In our country, lovers of indoor gardening in the direction of citrus plants have been growing them for almost three centuries. After all, the first plant was imported by the Russian Tsar Peter the First. Today very many people love the indoor lemon, but not everyone knows how to grow lemons at home.
Room lemon: temperature regime, lighting, selection of the pot
Home lemon tree – a real tropical guest, which loves abundant quality light. Direct sunlight will only damage him, scorching the leaves. Therefore, when the hot months come, it is necessary to shade the plant standing on a window sill in a pot. To do this, the window or loggia window curtains or gauze, and in the winter months on the contrary it additionally illuminated with fluorescent lamps. It’s best to give it a place in a pot on a western window sill, eastern window or southeastern window in the apartment.
It is important to remember that the care of the lemon at home does not involve sudden changes in temperature, so take it outdoors from the warm clearly not worth it.
Such manipulation can cost the fallen leaves of the lemon. The optimal temperature for it is more than 18 degrees of heat, in the cold season it can be slightly reduced to 14 degrees. If it is higher than 18 degrees, the plant must be watered with heated water, so that the temperature for the roots and for the leaves was the same, otherwise the lemon tree at home will drop the leaves. It is best to plant lemons in small pots or boxes. When planting them in crates, you need to keep the planting distance of about five centimeters from each other and three centimeters from the walls of the container.
Soil and fertilizer for lemon
For its cultivation, it is best to buy a peat mixture and flower soil, which are mixed in half, and a drainage layer is placed on the bottom of the pot. In order to ensure that the soil does not quickly deplete it should be fertilized. To do this, start using fertilizer from the third to fourth month after planting. In the spring, summer and autumn, you can water with ammonia, diluting about two grams per 1000 grams of water. Ammonium nitrate will help the gardener to activate growth.
If the leaves suddenly begin to fall off, fertilizer without chlorine compounds is used. Once the tree is two years old, you can also apply phosphorus-potassium fertilizer every 2 weeks.
You will need 2 grams of fertilizer per 1,000 grams of liquid to prepare the fertilizer mixture. This is enough for one tree, do not forget to water it beforehand, so that the roots of the plant do not get burned. In winter, the amount of fertilizer is reduced to once every 30 days. Slurry can also be used as a fertiliser and is diluted in water in a ratio of one to twenty. A manganese solution can also be used to stimulate the growing foliage.
Growing a lemon from a seed: how will it be right?
Growing a lemon from a stone is time-consuming, but the result is definitely worth it. Growing a lemon from a stone will help to select fresh, mature lemons with no signs of decay or disease. What falls into our hands from the shelves of stores, of course, do not call freshly harvested fruit, so the seeds that will be planted, selected in a larger quantity than required planting.
So, how to grow a lemon tree from a stone? Prepared soil scattered in small containers (cups). And the seeds themselves deepen on 2-3 centimeters in the soil, and then cover with a plastic bag. Three weeks later, the first shoots appear, and the fruit on it will appear in a decade. After the rooting of the sprout, it is time to transplant it into a pot of larger size, for which you should change the soil to a mixture of decomposed leaves, turf and humus. At the bottom of the container, drainage is mandatory. Capture it with a lump of earth, lay the sprouted roots in rings, after it carefully, without tramping, cover it with earth and water it. As it grows, the plant is turned once every two weeks.
How to grow a lemon at home so that its crown was beautiful and lush? This is done by pruning, which stimulates the active growth of the branches. Every year it will grow branches of a new level, for example, the first shoot, when he reaches a growth of 20 centimeters pruned, leaving a bud. Then the branches that will grow from these buds are pruned. On them you should leave a bud when they reach the growth of twenty-five centimeters. The next pruning will be carried out for the branches of another level, cut after their growth of ten centimeters. The remaining levels leave the height of five centimeters.
How to take care of an indoor lemon?
Care for the house lemon is not easy, because the plant is quite capricious. The main thing is to catch the balance between overwatering and drying of the soil, because the lemon tree does not like neither of the two. Care consists of watering twice a week and sprinkling with a sprayer to maintain high humidity. In winter, when the air in the room is dry it is necessary to place near the tree containers filled with water or special humidifiers. To ensure that the nucleated fruits the plant does not discard from its branches, it is best to water them where the lemon connects to the branch.
Remember that lemons do not tolerate changes in temperature, light, or location. If you do decide to move your lemon tree from one place on the windowsill to another, choose it carefully.
You also need to rotate it a little bit each day so that the crown grows evenly, but so that your lemon has time to turn its leaves. If done correctly, you will soon get its first flowers. In order for the flowers to become ovaries, you need to carry the transfer from anther to stamen with a cotton swab. If so many fruits will set that it will be difficult for the plant, you can simply remove most of them. Approximate proportion in which the plant gives good fruit: for 1 lemon – ten to fifteen leaves. Such a tree brings the aroma of the subtropical forest into the house, gives the dwelling a pleasant atmosphere, and if you apply love and patience, you will get your first harvest.
Lemon varieties
In our country, the most common types of lemon are the following:
- “Pavlovsky” – the fruit of Russian breeders. It is the undisputed leader among the lemon trees grown in the dwelling. The plant is unpretentious. It is active in growth, reaches two meters with proper care. The crown is characterized by compactness. The foliage is shiny. Yield is about forty lemons per year. The fruits have a bright taste and a sweet flavor.
- “Meyer”, its second name “Chinese”, is a hybrid of lemon and orange. The tree reaches one and a half meters and has small prickles on the crown. The fruit has a thin skin and a bitter-sour taste. It produces excellent yields. The speed of ripening of fruits is different. Easily tolerates heat and dry air, likes good light. It is used in the treatment of diseases.
- “Jubilee” – the fruit of selection of Uzbek breeders. Unpretentious, the tree reaches a height of up to one and a half meters. It has a high yield and flowering. It has large fruits, reaching six hundred grams, their skin is thick. The ovaries are easily formed even under adverse conditions.
- “Genoa” has a low growth, without thorns. The crown of the tree is spreading. The lemons themselves are oval-shaped, on average weighing about one hundred grams. The taste is sour, the flesh is juicy. The yield reaches fifty lemons annually.
Once upon a time my grandmother used to grow lemons in the window. It was a relatively small bush, no more than half a meter high with the pot and a crown diameter of just over thirty centimeters. Judging by the prickles and the greenish, small, very sour fruit with thin peel from the above description, it was the “Meyer” variety. For several years the harvests were very modest – one or two lemons per season. But one day the plant gave out an incredible result. There were more fruits than leaves. We had no time to remove them without waiting until they were fully ripe, lest the tree break. As a result, more than twenty lemons the size of a chicken egg grew. But after that, the shrub withered away and soon died. The reason is still unclear.
For me this article is very relevant, as recently I was given a lemon as a gift and was given a bag of chicken manure. And I just did not know what to do with it all. Now I have read in detail how to dilute water with dung to feed the plant. In general, lemon is quite capricious “outside”. Anything at all, throws off the leaves. My lemon is a month as adapted. Constantly sprinkling it to imitate a wet environment. I will take care, I hope to see the fruits of my efforts.
Great article! I had no idea that it was so easy to grow and care for lemons at home. The steps you outlined make it seem like a breeze. I’m definitely going to give this a try!