Features of growing lemon indoors
When growing lemon indoors, several conditions must be observed. Lighting should be diffused. All citrus fruits do not like changes in lighting. You cannot sharply turn or move the plant from one place to another.
Flowers and ovaries begin to fall off as soon as the lighting changes. In winter, the tree can be illuminated. When kept in a room with a temperature of +7 to + 14 degrees, the backlight does not need to be turned on, because citrus fruits “fall asleep” at this temperature, do not grow, and do not need additional lighting.
The temperature in the room where the lemon grows must be constant. The plant does not like sudden changes. When ventilating a room in winter, you need to be especially careful. Cold air from the window has a negative effect on the plant, and it can drop all its leaves.
To humidify the air in winter, place a wide-necked container filled with water next to the plant.
This will keep the foliage from drying out at the edges. But we should talk about watering in more detail.
Homemade lemon: home care and photos
Lemon is a subtropical plant and the apartment climate is ideal for it. Despite this, caring for a lemon in a pot differs from growing it in natural conditions.
Let's look at how to care for lemons at home so that your plant grows healthy and the lemon bears fruit.
Selection of seedlings
There is no need to rush into purchasing a lemon seedling.
You should choose a healthy-looking plant with brightly colored, shiny leaves. Look carefully at the stem and the reverse side of the leaf.
They must be clean, without the visible presence of pests and traces of disease.
Landing and seat selection
After planting the plant in open ground, be sure to water it thoroughly and make sure that it is not exposed to direct sunlight.
If the weather conditions are not very good (rain, strong wind, etc.), it is better to build a small shelter and leave it for several days until the lemon tree takes root in a new place.
In open ground, plants satisfy their needs from their natural environment. It is much more difficult to create favorable conditions for growing lemon at home.
TIP: Do not rush to replant the purchased decorative lemon tree seedling (for indoor growing). Let it adapt to your home.
Choose a location for the plant responsibly. Do not place indoor lemon in dangerous places:
- in a draft;
- near heating devices;
- in an unlit corner or dark corridor;
- between closed curtains and a window in cold weather.
TIP: Inspect the seedling daily and spray it with water. In hot weather, 2 times a day. After a few days, the plant needs to be replanted.
Features of care at different times of the year
Let's look at how to care for lemons at home depending on the time of year.
In spring, the plant wakes up and begins to grow actively. He needs more light.
On warm days, you can take the lemon plant out into the fresh air.
The room must be ventilated, since an influx of fresh air is necessary for good growth of citrus fruits.
By watching the video you can find out how to help your lemon in the spring:
In summer, it is best to bury a lemon tree in the garden or country house. If this is not possible, you need to move it to the balcony or terrace.
Having more than 25 years of experience in growing lemons at home, I note that such a “summer vacation” gives a powerful boost to plants for the whole year.
In the fall, before returning the lemon home, we carefully inspect the entire plant and, if necessary, treat it with chemicals. Be sure to take a warm shower, thoroughly wash the leaves and stems from dust and dirt.
We return it to its usual place and continue caring for the indoor lemon in the pot. Gradually reduce watering and fertilizing of plants.
You will learn more about how to care for indoor lemons in the fall if you read this article.
In winter, plants are most often in a dormant period. But one of my lemons goes into the winter with fruits and therefore the dormant period for it begins after the harvest.
I feed this plant throughout the fruiting period and, if necessary, provide lighting for 2-3 hours daily. The remaining plants rest during the winter.
The comfortable temperature for lemons during this period is between 14 and 16 degrees.
You can learn the secrets of caring for homemade lemons in winter by reading this article.
Our winters in Siberia are long and cold. It is not always possible to preserve plants during the winter. Some branches dry out. Do not rush to prune such plants. Very often a withered twig comes to life.
In the photo below you can see examples of home-grown dwarf lemons:
You can learn how to properly plant a lemon from a seed, as well as how to root cuttings, in this article on our website.
