Thanks for the advice Changsong. I will keep them in their Monarch Planting bands for a couple months, then put the whole band into a larger container (With Al's Gritty Mix) and move them into a shady North Facing spot for them to get used to being outside. It hasn't even been a month, but the variety Palermo has almost 100% leafed, and some have branches. Wonderful is slower, but now I see at least 4 with leaves. Those outside haven't popped up yet, but the grapevines I planted outside have just started peeking their little heads out of the soil, so I expect the Poms to follow. Last year I bought a pom from Gurneys, put it in a pot in morning sun on the vineyard drip system, and it is doing fine. I might put some of these in the same spot. The drip system is key to keeping them hydrated for sure. It's probably best to plant them in their true home sometime in the winter, so they get established in Spring and get ready for the heat. Not sure about this, but I'm hoping the two varieties will pollinate each other? I think they self pollinate, but it sure can't hurt!

Looks like sooty mold on leaves and the fruit. So my best guess is small sucking insects, perhaps woolly aphids or mealybugs.

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 I won't be planting until late September. I am not a big fan of adding heavy organic content into a planting hole. That would result in a "bathtub effect" with a highly moisture-retentive organic mix potentially under the water table of the surrounding soil, exposing the roots to too much water. I think a purist doing an in-ground planting would say to get a soil test, then amend with just the minimal amount of organic material needed to correct any organic matter deficiency in the native soil. Since extremely fertile soil normally does not have more than 10% organic matter, that would be absolutely minimal amendment in the worst case. My situation is different, with an enormous mass of soil sitting above the ground level, and guaranteed to be above the water table, because I am using a very high raised bed behind a retaining wall. I, therefore, have the opportunity to create something more like container soil, rich in organic matter, that will never become a water trap and death sentence for the roots. I know some people do not like to create huge soil layer changes from organic to clay, on the thought that the roots may not want to penetrate into the deeper soil layers. This particular species/hybrid is not a very large plant, if you even want to believe that trees do not deal with changing soil layers all the time in nature. If you go to a place like Texas, in many places like Austin the top two feet of soil are organic matter, followed by three or four feet of heavy clay, followed by rock very near the surface. I think nature deals with such situations all the time, and trees are smarter than people when navigating such issues.

Westes i am going theough a similar situation in a plantation. if you can move the tree awesome! take it with you to the house for at least 3 weeks were it doesnt get aggresive sun because the roots are offline for now so the water even if it would be in compost or soil (like the soil from israEL where your species is from) is not just water but the ability of the plant to cope with the heatsssss. if you touch the leaves sometimes even if you water youd notice theyre not cool because the plant is dizzy still so shade is your friend (although your summers are mild still let it stay in the bright light of the house for no less than 2 weeks and then move to morning (supervised hourly) sun meaning check every hour to see if it wilts again. about the mix, well if the plants native habitat is bark then treat it like an orchid (but i havent seen pomegranates in bark in the wild nor think they could survive the hot israELi summer being so dry from spring even after a cool rainy winter and fall) so compost made by you wont hurt but either change it now or wait till it recovers because a plant shouldnt be pushed to do so many things at once in the ER, something extra you should google is ”compost extract experiments on pomegranates, strawberries etc to see the real benefits of squeezed poison free compost into water then watering the leaves and soil deeply once at least. what other plants you have? or fruit trees? (btw remember potting mix is just dead so you have to buy their fertilizers which salt the soil and make it infertile overtime (if soil ran out of nutrients imagine how the big trees around you would have stopped growing loong time ago or how the sequoias in california wouldnt be so tall and i talk this much because it hurts to lose trees