How to plant a lemon at home. Room lemon from the stone: the secrets of growing

Your goal is to grow a homemade lemon so that it becomes an interesting element of the interior and even hope to enjoy the vitamin fruits from the lemon tree.

Where to begin? If there is no desire or opportunity to purchase a citrus tree, then the easiest way is to grow a lemon from a stone.

Today we will discuss in detail how to grow a lemon at home, how to care for homemade citrus fruits, and what needs to be done so that indoor lemons begin to bear fruit.

Growing citrus fruits

Homeland lemon - subtropical forests, where it grows wild. For many centuries, people have tried to spread it in the lands of Europe. The twentieth century was marked by the experiments of geneticists. Scientists have done a good job of breeding varieties that bear fruit well in northern latitudes and in room conditions.

Today you will not surprise anyone with homemade lemon. Thanks to the efforts of professional breeders and amateur flower growers, indoor lemon has appeared in many home greenhouses and just on the windowsills. Citrus indoor plants in the interior always look amazing, but they delight us not only with excellent appearance but also edible fruits.

The citrus tree is evergreen, moisture-loving, shade-tolerant plant short day. The room actively begins to grow in February-March, stops - in November. Lemon propagates in the following ways:

• Seeds - a familiar bone taken from the fruit.
• Vegetatively - cuttings, grafting, layering.

Lemon from the stone: where to start?

Seeds are used only freshly harvested. They are selected from mature fruits that do not have signs of disease. Purely theoretically, this is true, but lemons come to us from supermarkets and bazaars.

Such fruits can not exactly be called freshly picked. How to be? Dried seeds that have lain for a month at room temperature significantly lose their germination capacity, but still germinate.

To completely grow a lemon at home, you need to stock up not with one or two seeds, but with a much larger amount. Out of a dozen seeds, there will definitely be several sprouts.

Do not be afraid to grow many seedlings at once. It is not a fact that all your lemons from the stone at home will live to bear fruit. Some will die due to diseases, others will suffer when you vaccinate them.

We begin to grow homemade lemon from the stone as follows:

• We buy special soil or prepare the soil ourselves from river sand, soddy soil, humus.
• We lay out the prepared soil mixture in separate small pots or cups.
• The seeds are planted in moist soil to a depth of 3 cm.
• We cover the top with a film to create a better microclimate.
• We are waiting for the appearance of sprouts, which appear after about 3 weeks.
• If 2 shoots grow from one lemon seed, one (which is weaker) should be removed.

Growing citruses in this way is the easiest and most reliable option at home. Many flower growers have a decorative lemon at home, many waited for their fruiting. It should be noted that homemade tangerines are grown in a similar way.

Citrus plants derived from seeds adapt to room conditions better, are more hardy and viable compared to cuttings or grafted. Fully fruit-bearing cultivated seedlings grow from the seeds. Their only drawback is that they begin to bear fruit late.

Caring for lemon seedlings

Sprouting a lemon from a seed is not difficult, it will be more problematic to continue to care for it. When seedlings appear, the film is gradually removed, accustoming them to the conditions of the room.

Regular care for homemade lemon implies that it:

• Water moderately, avoiding waterlogging, so as not to cause root rot. In hot weather, watering is carried out 3 times a week, in winter it is reduced to 2 times.
• Wipe citrus leaves from dust every week, regularly spray them with water.
• Keeping near the battery requires additional air humidification.
• Turn the lemon gradually by 2 cm per month around its axis so that there is no sharp change in the light regime for the leaves.
• Transplant indoor lemon every year in the spring in a pot bigger size. You can not immediately plant a plant in a pot that is not the right size.
• Good gains are given by top dressing with complex fertilizers "Health", "Ideal" or special fertilizers for citrus fruits with the addition of trace elements of zinc, boron, manganese - once every 2 weeks.

So that a lemon from a stone does not turn into a wild dense tree, the crown must be constantly formed. The central shoot is cut off at a distance of 20 cm from the ground. Branches of the second order appear, which, when they reach 18 cm, are pinched. The process is carried out until shoots of the fourth order appear. They are laid on flower buds and fruiting begins.

