Clean seed. soak in water for 24 hours then store at 40F.
Then do not cover the seed with soil. soil temp 70-75F & takes 30-40 days to germinate.
Transfer to container after 2nd set of true leaves form May set out after last danger of frost. Self pollinate. But slow to flower from seed

do i take the flesh off of the seed?

is it possible to use the baggie method?

Yes, clean the flesh off the seed.

I can't help you with the baggie method - I don't use it. But I did germinate pomegranate as George described above, needing gentle bottom heat to achieve 75F. My sis now has the containerized trees on her patio in summer, unheated greenhouse in winter in her Z8a. At 5 years old, they haven't produced fruit yet.

I have germinated several 'batches' of pomegranate seed this fall/winter from 'Wonderful'-cultivar fruit (from grocery store, fwiw). I always just mixed the cleaned seed into the upper cm or two of average loose 'soil-mix' and kept that modestly moist until seedlings emerge 3-4 weeks later. No real need to keep them on surface of soil, IMO. Very, very simple species to start, and I always had a LOT more seed come up than I wanted, and easy just to pluck out unwanted seedlings. They emerge at semi-random intervals with this 'method'...

I would guesstimate that they germinated with at ~40-75% 'efficiency', if not better (did not count seed) - so if you have plenty of seed available, just mix in plenty to assure you getting enough for your wants/needs.

HTH,
Alex

Hi from Ontario, Canada
I just cleaned 2 pomegranate seeds after I ate the fruit and stuck them in some potted soil & about 2 weeks later they've already sprouted (little tiny things but they did sprout). I can't wait until it's warm outside to be able to put the pot out.

a tutorial with pics on how to germinate a pomegranate seed.

please follow link..

Here is a link that might be useful: how to germinate a pomegranate seed

I'm so happy someone posted this question! Does this same method of germination hold true for dwarf species of pomegranate??

Ive been trying the baggie method for over a month and there's been no hint of germination. I don't know if I bought dead seeds or what. it's very disappointing :(

skinnylegs, I also have some of the dwarf pomegranate seeds and following this method worked. Though only 2 of the 18 seeds sown grew.

If I were to speculate on why only 2 of them grew it's probably because only 2 of them actually passed the float test, but being ever the optimist I planted all the seeds I had tested.

I have germinated pomegranate seeds with about 80% success in about 8-10 days with the following method...

Remove the flesh from around the seeds. Either with a small plastic pot (or I just take those $2 for 200 plastic party cups with a bunch of holes pokes with a screwdriver for drainage) fill with soil. Plant 3-6 seeds about 3/4 inch below the surface, moisten the soil, and place a piece of aluminum foil over the top. I have a cupboard in the kitchen with a desk lamp in it that is about 95 degrees all the time. Put the cup in there. After a week start checking it because once they germinate you want to get them out of there.

Most of the seeds germinate within 10 days this way. Once you have chosen a favorite, clip off the less worthy ones.

I recently used the wet paper towel aka baggie method to germinate my first batch of pomegranate seeds. These were very fresh seeds that I had removed from the pomegranate myself. I started them on November 2nd and the first root appeared on November 10th. As they germinated, I planted the seeds about 1/4 inch deep in the cells of a Park's Bio-dome that sits on my front porch. The first seedling appeared on November 18th, so that's about 16 days total germination time.

13 out of 15 seeds sprouted, but for some reason I only got 10 seedlings--I'm not sure what happened to the other three seeds. Still, two out of three isn't bad. They aren't growing very fast (probably because of the cold weather), but they look healthy. Some are starting to get their first true leaves.

--Linda

I found a pomegranate seedling when it was quite young and about 6 cm tall and just a few leaves that identified it.

It always has always flowered quite a bit.

It is about a year later and it is already setting fruit. This is quite amazing considering that it is only a bit older than a year.

Is this normal and what can I expext the fruit to be like?

I am bumping up a rather old post here, but I wanted to share some results.

For whatever reason in the past I've not had much success with sprouting poms. I had a store-bought fruit sitting in the back of my fridge for about 3 months and I finally decided to crack it open and give the seeds a go. Effectively they were cold stratified in-fruit.

I tested two germination procedures: I filled two plastic cups with some damp potting soil and scattered about a dozen seeds on top of each. I then lightly scattered a layer of soil on top (about 1/4 inch). On one cup I put aluminum foil as per va_canuck's post (poked a few holes); the other cup was left open. Both where left indoors in indirect natural light. The open cup got misted every day to keep the top layer of soil from drying.

After about a week and a half:
Open cup = 0
Foil lid = 6

Hello,
Pomegranates are wonderful plants, I grew one before but died unexpectedly. The method I used was in this linkhttp://www.muslimgrower.com/discussionforum/showthread.php?t=49, Hope it helps