Yellow leaves on pomegranate trees and barely any fruits. What’s wrong with them? And what can I do to bring to bring them back

Question

to health? I have 3 pomegranate trees (2 large & 1 small) close to the fence. One tree (right side) is doing great w/ lots of fruits & gets water from grass sprinklers 3X a week. The 2nd large tree (left side) is not doing so well. Last year, it had lots of fruits but the leaves turned yellow & the skin of the some fruits partially dried up. I was told that I over-watered it. So I cut back on the water. This year, it started great with green leaves but then it turned yellow again & has barely any flowers & 2 fruits. I only water that and the small tree once a week using drip system for 20 minutes. The small pomegranate tree in the middle was planted last year. Its leaves also starting to turned yellow. There are no apparent bugs or fungus. I see some ants after watering. Is watering once a week still too much? I don’t understand how the healthy tree is doing better with getting more water than the other 2 trees. I’m at a loss. Your assistance in solving this problem is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I believe the yellowing and lack of flowering and fruiting are related to the difficult growing conditions, soil fertility and water management. The fact that the tree closer to the lawn gets more water and probably fertilizer, and is doing much better, is a key observation.

The tree on the slope with only drip irrigation once a week for 20 minutes is water deficient I believe, and not overwatered. It is difficult to water adequately with a drip system on a slope like that and with no mulch to retain soil moisture.

From the photos it doesn’t appear to be an easy job to build up the soil grade to allow a watering basin that could be flood irrigated once a week during the dry season. So maybe the best you can do is to install spray emitters that cover more of the root zone, and step up the watering frequency and amount in order to get some water infiltration into the upper 6 to 12 inches of the soil profile. Ideally you should have a 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch on the soil surface. But with the slope it will likely end up at the bottom on the flat. So will a dry fertilizer product. But you must find a way to fertilize. Look for a liquid fertilizer product.