Indoor lemon - pests and diseases

Lemons grown at home are most often affected by scale insects, spider mite, aphids, worms. All these pests feed on the sap of the plant, causing the leaves to dry out and the shoots to bend.

To prevent pests from destroying a lemon tree, the following general control measures should be carried out:

1. Remove pests from the stem with a soft toothbrush, from the leaves with cotton swabs, previously moistened with a soapy solution of anabazine sulfate.
2. Rinse the solution from the plant in a day. Repeat treatment after a week.
3. With a large number of pests, treat the tree with infusion of celandine, tobacco, onion peel or drugs Actellik, Ditox, Fitoverm. It is necessary to use preparations for the destruction of pests very carefully, as these are the strongest pesticides.

The most common diseases of indoor citrus fruits are soot fungus, gommosis. Why are they dangerous for homemade lemon? The soot fungus covers the leaves with a dark gray bloom, disrupting the normal nutrition of plants. Gommosis forms a gum that flows from damage to the bark, causing the leaves and branches to dry out.

Indoor lemon diseases are removed:

• Cleaning the sore spot, treating with copper sulphate.
• Smearing with the preparation "RanNet" (garden putty paste).
• Wiping with a wet cloth (if fungus).
• The fight against insect pests that affect the bark and leaves.
• Top dressing with complex fertilizers to maintain the viability of the tree.

For a novice gardener, advice on how to deal with homemade lemon diseases will seem incomprehensible, but there is nothing complicated here. In all specialized stores you will find the proposed preparations, and on the packages there are detailed instructions. If you have specific questions on how to grow a lemon from a stone, how to care for it, feel free to ask them on the flower growers forums. You will definitely be helped!

Cuttings of lemons for quick fruiting

Why cuttings are needed? Lemons grown in this way begin to bear fruit faster. The only negative is that the future tree should get used to the changed living conditions.

If you already have some experience in floriculture, then it will not be difficult to grow a fruit-bearing lemon by cuttings:

• Most best time germinate roots from cuttings - March-April. Cuttings are taken only from a fruiting lemon.
• The landing box is prepared in advance. Make small holes in it. For drainage, washed expanded clay, fragments of brick or gravel are used. Then pour in layers river sand 1.5 cm, nutrient mixture 6 cm, finished with sand 2 cm.
• Cuttings are harvested from last year's growth. Make an oblique cut, cover it with warm wax or garden pitch. The branches are divided into several parts, 4 buds each.
• Before planting in the ground, the lower parts of the cuttings are immersed for a day in a heteroauxin solution. Sprinkled with wood ash, planted in prepared soil at a distance of 15 cm one at a time, leaving 2 buds on the surface.
• Tightly press the ground around them, spray warm water. Create a mini-greenhouse, covering with a film. For better rooting, a little heating from below is necessary.
• Around the cuttings maintain a temperature of about 25°C. At a lower one, the leaves fall off, their condition worsens, the rooting time doubles, the percentage of survival decreases.
• During the first 2 weeks, the leaves are sprayed with water 4 times a day, then reduced to two. The film is periodically lifted, the greenhouse is ventilated. Subject to all conditions, in a month the lemon grows good root system.
• Rooted cuttings are transplanted one at a time into clay pots using a drainage layer and nutrient soil. To increase branching, pinch the central root.
• Having installed the plant in a new container, carefully sprinkle the soil to the roots, pressing it with your hand. In several stages, they are poured with warm water so that the earth settles.
• Spray the leaves, put for 2 weeks in a shaded place. After that, young trees are gradually accustomed to light.

Over time, you will begin to do many processes for caring for citrus fruits on an intuitive level, experience will affect. Growing indoor lemon at home is an interesting and exciting pastime. For many, this becomes a hobby for many years, maybe this is your new hobby?

Growing lemons from seed at home will not only help decorate the room, but also save money on buying a full-fledged plant. For successful germination, you need to know how to choose seeds, the composition of the soil for lemon, germination conditions, when to perform the first pick.