Crown formation
Perhaps due to the fact that it is not easy to grow a lemon tree in our latitudes, pruning of citrus fruits is not practiced. But if desired, for better branching and crown formation, pruning can be done in early spring.
You can learn how to prune a plant at home on our website.
Why doesn't lemon blossom or bear fruit?
ATTENTION: It is not recommended to pinch plants, as inflorescences form at the tips of the branches. You will wait a long, long time until it blooms, and you yourself will destroy everything.
Often, novice gardeners are faced with the fact that lemons do not bloom.
Why don't lemons bloom? There are several reasons: the first and most basic is that the plant was planted as a seed and not grafted.
How to make lemons bloom at home? In order for a plant grown from a seed to bloom, many years must pass or it must be grafted.
Also, your plant may be planted in poor soil and lack mineral fertilizers. Very dry air, pests, diseases...
Watch your pet and the plant itself will tell you the reason.
I bought my first lemon on vacation in Adjara. It was a grafted 3-4 year old seedling of Pavlovsk lemon, all in bloom and with small fruits. It so happened that the plant had to be put into storage for a day. When the plant was returned to me, I almost burst into tears - the leaves, flowers, ovary, everything fell off. I saved the lemon, but it bloomed only after 5 years.
ATTENTION: If you transport a plant from one place to another, be prepared for the fact that it may not bloom in time.
Lighting
If your plant does not have enough light, it will have small and pale leaves, small or no flowers, yellow lower leaves, the plant practically does not grow, or the shoots are weak and very elongated.
For lemons, south-eastern windows with bright, diffused light and a small amount of direct sunlight are best suited. If there is no possibility of natural light, then for normal cultivation of lemons it is necessary to organize artificial lighting. It is best to use fluorescent lamps.
Lemon is not very picky about air temperature - in winter it needs 14 - 16 degrees, in summer it can tolerate 30 degree heat.
IMPORTANT: It is necessary that the difference between day and night temperatures should not be more than 4-6 degrees. This is especially dangerous for flowering plants.
In winter, it is necessary to insulate the window on which the plant stands, on very cold days, remove the lemon from the windowsill, and do not close the window curtains tightly. Warm air from the room should penetrate the plant.
Air humidity
Air humidity is another very important factor in growing lemons.
This problem is especially relevant in the winter months.
In apartments with central heating, the air becomes so dry that many plants find it very difficult to tolerate such conditions.
The air in the room must be constantly humidified. It is better to use industrial humidifiers.
If it is not possible to buy such a device, use the knowledge of experienced gardeners:
- Spray your plants with warm water (necessarily settled) 2-3 times a day;
- Pour expanded clay into a tray, moisten it with water and place the flower pot in this tray. Keep expanded clay constantly moist;
- Group several colors - the humidity will increase;
- You can move the lemon to the kitchen, where the humidity is much higher.
TIP: During the flowering of the lemon tree, many sources recommend pollinating the flowers using cotton swabs.
To carry out pollination you need to take a cotton swab. Trying not to damage the flowers, carefully collect pollen from one flower and transfer it to another, then to the third and all subsequent ones. However, in all the years of growing these plants, I have never used this method. Pollination happens somehow by itself.
Watering
Different people have their own drinking regime. The same can be said about plants. All indoor plants need watering to one degree or another. Some people like rare watering, others we water frequently and abundantly.
If you ask novice gardeners about the most common cause of plant death, most of them will say: “It’s dried out!” But much more often, plants die from improper watering.
If we notice something wrong with our plant, we begin to water it abundantly. In response to this, the leaves droop and turn yellow, but we continue to assume that the plant does not have enough moisture, and water it again.
Over time, in such plants, the earthen lump turns into a swamp, the roots rot and the plant dies.
How to water a lemon so that it grows healthy, develops and bears fruit?
The most important rule is to water the lemon generously with settled water; the water temperature should not be lower than room temperature.
