Scott,
I grew them back home at Auburn, AL - right on the z7-8 interface. Plenty humid there in the summer. I suspect what I had growing was 'Wonderful' - they were started from cuttings I took from big, old plants growing at a family friend's home, when I was about 8 yrs old.
Depending upon rains & their timing, splitting may be a problem late in the season, with some damage/rotting of fruit, but otherwise, I'm unaware of any other problems.
There are a number of Russian, Afghan, & eastern European selections in the NCGR at Davis, that may well be hardy & reasonably productive as far north as zone 6 - I'm trialing some here in KY. Salavatski & Kazake are probably the two most cold-hardy.

Scott,
Can't say much about humidity, I always thought the problem was too short of a season to ripen the fruit, and possibly freeze damage in the winter. I've tried to search out varieties that are listed as ripening a month ahead of Wonderful. I'm currently growing Favorite from One Green World and Eversweet from Raintree -- planted spring 2003. I have Granada and Angel Red on order from Baylaurel for this spring. Favorite has done very well vegetatively, never had any winter damage, but hasn't flowered yet, crossing my fingers for this year. Eversweet has been a dud all the way around, still just about a foot high after all this time. Don't know if it's the variety, or just the specimen I received.

Sorry, I know this doesn't exactly address your question, but I think gardeners in our zone should give pomegranates a try and share the results.

Thanks guys, very helpful information. I will look into planting a tree or two this spring. After posting the above I noticed that Edible Landscaping also sold pomegranates and they have a "Russian" variety that sounds worth trying -- anybody know anything about that one?

Lucky, thats pretty impressive that you were propagating pomegranates as an 8-year-old -- a childhood prodigy orchardist!

Scott

In the Philippines, pomegranates can be still be productive, and it is super-humid. Pomegranates is a low chill crop. But the quality of the peel is not very good in a humid climate. The taste quality is good enough even if it is not as good as in the drier regions.

Scott,

Salavatski and Kazake are Russian selections from central asia. Not sure of the origin of Salavatski, but Kazake is from Uzbekistan, and is claimed to be the hardiest known pomegranate. My Salavatski bit the dust its first winter, the Kazake is just hanging on, with two ten-inch shoots alive now, after two years. Lucky reported his were doing well a while back, so maybe under the right conditions, these can establish and survive here. He is about 60 miles northwest of me, and a little colder, so there may be other factors that will determine how hardy these can be.

Scott, a small footnote on my "Favorite" pom. I saw the first ever flower buds on it this morning -- so 5 years from date of original planting into my garden. I've been pruning it into something of a tree-ish shape, so the pruning may have delayed it some.

I had several varieties, started from cuttings from NCGR collection - and didn't manage to get them in the ground, though I did dig a trench in the blueberry patch and sunk all the pots in that and covered them with leaves/pine needles.
All sustained some winter kill-back - with most killed back to the ground - but they're re-sprouting. Salavatski & Kazake, which were two-year old plants, were less severely damaged, with Kazake the least injured - it's still got at least a foot or so of live stems above ground and is regrowing nicely.

So...at this early point in my trial, it looks like Kazake may be my best shot at getting pom fruits.
But, it still looks kinda 'iffy'.

For my own footnote to this thread, after looking into it more I decided the biggest problem may in fact be ripening time as you mention above, Gene. I plan on covering the plants in the winter and based on my experience with covering my figs I think that will give me enough protection for most pomegranates. I am trying some early ones and some hardy ones. Right now I have Angel Red, Eversweet, Grenada, Marianna, Inhulsen 8, Inhulsen 14, Inhulsen 18, and Salatsvaki and am eventually getting a few more early ones from the ARS.

In terms of hardy ones, Chris Inhulsen in Georgia grew out many of the pomegranates from the ARS and I am growing three of the ones he found the most hardy. He lost the names, but I would say the odds are pretty good that they include Kazake.

Scott

I finally got around to actually planting my pomegranates this weekend - lined them out in a 'test' row. One of the 2-yr Kazake plants is 3 ft tall, with virtually no winter damage. The other Kazake is about 2 ft tall, with minimal die-back. Two Salavatski plants were killed back to about 6 inches above ground level.
All the others (except Parfianka, which I cannot find) are resprouting from the roots.

Scott & Lucky,
Couldn't resist showing off a little -- this being my first pom to flower:

Flower Bud
{{gwi:61095}}

Flower Sideview
{{gwi:61096}}

Flower Frontview
{{gwi:61097}}

Small Developing Fruit #1
{{gwi:61099}}

Small Developing Fruit #2
{{gwi:61100}}

"So...at this early point in my trial, it looks like Kazake may be my best shot at getting pom fruits.
But, it still looks kinda 'iffy'."

How are they looking this year Lucky?

I'm a little late to this thread but I purchased "Russian" pomegranate from Michael McConkey's Edible Landscaping Nursery and planted it here 2-3 years ago in zone 6b Maryland (a little over an hour Northwest of Washington D.C.) We've harvested around 9 smaller poorly-filled fruits (maybe poor pollination) and four nice big ones. So pomegranates are definitely possible here!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Russian Pomegranate picture