How to germinate a lemon seed?

So, is it possible to grow a lemon from a seed? Will he bear fruit? Any plant can be grown from seed. The main thing is to choose the right seed. If you need a fruit-bearing tree, choose varietal seeds. The fruiting varieties include the following lemons: Pavlovsky, Yubileiny, Imperial, Meyer. You can also go the easy way. Plant a seed from a fruit bought in a store in the ground. In this case, the fruits will have to wait up to 15 years. A varietal plant begins to bear fruit already in the fifth year of its life.

Preparatory stage. Purchased seeds must be soaked for a day in a solution of epin. This stimulates germination. Lemon seeds can be taken from a ripe fruit. In this case, experts recommend not to dry the seed, but immediately plant it in the ground until the juice has dried on it.

Soil for lemon. For seed germination, they buy specialized soil for citrus fruits. Many specialized forums recommend taking soil for seedlings. It is low in nutrients, which will not harm young plants.

Pot for sowing. You can easily grow a lemon from a stone in the usual plastic cup having previously made in his day drainage hole. It is recommended to plant one plant per cup.

Germination conditions. Important condition- this is a temperature within +19 ... +21 degrees and moisture, and therefore the cups with planted seeds must be placed in a greenhouse. It could be polyethylene film, but it is better and more convenient to use the top of a plastic bottle.

Watering. It is necessary to ensure that the soil in the greenhouse remains moist. It is recommended to water when the soil dries out by 0.5 cm. As soon as the seed sprouts, the soil must not be overdried, otherwise the seedlings will die.

Boarding times. Lemon sprouts from seed very quickly. Already 14 days after planting, you can enjoy the first shoots. But young shoots need a lot of light, and therefore it is recommended to plant in late March or early April. You can grow a lemon from a seed in winter, but subject to the presence of artificial illumination of seedlings for 12 hours every day. It could be a fluorescent lamp. Otherwise, the seedlings will stretch, her leaves will turn yellow.

How to plant? Lemon seeds are planted in moist and loose soil, about 1 cm deep. In this case, the soil cannot be compacted. After planting, one more watering and the container is covered with a film or placed in a greenhouse.

It is not recommended to engage in the germination of lemon seeds in water. Subsequently, the sprout does not survive in the soil. When planting, its root system is very difficult to position correctly in the ground, which negatively affects the health of the plant.

Sprouted lemon pit. What to do next?

So the lemon seed has sprouted. What to do next? Experts notice that up to 3 sprouts will appear from one lemon seed. In most cases, one of them will be larger than the others. It is recommended to leave it, and the rest - to delete. However, when good care all shoots grow, and therefore to break off or not weak shoots is at the discretion of the grower.

Air humidity. If the seeds of a lemon sprouted in a greenhouse, then the seedlings should be gradually accustomed to the humidity in the apartment. To do this, the greenhouse is ventilated 2 times a day. Every day increasing the duration of ventilation. The greenhouse is completely removed when the seedlings are two weeks old. However, after removing the greenhouse, it is necessary to carefully monitor the turgor of the leaves of a young plant. If the leaves have fallen, it is necessary to increase the humidity of the air. To do this, spraying is carried out, a container is placed next to the pot, where water is poured. It is recommended to cover the seedlings with a film, but not completely, but partially, while leaving a hole for constant air circulation.

Watering. It is necessary to water the lemon descents after the soil surface has dried by 1 cm. If the earth is very dry, you need to water it abundantly. In this case, the whole lump is soaked, then watering is normalized.

Lighting. The lighting is very important factor in the full development of a lemon from the stone. it is recommended to place young sprouts on the windows of an apartment or house with south side, but with obligatory shading. Otherwise direct Sun rays just burn the plant. If the lemon seed has sprouted in winter, the sprouts are provided with artificial illumination for 12 hours using a fluorescent lamp. With a lack of light, the seedlings turn yellow and develop slowly.

When to transplant lemon shoots?