Water only when the top layer of soil dries out at least 1-2 cm. After watering, let the water drain, loosen the top layer of soil and only spray the leaves for the next few days.
Priming
In order for the plant to develop and grow well, it must be replanted in a timely manner and its soil updated.
IMPORTANT: Never use unsterilized soil for planting indoor plants.
It is best to buy a special mixture for planting citrus plants. You can find out how to prepare a soil mixture at home on our website.
Good drainage and proper soil composition are important for lemons.
If you did everything as described above, but did not get the result, then your pet does not have enough nutrients. The plant must be fed constantly. In spring and summer once a week, in autumn once a month, in winter (if the plant is “resting”) we do not feed; if the plant has fruits or blooms, regular feeding is necessary.
You can find out how to care for a lemon tree with fruits at home and how to feed the plant at home in the article on our website.
All we are embarking on this difficult journey for is the fruits of our tree (lemons). It’s as if we have achieved its flowering, but there is no ovary, the fruits are not formed.
How to pollinate lemons at home and what else you can do:
- Hand pollination with a cotton swab;
- Using the drug "Bud"
- Use of the drug "Kornerost, Heteroauxin"
to stimulate fruit formation, preserve the ovary in unfavorable conditions;
to stimulate the growth of the root system, strengthening the entire plant.
And then our lemon blossomed, the ovary appeared and - Oh, horror!!! The ovary falls off. Why?
There are several possible reasons:
- if the plant blooms for the first time and there are only a few flowers, as a rule, these will be empty flowers. Take your time, wait for the real flowering;
- if a lemon blooms profusely and there is a lot of ovary, the plant itself regulates the amount of fruit it needs;
- If already formed, grown fruits fall off, your plant does not have enough light, nutrition, or it is sick (plants also get sick). Perhaps pests have appeared on the lemon.
If your lemon has blossomed and has begun to bear fruit, wait for the harvest.
Lemon ripening is not a quick process. Lemons grow slowly, be patient for a few months.
To find out when to remove lemons from your home tree, just take a good look at the fruits. Well-ripened lemon fruits are bright yellow and uniform in color.
If the lemon is ripe, it is easily separated from the stalk.
TIP: Gardeners often ask the question: “Lemon doesn’t grow, what should I do?” If your tree grows poorly or does not grow at all, pay attention to how the plant is planted. Perhaps during transplantation you buried the grafting site into the ground. Urgently remove the top layer of soil and free the growing point.
In order to speed up the fruiting process, a seedling grown from a seed must be grafted. If you do not know this procedure, it is better to contact specialists.
You can learn how to properly plant a decorative lemon by watching the video below:
Transfer
Lemon seedlings are transplanted in the spring if necessary. Let's consider when a Lemon transplant is necessary and what care is needed at home.
I know three conditions necessary for transplantation:
- the root system has grown and roots have appeared in the holes of the pot;
- after watering the plant dries very quickly;
- the plant withers.
IMPORTANT: If you take a previously used pot for replanting, it must be thoroughly rinsed and disinfected. The pot for replanting should be slightly larger than the one in which the lemon grew. Replanting a plant can be easily done at home.
Growing
Caring for indoor plants involves more than just watering and fertilizing.
Lemon must be periodically washed to remove dust and dirt.
Dust not only spoils the appearance, but also impedes the normal development of the plant. It is also necessary to tie branches with fruits to a support to avoid breaking the branches.
Inspect the plants regularly, clean the crown of your tree from dead leaves and dried flowers.
How to water a lemon correctly
This is a moisture-loving plant and requires regular watering in spring and summer. In winter, watering is reduced. If the soil in the pot dries out too much, the leaves will begin to turn yellow and fall off.
You should also not over-moisten the soil. This causes the soil to turn sour and the roots to rot. And the plant will simply die. Good drainage will help prevent this. It is best to use a watering can with a long spout for watering. You need to pour slowly and until water appears in the pan, which must be drained after half an hour.
