Basically, pomegranate is well-adapted to practically any soil that has good internal drainage. While some authorities content that its pH range is slightly acidic to neutral, pomegranate grows very well on the moderately alkaline soils of south Texas and northern Mexico.

For best results, pomegranate should be grown in full sun. If the intent is to grow it as a small tree, then adequate space for development should be provided. Otherwise, it is well suited to bring grown as a hedge or clump of shrubs.

According to some literature, pomegranate has poor salt tolerance, but we have seen no serious problems with the existing salinity of soils and water in the Valley. Other consider salt tolerance as fair.

The pomegranate have a salt tolerance of 8 to 16 mmho/cm.

Salinity tolerance in pomegranate is influenced by  several factors, such as cultivar,stage of development,etc. The available evidence in the literature suggest that the ideal salinity level for vegetative growth and fruit production is 25-40mM NaCl. the plant can tolerate up to 80mMNaCl without adverse effects on productivity.

I have a garden in saline soil in Iran. Isfahan. Most of trees are pomegranate .EC of our water is 11 dS/m. our soil texture is sandy clay. 

Exact salinity tolerance threshold level not known however it is ranked as moderately tolerant

I honor the good information shared by experts. Still we feel that how much more work is required to be specified. I am thankful for experts for sharing valuable information on this topic.

You can find answer in the attached file

Thank you Hashmat, good data attached.

I have to add another important aspect of  conditions under which studies on  the salinity tolerance of fruit crops are carried out . Sometimes , salinity tolerance is studied at cell level under aseptic conditions ,  where identifying genes at genetic level is ok , but no way it serves any practical application to field. Very often , salinity tolerance in fruits is studied in pots  and results are compared with  field evaluation of salinity tolerance . In pots since plants are very small , their salinity tolerance limits in terms of pH, EC, ESP. , SAR etc  will be hugely different to field results.  A  fruit  species  declared salinity tolerant  through pot culture studies , fails to perform well  under field conditions.

Thank you Anoop Kumar for this elaboration. I fully agree that field tests are the final evaluation of plant for salinity tolerance.

We have seen,  pomegranate can tolerate soil EC upto 10 dS/m and ESP upto 7. But such tolerance limits are more of a function of soil texture than any other soil parameter. If soil , there is a finer  texture , obviously ESP limit will be much lower compared to coarser soil  texture.    

Yes, in fact, soil texture plays a major role in salt tolerance limit of a plant and so does the pomegranate.

Brackish water with levels above 4.5dS/m will affect the development of fruit.

Thank you Raj for very nice response

Pomegranate is known to possess medium level of tolerance to salinity. it has been well explained that  pomegranate tolerance to salinity is due to resistance of its tissues to higher levels of salt rather than ability to prevent penetration of ions into its tissues.

Thank you Dr. Malhotra for this explanation.

Hi. i have a pomegranate garden in central region of Iran. we established this garden since 1980. The salinity of water in our wheel has changed from 8 to 11dS/m in these years. soil is light( sandy loam). Salinity reduce yield but we see some proper quality in fruit taste.

Thank you for sharing your precious experience. Yes, up to a certain extent of water salinity, quality of fruit is improved but yield is reduced.

Hi

I'm sorry, I do not know exactly about this.

You can probably get help from Botanical Garden colleagues from the Research Institute of Forests & Rangelands, Tehran.

Wishing you success

Thank you