The first transplant or pick is carried out when the seedlings give the third true leaflet. To do this, take cups of 50-70 ml or 100 ml (it all depends on the size of the seedlings). Seedlings are carefully removed along with the soil. It is very important to leave soil around the root system of a young flower. At the same time, without violating the integrity of the earthy coma, the roots are pinched. The main root is cut with a sharp knife to 1/3 of its length. If this is not done, then the main root will continue to grow, twisting into rings at the bottom of the pot.

You can pinch the roots as follows: in a glass where young shoots grow, a knife is thrust directly into the ground to a depth of about 8 cm, and there they are carried out. Thus, the plant will be easier to transplant. At the same time, the lateral roots are not injured and the integrity of the earthy coma around the shoot is not violated.

The soil for transplanting a lemon is chosen special for citrus fruits. The first top dressing can be carried out 1 month after picking. All citrus fruits grow in stages. Stages of rapid growth are replaced by a complete stop of growth. That is why beginner gardeners should not worry about their lemons if they suddenly stop growing after an intensive increase in green mass.

Citrus lovers have long figured out how to grow a lemon at home. There are several ways to realize your plans, the main thing is to follow the existing rules for planting and caring for seedlings, otherwise you won’t be able to get a citrus tree on your windowsill.

What kind of lemon is better to grow in an apartment?

There are many species of this exotic plant that are suitable for home growing but worth choosing undersized varieties yielding a lot of crops. Among the best and most popular are the following options:

How to plant a lemon?

There are two ways that you can use to grow an exotic tree at home: using seeds and cuttings. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. Planting material can be obtained independently or bought in a store. When figuring out how to plant a lemon at home, it is worth noting that planting with seeds is considered the best, since everyone can get them. Besides mature plant grown by this method will be much more viable than a tree obtained from a cutting.

How to plant a lemon from the seed?

For this option, prepare the seeds, which should be well formed and without defects. It is best to use several bones from different citruses. Immediately after extracting the seeds, soak them for several hours in water and you can proceed to planting:

1. Containers are used to grow lemon from seed at home. small size filled suitable soil by mixing part of the flower earth and part of the peat. Don't forget about .
2. Deepen the bones by 1 cm so that the distance between them is 5 cm, and 3 cm to the walls of the container.
3. It is important to monitor the humidity of the earth, but it cannot be flooded either. Please note that a temperature of 18-22 ° C is suitable for seedlings. To create conditions similar to greenhouses, the container can be covered with a film, glass or jar.
4. The pot should be in the light, but not in direct sunlight. Every day, be sure to ventilate by removing the shelter.
5. If all the recommendations regarding how to properly grow a lemon from seeds are taken into account, then shoots will appear in two weeks. Select the most viable of them, and the rest can be pulled out. After the appearance of true leaves, it is carried out in separate small containers. It is necessary to transplant the plant when the height of the seedling reaches 20 cm.

How to plant a lemon seedling?

Grow will grow, so transplanting into a more comfortable and spacious pot cannot be avoided. The instructions on how to plant a lemon at home indicate that you need to take out a seedling along with an earthen clod, which will speed up its adaptation to a new place. If you got a seedling without it, then insert it into new pot and carefully distribute the roots so that they do not break or become tangled. Be sure to water the soil, compacting it slightly.

How to plant a lemon from a twig?

To carry out the procedure, prepare river sand, which is washed and calcined in the oven to remove bacteria. In addition, purchase soil for citrus fruits. There is a certain scheme for planting a room lemon with a cutting:

1. Cut off shoots that should not be more than a year old from a healthy and fruitful tree. Branches should be about 10 cm long and have 3-4 developed buds. The cut at the bottom should be made closer to the kidney at a right angle, and at the top - at an angle of 45 ° at a distance of 5 mm from the upper kidney. Remove the sheet located below completely, and cut the rest in half.
2. Soak the cuttings in a root former solution for 10-12 hours. After that, lower the cut into charcoal to protect the planting material from decay.
3. Deepen the branches in wet sand to a depth of 1.5-2 cm. Then spray with slightly warm water. To make an impromptu greenhouse, cover the stalk with a jar. Place the container in a well-lit area, but avoid direct sunlight. Those who are interested in how to grow a lemon from a cutting should know that it is important to keep the sand always wet, and spraying should be done every day.
4. After 2-3 weeks, the first roots should appear. New leaves will testify to successful rooting. Every day for several hours, remove the jar for "hardening". After two weeks, it can be completely removed. After that, you can carry out a transplant.

