Photo Gallery: Pomegranate deaths a mystery — photo gallery

Dennis Pollock

Sep. 4, 2012

Gary Davis, who manages a farm in the Firebaugh area, poses a question during a workshop on pomegranates. Darcy Villere, left, is a member of the Jones family who owns the farm.
Themis Michailides, a University of California plant pathologist, discusses dieback in pomegranates.
Mike Brenner tells workshop participants about freeze damage to his orchard in Reedley.
Pomegranates at a research plot at the Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier.
Stephen Randall, with Randall Ag Consulting in Visalia, checks out the pomegranates in a research plot at the Kearney Agricultural Center.
David Lometti, who farms in the San Joaquin area, left, talks with University of California farm advisor Richard Molinar.
Themis Michailides, a University of California plant pathologist, right, and Claude J. Phene, a soil scientist and former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Water Management Research Laboratory in Fresno.
Huihui Zhang, who is working with researcher Dong Wang, with the Agricultural Resource Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, talks of leaf color measurement to determine nitrogen content.

California pomegranate growers are frustrated and puzzled over the sustained loss of trees dating back approximately four years. One of the mysteries concerning the dieback is the fact that some trees remain healthy while others die or are crippled, and they may be side-by-side.

For more, see: Pomegranate decline baffles growers