It is very important to find the boundary between waterlogging and drying out and always stick to it. The soil in a container with lemon should not turn into a swamp, but it is best for it to be moderately moist. It is impossible to indicate exactly how much water your lemon requires. It depends on the size of the pet and the container in which it grows.
What water should be used for irrigation
The best water for watering lemons is rain, river or snow. Usually watered with tap water. And it is dangerous for citrus fruits. It contains chlorine or other disinfectants that can harm the plant.
Tap water can be improved and made suitable for watering indoor plants:
- melt snow, heat water;
- leave a wide-necked container with water in the sun for 24 hours;
- Allow the boiled water to cool and settle;
- Add 0.5 g of citric acid or 4-5 drops of acetic acid per 1 liter to raw, settled tap water. Instead of citric acid, you can take the same number of drops of nitric acid;
- leave 200 g of peat in three liters of plain water for 24 hours
It is necessary to water the lemon in winter as the soil in the pot dries out and the water is 2-3 degrees warmer than the temperature in the room where it grows.
Watering rules
Practical recommendations on how to water lemon correctly:
- Carry out the procedure in 2 approaches. Initially, the surface of the substrate is irrigated. After some time has passed during the secondary watering process, thoroughly moisten the entire thickness of the soil, stopping the procedure when liquid appears near the lower edge of the pot tray.
- Water the plant with a thin stream, without exposing the root system by washing out the substrate under the pressure of the stream.
- When watering a flowering tree, the water temperature should be several degrees higher than the air temperature in the room.
- Choose the most suitable time - morning or evening, which is explained by the slowdown of evaporation processes and the largest amount of moisture absorbed by the plant.
- Water the overdried substrate twice, because... the first water immediately goes into the lower layers of dry soil.
Recommendations must be followed especially carefully during the stages of bud formation and flowering of the lemon tree. To speed up photosynthesis, use sweet water with sugar or solutions with hydrogen peroxide.
An additional means of humidifying the surrounding dry air from March to September is spraying lemon foliage. Irrigation of the crown is carried out up to 3 times a day with water at room temperature.
How many times a week should you water a lemon?
It is very important to prevent excessive watering and drying out of the earthen coma. When overwatered, the soil loses the nutrients the plant needs. Its roots may rot.
Poor watering can cause the plant to dry out. To determine the need to moisten the soil, you need to take a little soil from the pot and squeeze it with your fingers. When the earth sticks together into a lump, there is enough moisture and there is no need to water it yet, and if the lump crumbles, the lemon tree needs to be watered.
A similar test to determine soil moisture should be done at least once every 7 days, and more often in summer.
Watering frequency
The frequency of watering depends on the age of the tree, the soil in which it grows, the temperature and lighting in the room, the time of year and many other factors.
Loose soil in a small pot dries out faster than a dense lump in a large container . In a room with central heating, the soil is drier than in rooms with a stove. In summer, all plants are watered more often than in winter. You should pay attention to these details when deciding whether to water the plant or wait a little.
Experienced gardeners determine the need for watering by eye. Beginners are advised to squeeze a pinch of soil from the pot with their fingers .
If the soil sticks together into a lump, it means that the time for watering has not yet come, there is enough moisture in the soil. If the soil crumbles, it’s time to water.
Interesting things on the site:
Trimming and shaping lemons at home
How to properly replant a lemon at home
Why does home-grown lemon not bloom?
Watering the plant in the summer, provided it is placed outdoors
Lemons growing in the room for the summer can be taken out to the balcony or garden. They must be placed in a shaded area so as not to expose the foliage to sunburn in direct sunlight.
Lemon trees tolerate moving outdoors quite easily, but returning indoors results in the plants dropping their leaves due to reduced lighting.
To reduce the evaporation of moisture from a container with lemon exposed to air, you can do the following:
- use a glass pot and place a clay pot in a large container;
- cover the soil surface with mulch, which will slow down evaporation;
- arrange drip irrigation
Do not forget that outdoors the tree should be watered early in the morning or late in the evening, when the heat and sun cannot accelerate evaporation.