How to grow lemon at home?

In order to see fruits on a tree, it is important to properly care for it. Experienced gardeners give a few good advice how to grow lemon at home:

1. In late autumn, to help the plant adapt to the approaching cold weather, gradually lower the temperature to 15 ° C. It is important at the same time to increase the daylight hours, otherwise the citrus will shed its leaves.
2. Growing a lemon at home involves wrapping the pot in winter with a blanket to protect the roots from hypothermia.
3. Every 5-6 waterings, it is recommended to loosen the soil so that oxygen enters the roots.
4. One simple way to get a lemon to bear fruit is to tie a side shoot near the trunk with wire. When the branch blooms, then the dressing should be removed.

Growing lemon at home - soil

Citrus belongs to undemanding plants and it can take root in any land. You can use a mixture that includes turf land, river sand and humus. In addition, gardeners recommend including in the soil mixture wood ash, which will feed the sprouts. Growing lemon at home in a pot can be done using soils designed for indoor plants, but you need to add a little peat to them. When planting a cutting on top of the ground, pour a layer of sand, which will help to take root faster.

To grow a healthy bush, be sure to put a layer of drainage on the bottom of the pot, as it will prevent moisture stagnation, which is detrimental to the plant. For it, you can use small stones or pebbles, grated foam, coarse sand or expanded clay. Experts give advice - in order to provide the plant with a nutrient medium, put a layer of peat or dry manure on top of the drainage. Its height should be no more than 2 cm.

Caring for indoor lemon in a pot - watering

In order to saturate the soil well, it is recommended to add water in 3-4 doses with short breaks. When we start to drip from the drainage hole, it means that watering needs to be completed. When caring for a room lemon at home, it is important to consider that irrigation is carried out only with warm water and in the morning. In winter, water 2-3 times a week. If the room temperature is + 10 ° C, then add water 1-2 times a month.

Indoor lemon care - top dressing

For citrus crop great importance have fertilizer. With a lack of minerals, wilting of foliage and poor flowering are observed. To understand how to grow a lemon, follow these tips:

1. During flowering and fruiting it is necessary to apply fertilizer every 14 days. It is best to use organic, for example, Gumi-Omi Kuznetsova Lemon. For 1 liter of water, 1 tbsp. a spoon. Under small bushes, 0.5 tbsp is applied, and for large volumes, increase the dose.
2. Caring for a lemon at home in winter means reducing fertilizing to 1 time per month.
3. To grow a healthy plant, it is useful to spray reverse side leaves with fertilizer solution.
4. After transplanting, feed in a month. Immediately before placing the bush in a new pot, it is recommended to water it with Kornesil to restore the root system.

Lemon care at home - pruning

It is recommended to carry out the procedure in the spring before the start of the growth period. The crown is best formed on a low stem (15-18 cm). In the first year of life, cut the trunk at a height of about 20 cm. When growing a lemon from a seed or a cutting, keep in mind that the shoots are cut so that 4-5 leaves remain. It should be borne in mind that in most varieties, fruits are tied on branches of 4-5 orders, so the plant must be branched.

How to propagate homemade lemon?

Several methods can be used to increase the abundance of citrus bushes. How to grow a lemon from cuttings and seeds was described above, but there is another option - the use of layering.

1. The rootstock must be grown for 1.5-2 years. The lemon stalk should be 6-7 cm long.
2. Make a split on the rootstock and place the cutting in it, and then carefully wrap the grafting site with a film to create a greenhouse effect.
3. The vaccine will take root in about 45-60 days, and then remove the film.

