for more information on growing pomegranates in your garden, have a read of these guides next:. Kelly Spicer became a single parent at a young age, and learned very quickly how scary food insecurity can be. As a result, she began self-teaching to learn how to grow food, which led to a passion for providing for others in need. Currently, Kelly is coordinating a plan to produce a tropical homestead in south Florida that will provide homegrown food to families in need, and teach them to grow their own.

She is working her way toward certification as a master gardener, and building a lifelong love of nature with her kids. Facebook Twitter Pinterest 4. About Kelly Spicer Kelly Spicer became a single parent at a young age, and learned very quickly how scary food insecurity can be.

Are Your Oranges Ripe? Or Not. First Name. Last Name. Yes, I would like to receive emails from GardenZeus. You can unsubscribe anytime. When Are My Pomegranates Ripe? Darren Butler GardenZeus receives commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Tips for checking ripeness of pomegranates: Sampling.

Pomegranate with green shoulders. Ripe pomegranates with splitting skin. Get the dirt! Join our email list to receive the latest gardening news, tips, promotions and more. A ripe fruit will be plump with delicious juice, and therefore considerably heftier than its unripe counterpart. Shape Another tell-tale sign of ripeness is the shape of the fruit: A ripe pomegranate will be flatter at the stem and blossom ends, with sides that have a more squared appearance. In other words, the more perfectly round a pomegranate looks, the less likely it is to be ripe.

The Pomegranate Council tells us that pretty much any piece of fruit you encounter in the produce section will have been picked when it was relatively ripe. As pomegranates ripen, their skin takes on a soft, leathery quality. That said, an unripe pomegranate will have a hollower sound than one that is ripe and bursting with juice.

Per the Pomegranate Council, when kept whole and stored in plastic bags in the fridge, your fruit will stay fresh for up to three months. Impressive, right? This crunchy, crispy salad can be served on its own for lunch or with some roast chicken for dinner.

Get the recipe. This mouthwatering recipe gets a double dose of our favorite ruby red fruit: the pomegranate-maple glaze is made with pomegranate molasses available in the international aisle at most grocery stores and the finishing dish is topped with pomegranate arils. This Will Be the Amazon Coat of Does Hand Sanitizer Work? We Ask Hamptons Chicago San Francisco. Connect With Us. Improper humidity can lead to grey mold, which is caused by Botrytiscinerea fungus infection.

In California, an approved fungicide called Fludioxonil Scholar is used on pomegranates with a 5 ppm maximum residue limit.

The pomegranates must be dipped in the fungicide solution because the fungal spores are usually in the calyx area of the fruit, which may not be adequately covered by simply spraying. Subsequently, surface moisture must be removed by airflow to avoid having free moisture on the fruit in the transportation box.

Although the fruits have a long storage life, pomegranates are prone to water loss and physical damage by abrasions, impacts, compression, and even vibrations. When the fruits are kept at room temperature, they continue to develop darker skin color and may last up to several weeks. Warmer temperatures and prolonged storage results in internal breakdown and increases dehydration, causing the fruit skin to harden and shrink.

Shrink-wrapping is sometime used to preserve quality and surface color and to reduce moisture loss. Chilling injury is a common occurrence due to improper storage. The fruit will have a brown discoloration of the skin, pitting, and increased susceptibility to early decay. The arils will lose their rich, red color and the white membranes will turn brown.

Two methods are typically used to collect the arils from the pomegranate: hand extraction and commercial extraction. There are three commonly used techniques to collect the arils by hand: 1 cut off the calyx end and lightly score the rind in quarters from top to bottom, then break the fruit open, peel the membrane back, and remove the arils; 2 submerge the scored pomegranate in a bowl of cold water and soak for approximately five minutes.

While holding the fruit under water, split the sections of the pomegranate and the arils will sink to the bottom; 3 remove arils by cutting the pomegranate in half and placing the cut face down while hitting the shell firmly with a blunt instrument. The section walls will break loose, freeing the arils.