Restructuring the Open-Center Pomegranate: Balance, Method, and Productive Vision

In the province of Grosseto, we are working on a pomegranate orchard managed in a free, unsupported system, following an approach inspired by the Spanish Elche (Alicante) model. The trees are not old, but their performance has been compromised by management errors: topping carried out at the wrong time, flush cuts, and a lack of regrowth in the mid-lower canopy. The outcome is clear excessive vegetative growth in the upper canopy, a bare base, abundant suckers, and low productive efficiency.

The technical objective defined by Agronomist Vito Vitelli for this season is 15 kg per tree. With a planting layout of 5.5 x 2.5 m (approximately 600 trees per hectare), this corresponds to around 10 tons per hectare. It represents a starting point, not a final goal. Within three to four years, the orchard’s true potential can reach 40–45 kg per tree, approaching 30 tons per hectare. Under organic management where production costs are high economic sustainability necessarily depends on physiological balance.

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The restructuring process begins with reading the tree.

Phase One: Base Cleaning.
Removal of suckers, shelters, and supports that are no longer needed. Suckers are a symptom: they indicate that the tree is not functioning properly in the upper canopy. The objective is to recreate sap-attracting growth sites in the upper structure, restoring correct hierarchical balance.

Phase Two: Internal Opening – the “Palm of the Hand” Rule.
All clutter and internal interference are removed. In organic systems, light penetration and air circulation are essential. Low-impact products act by contact; without canopy penetration, plant protection strategies fail.

Phase Three: “Hunting the Bullies.”
Vigorous, dominant internal shoots are shortened to 3–4 cm spurs. Flush cuts must be avoided. Spur pruning represents a “promise of renewal”: it preserves living tissue, prevents wood decay, and avoids concentrating sap flow exclusively at the tips.

Phase Four: Removing Interference with Return Cuts.
Interfering branches are removed through return cuts not drastic amputations. Pomegranate bears fruit mainly at the tips; indiscriminate cutting means lost production. When pruning is carried out methodically, heavily loaded tips naturally bend downward, covering the median zone and helping control tree height.

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With approximately 30 fruiting branches per tree, a target of 15 kg is fully consistent with the reconstruction strategy. The focus is on fruit quality, branch independence, and reducing friction that can damage the fruit.

Management continues with a winter dry pruning aimed at rebalancing, followed by a “one-and-a-half” summer pruning: a first intervention at the end of July to remove obvious water sprouts, and a second at the end of August to eliminate remaining dominant shoots. In this way, energy is directed toward fruit development, and winter pruning becomes lighter and more precise.

The difference between an unpruned tree and a pruned one is not aesthetic. It is applied physiology. It is balance. And from that balance, profitability begins again.

Official Editorial Note:
Original content by Agronomist Vito Vitelli, developed and optimized with the support of artificial intelligence tools for educational, informational, and technical enhancement purposes.

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