Growing lemon - diseases and pests

If you do not follow the tips above, the bush can affect diseases:

1. Fungal diseases, for example, root rot, late blight, and so on. Remove the affected areas, and then disinfect - spraying with chemicals.
2. If the care is not carried out correctly, diseases and pests affect the lemon, so infectious diseases are serious. Fight them with special means.
3. The appearance of viral diseases is not excluded, and then the plant must be disposed of.
4. When figuring out how to grow a lemon, it is worth noting that the main pests are aphids, scale insects, and whiteflies. Remove insects and wash the stems and leaves with soapy water. Experts recommend twice a week to carry out cold ablutions of the bush.

This deservedly popular citrus can live in your home. How to grow a lemon from a stone at home? This evergreen perennial, a guest from the subtropics, has taken root quite comfortably in our houses and apartments. Home-grown lemons have a thinner rind and intense flavor than outdoor-grown ones.

Homeland lemon - Southeast Asia, more than a thousand years ago, these fruits were brought from India, and eventually found popularity in Africa and America.

This citrus tree produces color several times a year. To grow a lemon from a stone, you will need to create comfortable conditions for it: high-quality ventilation, lighting, periodic fertilizing, an individual approach according to the season.

One of the main stages is the selection of high-quality seeds - this is the key to the future harvest. For planting material bones from bought ripe lemons are quite suitable. Sow many seeds at once, so that later you can choose the strongest sprouts.

How to plant a lemon from the seed?

Step by step process:

1. Remove pits from ripe citruses. Select the largest of them seeds.
   Most often, the seeds are sown immediately, but some gardeners recommend pretreating them with sodium gummate solution. The solution is diluted with water according to the attached instructions, the seeds are immersed for 24 hours.
2. Drainage (small pebbles, charcoal or expanded clay) is pre-filled at the bottom of pots or special containers, soil is poured on top. Soil for indoor lemon a should consist of equal parts of peat, earth for flowers. You can buy ready-made soil mixture for citrus plants. Lemons feel great in black soil mixed with leaf humus (1: 1), sand can also be added there.
3. The bones are deepened by about 1 cm, the distance between them should be at least 5 cm, and from the sides of the container - at least 3.
4. To maintain the temperature regime necessary at home, the soil must always be moistened, but not oversaturated with water. The ideal temperature for seedlings is +18..23ºC.
5. After about 10-14 days, the first sprouts appear from the seed. From the very beginning, stronger specimens are visible, it is they who are selected for further growth.
6. In order for a room lemon to begin to grow, to reveal the first full-fledged leaves to the world, it is necessary to create an appropriate microclimate for it. To do this, the sprouted sprouts are covered with glass jars, and then put in a well-lit place, but direct sunlight should be avoided.
   
7. Airing should be daily. Banks are removed from the sprouts for 15-20 minutes.
8. When full-fledged leaves appear (two or three pieces), it's time to transplant indoor lemon into separate containers. A pot for a sprout with a diameter of no more than 10 cm. Drainage at the bottom of a pot with a nutrient soil mixture is a prerequisite.

Here, a young seedling from the stone should grow to about 17-20 cm, after which it is transplanted. The volume of the new pot should be larger than the previous one.

Room lemon - home care

This tree loves bright, but diffused light, so that in summer the scorching sun's rays do not harm the leaves, it needs to be shaded. Here, as when watering, you need to adhere to the golden mean, since with a lack of light, the fruits will be sour, and the foliage will be lethargic and sparse.

Optimal temperature regime for flowering, fruit formation (set) - about +17..20°C.

Room lemon does not like being moved from place to place, but being outdoors (for example, on a balcony) still does not hurt him. Keep a close eye on the weather forecast, as a sharp temperature drop can harm the plant (it will shed its foliage). Wintering should take place in cool home conditions, a temperature of +15..18°C will be enough.

How to care for a lemon in terms of watering? Like all citrus crops, it loves moisture. In summer, it is necessary to provide perennials with abundant watering, twice a week is enough. In winter, one watering per week is enough. Overflows should be avoided. In this case, the water should be boiled or well settled, have room temperature. This plant does not tolerate chlorine, which is rich in tap water - consider this factor.

