I don't know a lot about pomegranates -- I only started a few years ago and haven't fruited any yet -- but I do know that pomegranates are grown on their own roots, so anything that grows from any part of the plant will be genetically identical. The only way it could be something else is if what you think are suckers are actually seedlings. I've heard that pomegranates reseed themselves readily. Seedlings wouldn't be genetically identical, but I've heard of people growing pomegranates from seed and generally being quite happy with the results.

Yes, the suckers are true. Pomegranate wants to grow like a bush, but you can make tree shape with lots of pruning (as you are finding out!)

Parfianka suckers like crazy. I believe that parfianka is grown ungrafted from cuttings. However i am not 100% percent sure so I would just cut semi-hard wood, expose the cambium by shaving off a four inches from the bottom and put it in a potting medium. Last year I was pruning the pomegranate, took one of the cuttings and stuck it in a pot. To my surprise, it grew with very little care (just keeping the potting medium moist). If you have any doubts about the root suckers, i would propagate it from cutting.

Thanks everyone.

Cousinfloyd, they definitely aren't seedlings. I haven't had any fruit from this tree yet. I carefully cut them from the trunk and they have some rootlets on them already. My mom grew a pomegranate tree from a store bought pomegranate about 10 years ago. The fruit taste great, huge sometimes, the same as store bought ones, but for the size of the tree we don't get too many fruits. I included a couple of pics.

Melikeeatplants, I could camp out there next to it and couldn't cut all of Parfianka's suckers out in time lol

goyo626, I tried taking stem cuttings once even after taking cambium layer off it didn't take. Maybe it's the incredibly heavy clay soil I put them in. I'll try again with a better medium.

copingwithclay, wow thanks for your detail technique for blocking suckers. I have an old carpet piece in mind that I think should work. I have a Jujube tree as well, never had any problems at all with suckers. I don't know what the name is, but this tree has such excellent, sweet, juicy, crunchy sweet fruit that all our guests who taste it want the tree. If only it was own root and suckered for us lol.

I've never seen a pom trained as a single-trunk. Every one I've ever seen growing anywhere...is a multistemmed shrub.

IME keeping the semi hardwood cutting in a loose, moist, and warm potting medium helps. This is the cutting i rooted last spring. I'll prune it to one stem probably next winter. Your chances or success with rooting cuttings are increased if you try multiple cuttings. Use the same pot if space is limited, then select the best most healthiest looking cutting and cull or move the rest. Good luck.

As long as the lowest trunk area is single-trunked for the bottom 6"-12" ...and above that several forked branches emerge...., that is plenty room for a snug single-throated sucker blocker to easily suppress any wannabe shoots from emerging below it. I have several growing just that way. So when rooting pom sticks, I purposely use longer/thicker sticks in hopes of having the upper node/nodes bust out with fast growing shoots that can later develop into 2-3 upright trunks from the single stick/trunk. Leaving several inches of slick round trunk below the forks for the sucker blocker to wrap around.

lucky_p This is how I would like to train it to grow.

goyo626, thanks for the pictures. My cuttings are different from yours in that they are about as thick as my thumb and 20" tall. I'll try some much smaller cuttings next time.

copingwithclay, that's a good idea to take long cuttings so that they'll branch out. I will try again this fall with more technique. They are already leafing out now where I am in CA so it looks like its too late. I wouldn't have any more room to plant them though even if I were successful, but I would like to share them with friends.

Hi , can you give me some tips on taking a Pomegranet sucker & growing it on please? let me know the best size/ time etc -many thanks

I would imagine most, if not all, Poms are rooted cuttings, since they root quite easily. Can't imagine the point of a grafted Pom. Unless someone wanted to top-work a shrub.

I did an experiment to try to see if Parfianka has a little more cold tolerance than regular pomegranate varieties. I have one growing in Olympia, WA (climate zone 8a) that has so far made it through 3 winters (one of them a much colder one than usual) and so far seems to be doing pretty good and hasn't seemed to suffer any damage yet.

I don't think they're grafted onto anything, and if that's the case then a sucker should grow true to type as the parent bush it came from.

It can't grow in the cool/cold temperatures for half the year here, but it loves the hot dry part of the year.