Zhanao Deng is
a University of Florida environmental horticulture professor who’s trying to breed and grow more pomegranates in Florida. According to Deng, it’s not necessarily a huge transition from growing citrus to producing pomegranates. Growers can use the same orchards, equipment and facilities they use for citrus. Still, locally grown pomegranates are scarce right now in the Sunshine State. The fruit grows on only about 100 acres statewide.
“We can produce fresh pomegranate fruit, arils and juice in July, which is at least two months earlier than growers in other states,” said Deng.
Since 2014, Deng has been trying to grow and breed pomegranates at the GCREC in Hillsborough County. It’s has been a slow, steady progress. Mostly, Deng is studying how to make sure pomegranates can resist or avoid pests and diseases and not drop fruit on the ground. Those research victories would mean more yield for Florida growers. Eventually, he’d like to make the fruit even tastier.
“In Florida, pomegranates can grow well but tend to have a lot of fruit rot from a number of fungal pathogens,” Deng told ifas.ufl.edu/news. “This results in low yield and poor fruit quality.”
To avoid severe fruit rot, Deng and his doctoral student, Alexander Schaller, defoliated the pomegranate plants at GCREC in December 2020, hoping to harvest ripe fruit soon after the rainy season begins in Florida, usually in June. To their surprise, this treatment not only has advanced the harvesting season to July but has made the plants produce a lot of more fruit.