It must be remembered that moisture that gets on the leaves under the influence of sunlight causes burns.
On hot summer days, indoor lemons standing outside at temperatures above +29 degrees need to be watered every day, and sometimes twice. This depends on how quickly the soil in the pot dries out. When the top layer of soil dries to a depth of 2-3 cm, the plant needs watering.
If suddenly, due to an oversight, it turns out that the soil in a pot with a lemon tree is dry and it begins to shed its leaves, do not rush to give up on your pet! Apply submersible irrigation.
The method is that the pot with the plant must be placed in a large container filled with water.
The water level should be a few centimeters below the ground level in the lemon pot. You can remove the pot from the container with water after the earthen ball has soaked. This can be checked using a bamboo kebab skewer. If it goes freely to the very bottom, it’s time to remove the pot.
Perhaps after this the tree will not only come to life, but also bloom profusely. Some citrus growers deliberately dry out the soil in a pot with lemon, bringing it to the point of shedding its leaves, in order to stimulate flowering.
Why should you pay special attention to watering?
Timely but moderate watering is the gold standard, which should be taken into account by every grower who decides to grow lemon on the windowsill. The crop is demanding on the presence of moisture in the soil, and reacts negatively to overdrying and flooding of the soil.
Constant flooding of the soil is fraught with serious consequences and in the long term can destroy an entire tree. The root system is the first to suffer - putrefactive processes develop and nutrition is disrupted.
Since the components important for the life of the lemon are not transported to the shoots and leaves, the condition of the crown deteriorates, the blades wither, dry out and fall off.
Overdrying the soil also interferes with the lemon tree’s normal nutrition, because the lack of water prevents minerals from being absorbed.
A dehydrated plant loses its decorative appearance and “goes bald” over time, shedding its green mass because it cannot maintain it.
When watering lemon at home, follow these principles:
- In the winter season, you need to moisten the soil in the pot less often (about once a week), in the summer - more often (2-3 times every 7-10 days).
- The optimal time of day for watering is morning or evening.
- If the lemon is planted in a clay pot, the substrate will dry out faster (clay absorbs moisture) and frequent moistening will be required. When using plastic flowerpots, the situation is the opposite.
- Small lemon trees need frequent watering; older ones absorb moisture more slowly.
How to determine the need for watering?
You need to water the soil in the pot as the top layer of the substrate dries out (about 2-3 cm) - this way you will prevent not only flooding, but also overdrying.
Insert a toothpick into the flowerpot - if the soil sticks, then you can wait a little longer with moistening. The weight of the pot will also signal the need for watering. As a rule, as the soil dries, it becomes lighter, and when sufficiently moistened, it becomes heavier.
The appearance of the plant will also say a lot. Drooping branches and twisted, discolored leaf blades indicate a lack of moisture in the soil.
In this case, you should not water the lemon with a “shock” dose of water - add it in small portions every 2-3 hours, watering off the tree.
How often should you spray lemon?
For these plants, air humidity in the room is important because their usual habitat is subtropics. Homemade lemons should be sprayed daily with soft water. In this case, not only the leaves of the plant are moistened, but also the air around it.
Spraying saturates the air with moisture and at the same time cleans the foliage and stem of dust. Constant spraying promotes the growth and development of indoor lemons and fights spider mites, which love dry air.
How to water a lemon during flowering
Waiting for the lemon to bloom is already an achievement. A pleasant aroma wafts through the house and one hopes that the fruits will appear soon. During this period, you need to be especially attentive to your pet.
A flowering tree cannot be moved or moved to another place, because all the flowers and fruits will fall off.
Everything should be watered in the same mode, without allowing any to dry out, and without allowing overflow, use fertilizers dissolved in water.
You can learn more about watering lemons and caring for a wonderful tree by watching the video:
