Looks like the start of mildew to me. Are you able to keep the foliage dry while providing lots of direct sun? You can't give them too much sun.

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I believe that the foliage loss was due to over-cropping. You see, I have no experience with pomegranates and this young tree only produced one or two pitiful fruits in the past years. I was really excited to see it covered with blooms in the spring. Why I think it's probably over-cropping is that the foliage loss is mainly limited to the branches bearing fruit. The other ones (mainly on top) have healthy green foliage. So what should I do not to let this happen again? Should I pick off some of the flowers in the future? How about pruning the tree?

Here are some pics of the underside of the leaves and of the tree itself. I have no idea how to take care of this tree, so any help would be greatly appreciated. The tree is almost 3 years old and is about 10 feet high now. http://www.eternalifedesigns.com/images/pom1.jpg - underside of leaves http://www.eternalifedesigns.com/images/pom2.jpg http://www.eternalifedesigns.com/images/pom3.jpg

I have plant and uprooted more than two dozen fruit trees since moving to Arizona. I have planted bare root trees in pots and later planted them in the ground and later I dug them up. I have purchased potted trees and planted them in the ground and later dug them up. I have planted bare root trees in the ground with lots of organic matter and later dug them up. I have planted bare root trees in the ground in native soil with only a few hand full of amendments mixed in. The results really surprised me. I purchased two potted Asian Pear trees that needed to flower at the same time to produce fruit. I did not bare root them. When I planted them the root systems looked good. By good I mean there were no roots swirling and no obvious problems. The trees seamed to take but never were very healthy. They lost leaves in the heat and turned yellow from time to time. As time passed in the heat of summer the end of some of the limbs would dry out and die during the hottest months. After four years with no fruit I decided to pull them. I did not want to lose all that soil so I knocked it off the roots and was shocked at what I found. When purchased one tree was in a 3 gallon pot and the other in a 4 gallon pot. But each tree's roots formed a central mass of swirled roots in the exact shape of a 1 gallon nursery pot. Those roots were all twisted, cramped and choking each other and all the new root fed into them. All the care I had given them was being choked off because they had been root bound when they were still very young trees at the nursery. I have never purchased another tree from that online nursery. I have planted bare root trees in pots and let them mature and later planted them in the ground. Those trees appeared to do well only to fail later do to the bathtub affect. The same was true of trees planted in heavily amended holes. Though a few of these have thrived though I'm sure its only because their roots where lucky enough to have escaped the planting hole. The best results were from planting bare root trees in native soul in November through January. All of the trees were watered well and mulched. However the trees planted directly in native soil thrive while the others did not thrive or if they did they did not thrive for long. It all has to do with root growth. Roots are attracted to water. Roots also find it hard to penetrate from one soil texture to another. If the soil in the planting hole holds water well the roots will stay there. As years go by this is not good. Root bound trees are bound to fail whether they are root bound before they are sold by the nursery or root bound in the planting hole. With bare root trees you can see the root system. You can prune damaged roots that will harm the tree. harvestman over in the Fruit and Orchard Forum is a professional nurseryman who sells only mature trees. He purchases bare root trees and grows them out and sells them as mature trees. Sometimes he buys potted trees and grows them out too. He has posted many times that he bare roots every potted tree he buys before planting for this very reason. He even bare roots the mature tree before planting them on the buyers property. Nursery's that grow in pots get busy and trees can get root bound at any stage of development. In the nursery they are under shade cloth and constant care is given them. Take them out of that environment and any problem they may have is bound to show itself in time. It could just be transplant shock but without having to cut swirling roots and it being planted in amended soil I think it less likely. Pomegranate's are tough trees though so it may outgrow this. Its not as hard to bare root a tree as it might seam. If you have had any of the problems with trees not thriving like I have you may want to try it the next time you purchase a potted tree. Also keep in mind the best time to plant here is from November through January and earlier in that time frame is better.