They germinate easily with a little bit of heat.

Just remove from the skin, crush the aril and dry the juice with a paper towel so it does not mold while germinating and plant in a sterile soiless medium right away. No stratification required, just plant right out of the fruit.
Cover with plastic and keep warm (70F - 80F) till it germinates. 4 - 6 weeks.

I have started them several times each winter when the fruit is available at the grocery stores.

I have one plant that is 7 years old that I take cuttings from that also root easily. I have started cuttings with and without rooting hormone with little failure.

Cheers,
Sean

Thanks Sean, maybe it wasn't warm enough. Also even though I did remove the outer pulp to the best of my ability, a little sill hangs on and that started to mold.

-Shipra

You can also store some seed dry in a Ziploc baggie till spring and pot up outdoors when the daytime temps are back up to the 70's regularly and they will still sprout. You might have better luck with them outside germinating.

I find indoor artificial conditions will keep seed either too dry, killing the germinating seed or too wet because we overcompensate with too much water causing mold.
I mist my indoor seed mix just moist enough then cover, completely sealing the bag to maintain even humidity.

If you still have problems with mold, I would suggest washing the seed in a sieve with tap water to remove the whole aril and all traces of juice before planting. That should eliminate problems with mold.

Cheers,
Sean

I also water with cool chamomile tea a great antifungal. Stops Damp-off too.

Sean and Robyn, thank you for all the tips. Sean, I wasn't sure how long the seeds are viable, but now that I know they will last I have kept some aside to plant in the spring.

I've grown quite of lot of pomegranates from seed here in S Spain, and the seed keeps for years if you keep it cool and dry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Pomegranate form Seed

Why would you want to do this? Pomegranates aren't true to seed and don't graft.

Possible reasons:

1. Just for the fun of it.
2. As an education tool for a child interested in poms.
3. To develop a new cultivars!!!
4. Because of a lack of knowledge concerning using cuttings to propagate a choice cultivar.

One of the yards in the neighborhood has a big pomegranate tree with plenty of fruit. But the fruit always seems unripe no matter when I come by. Several times I have picked a pomegranate to taste. I try to find the biggest reddest one, but most of them seem a little undersized, and none of them are fully red colored. The arils inside the fruit are only half splotched with red blush, they are more clear dingy amber brown colored. They do not taste sweet, and chewing them in my mouth, it feels like the arils have less flesh and more seed, not very edible. I suspect someone tried to grow a pomegranate tree from seed, and now there is a nice tree but one that produces not-so-edible fruit.

I just learned pomegranates are not true to seed and it was a shocking discovery to learn that they do not graft either... So how do the delicious cultivars we eat come by? If the plant cannot be grafted, then the trees giving delicious fruit must have come from seed, should it not?

What about cuttings?

This person had a pomegranate tree sprout from seed in their yard:

http://makingoursustainablelife.com/choosing-pomegranate-trees

According to them, "The pomegranate fruits were small and a bit misshapen, but we loved them all the same."

Pomegranate cultivars are commonly propagated by cuttings. They are pretty easy to do. Root suckers can also be transplanted.

Contrary to some reports above, pomegranates CAN be grafted. It's generally not the most effective method, and root suckers may be a problem with grafted individuals.