Ruby
An improved selection bred for colour, quality and nutritional value for the modern market.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Pomegranate
- Type
- Planting material
- Season
- All seasons
- Starts bearing
- ~180 days
- Expected yield
- High
- Suitable soil
- Sandy / light soil
- Disease resistance
- Moderate
- Release
- ICAR-IIHR (Indian Institute of Horticultural Research), Bangalore, Karnataka. A multiple-cross hybrid; the release year is not published.
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Ruby is a multiple-cross pomegranate hybrid developed at ICAR-IIHR (Indian Institute of Horticultural Research), Bangalore, Karnataka, and bred for aril colour and seed mellowness. A fully grown plant is about 2.72 m tall, with a less spreading canopy of 4.7 m. Mature fruit looks like Ganesh in size and shape, but the skin is reddish-brown, not Ganesh's pink-red.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Ruby if you want a pomegranate bred for aril colour and mellow seeds, and your buyer will take a Ganesh-sized fruit with a reddish-brown skin instead of Ganesh's pink-red. It is the only one of the six pomegranates here bred in Karnataka rather than at a Maharashtra station, and also the one with the least on paper: no published yield, blight figure or release year, where Bhagwa has 150–200 q/ha and Solapur Lal 35–39 kg a tree. It has no export track record like Bhagwa's either. Choose Bhagwa if you sell to exporters. Choose Ganesh if your market knows it by name. Plant Ruby on a small block first.
Sowing & cultivation
Advantages & considerations
Things to consider
- The plant is about 2.72 m tall with a 4.7 m canopy. Leave enough room between plants and rows for that spread.
- Ruby has no published blight figure or release year. Treat the "Moderate" disease rating here as a working guide and ask IIHR or your horticulture office about disease in your area.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Maharashtra
- Karnataka
Mark out the field for a 4.7 m canopy
A fully grown Ruby plant is about 2.72 m tall and spreads about 4.7 m. No spacing figure is published, so the plant size is your clue.
Before you dig pits, picture two neighbouring plants at full size. If their canopies overlap, you will find it hard to spray, prune and pick, and fruit in the middle gets less light.
Ask your horticulture office or IIHR for the spacing used in your area. Plant a small block first, and measure the canopy at the end of the third year before you plant the rest.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This crop is raised from cuttings, not from seed, so you can take your own planting material. Take cuttings only from healthy, well-grown plants that are true to the variety, and never from one that showed disease — a cutting carries its mother plant with it. Where a nursery or a government farm sells clean planting material, that is the safer start.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Pomegranate variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Starts bearing | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arakta | An earlier-ripening, drought-tolerant pomegranate with somewhat less bacterial blight than Bhagwa, for sandy soils in Maharashtra and Karnataka | Bearing from year 2–3 (cutting-raised plant) | 130–160 q/ha at full bearing | Maharashtra, Karnataka |
| Bhagwa | A saffron-rind, dark-crimson, soft-seeded pomegranate for export and premium buyers, for farmers ready to run a blight spray programme | Bearing from year 2–3 (grafted/cutting-raised plant) | 150–200 q/ha at full bearing | Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat |
| Ganesh | A soft-seeded, pinkish-aril pomegranate for Maharashtra markets that still pay for softness over rind colour | Bearing from year 2–3 (cutting-raised plant) | 120–150 q/ha at full bearing | Maharashtra |
| Mridula | A soft-seeded, dark-red-aril pomegranate valued for eating quality, for Maharashtra farmers who sell as table fruit | ~180 days | High | Maharashtra, Karnataka |
| Rubythis page | A multiple-cross IIHR pomegranate bred for aril colour and mellow seeds, for Karnataka and Maharashtra | ~180 days | High | Maharashtra, Karnataka |
| Solapur Lal | A 2022 ICAR-NRCP biofortified hybrid for Maharashtra, for table and processing use, ripening 15–20 days before Bhagwa | 160–165 days | High | Maharashtra |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Pomegranate is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Pomegranate plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Pomegranate variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Pomegranate into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Pomegranate rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Pomegranate seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
Who developed Ruby pomegranate?
ICAR-IIHR (Indian Institute of Horticultural Research), Bangalore, Karnataka, developed it as a multiple-cross hybrid bred specifically for aril colour and seed mellowness.
Does the state list include Karnataka?
Yes — Ruby was bred at IIHR, Bangalore, Karnataka, and the state list includes both Karnataka and Maharashtra.
How does Ruby fruit differ from Ganesh?
Ruby fruit resembles Ganesh in size and shape, but has a distinctive reddish-brown skin colour, rather than Ganesh's typical pink-red.
How big does a Ruby pomegranate tree grow?
A fully grown plant reaches about 2.72 m tall with a less-spreading canopy of 4.7 m — a relatively compact, upright architecture.
What was Ruby specifically bred for?
Aril colour and seed mellowness (softness) — traits directly aimed at improving the fresh-eating and market appeal of the fruit's interior.
Ruby or Bhagwa: which should I plant?
Bhagwa has the saffron rind, 405–420 g fruit and the export record. Ruby was bred for aril colour and seed mellowness, with a reddish-brown skin and Ganesh-like fruit. No yield or price figure is published for Ruby here. If you sell to exporters, Bhagwa is the safer name. If you want a public-institute variety to test, grow a small Ruby block beside it.
How long does Ruby take to ripen?
About 180 days, close to Bhagwa's 180–190 days. Arakta and Solapur Lal are earlier, at 130–140 days from fruit to harvest and 160–165 days. Keep your own fruit-set dates for a few seasons to learn how it behaves in your area.
How far apart should I plant Ruby?
No spacing figure is published. It gives the plant size: about 2.72 m tall with a 4.7 m canopy. Use that to judge how much room each plant needs, and ask your horticulture office or IIHR for the spacing used in your area before you mark out the field.
Does Ruby get bacterial blight?
No blight figure is published for Ruby. The 149-accession screening covered Bhagwa, Arakta, Ganesh and Mridula, and found none resistant. Ruby was not named there. So do not assume it is safe. Keep a spray and orchard-cleaning routine and watch for spots on leaves and fruit.
What is the "multiple-cross" in Ruby's description?
It means Ruby came from more than one cross, not a single pair of parents. The parents are not named in any source. Do not quote parentage to a buyer. What you can say is that it was bred at ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore, for aril colour and seed mellowness.
Sourced from: ICAR-IIHR released varieties. editorial policy.