Starting pomegranates from seed is ridiculously easy. Today I’ll share how I sprouted pomegranate seeds in ten days with no pre-treatment, plastic bags or anything else.

Starting Pomegranates from Seed

Pomegranates are one of the simplest fruit trees you can grow from seed. Here’s a video showing how I do it:

It almost takes more time to peel an eat a pomegranate than it does to start the seeds. Let’s break down the video, step by step.

Step 1: Get a good pomegranate

This pomegranate was from Chile. It was large and sweet, so it’s a good type to start with.

In the past I have grown a dwarf pomegranate from seed.

The original fruit was small and tart. When the baby trees fruited a couple of years later, their fruit was also small and tart.

You’re more likely to get big and sweet pomegranate fruit if you start with a big and sweet pomegranate.

Step 2: Eat the pomegranate and save the seeds

Opening a pomegranate is easy if you do it like I do in the video. Cut the top off, then cut along the membrane in the inside. The kids and I stood in the kitchen and ate our pomegranate pieces and saved the seeds.

Just suck the flesh off as best as you can, then set the seeds aside.

Step 3: Plant the seeds

I decided to plant all the seeds in this pomegranate. There were probably 200-250 seeds in the fruit so I planted them all in a seedling tray, putting multiple seeds in each cell. I did not bother scrubbing them clean – I just planted.

Water well, then wait.

The seedling pomegranates start emerging in a little over a week in warm conditions. If it isn’t warm outside, put a heat mat beneath the bottom of the planting tray. That will speed germination.

Here are my pomegranate seedlings emerging ten days after planting:

When they grow a little larger, I will start transplanting them into their own pots.

How Long Does it Take Pomegranates to Germinate?

Though you will read online that pomegranates take “40 days to germinate,” that’s simply not the case.

Some seeds may take that long, but I generally see a lot of germination within two weeks.

I filmed the end of this video after ten days and more seeds will keep coming up for a while.

Pomegranates can produce fruit from seed in a short period of time. Estimates are 4 years; however, I have had a dwarf pomegranate fruit in 18 months from seed.

If life gives you pomegranates, plant the seeds.

You can learn more about plant propagation – including growing lots of different fruit trees from seed – in my book Free Plants for Everyone: The Good Guide to Plant Propagation.