Photo of indoor lemon at home

Citrus fruits require frequent irrigation of the crown with moisture. This is especially true in summer, and in winter (with constantly running batteries or heaters), spraying becomes simply necessary. Sometimes you can arrange a warm shower for the plant - this is a good prevention against the appearance of a tick, a scale insect. To further increase the humidity, a pot of lemon can be placed on a tray of wet expanded clay (or charcoal, gravel).

Fertilizer for indoor lemon is a prerequisite for harmonious development and fruiting. Compared to other domestic perennials, this citrus needs to be fed more frequently than its green counterparts. In summer, fertilizers are introduced weekly (with water for irrigation), in winter - once a month will be enough.

Mineral top dressings are more effective. But organic ones contain all the important trace elements, have a beneficial effect on the structure of the soil, and activate the vital activity of the necessary microorganisms. If you combine minerals with organics, then such a union will provide the best nutrition for this citrus at home.

During the activation of shoot growth (in spring), it is appropriate to introduce potash, nitrogen supplements, and when flowers appear, phosphorus. Carefully study the information on the fertilizer packaging - compliance with the dosage is very important, as you will subsequently consume these lemons. With the onset of the so-called "rest period" (autumn- winter time) the dose and frequency of feeding is reduced to once a month.

Transplanting a lemon into a new pot, pruning, crown formation

Every year, preferably in the spring (the beginning of the growing season), a lemon is transplanted. Transplantation should be carried out carefully so that the root system of the perennial is not disturbed. The transshipment method is the most preferable for this case. Only young specimens are transplanted annually when they reach 3 years of age (individual varieties - 5 years). Transplantation is done every 2 or 3 years. It is highly not recommended to carry out this process during flowering or fruiting - the plant can drop inflorescences with fruits.

Do not forget that high-quality drainage at the bottom of the tank is a prerequisite for citrus crops. The size of the pot is also important, because if the capacity is too small, then the plant will not have enough soil or nutrients. Too large a pot will also not work - the soil will turn sour, and the root system will rot.

Pot for lemon - size (diameter):

• small bushes up to 2 years old - about 20 cm;
• plants 3-4 years old - 30 cm;
• young trees 5-6 years old - 35 cm;
• citrus older than 7 years - 45 cm.

It is desirable that the pot was made of clay. However, wood, glass, plastic are also acceptable, the main thing is that the container has drainage holes.

It is also better to give the crown a shape, remove extra branches in the spring (April), until the active growth of the shoots begins. At the first formation of the crown, the trunk of the bush is cut to a length of 25-30 cm.

The strongest buds remain on the sides (these are shoots of the first order), from which skeletal branches will grow after. Usually there are three or four of them, make sure that they are evenly spaced, as the beauty of the future crown depends on this. Each subsequent order of shoots must be pinched 5 cm shorter than the previous one.

In most citrus fruits, the ovary is observed on the branches of the 4th and 5th order. These branches grow in the second or third year of life.

On the branches of the first order, the fruits are not tied at all. And on the branches of the 2nd and 3rd order - only in certain varieties (for example, Meyer).

meyer lemon

The number of flowers also needs to be controlled so that the vitality of the plant is not depleted. In order for the tree to develop harmoniously, at about the 3rd year of life, you need to start removing half of the inflorescences (the harvest will be less, but the fruits are larger), and leave 3 or 4 pieces from the ovaries. For the same purposes, after a year, you can already leave 5 or 6 citrus fruits. And for the future, do not leave more than 7 or 9.

Growing branches can be carefully, without undue enthusiasm, cut by eye so that the crown visually has an attractive shape. It should be borne in mind that a short pruning provokes the growth of new powerful shoots, and a long pruning contributes to the emergence of fruit buds.

The skeleton of a tree is considered to be formed after the young shoots of branches grow back, become woody. A properly formed crown gives all leaves the required amount of light and air.

How to pinch a lemon? If it actively branches, forms shoots, then extra fragments must be removed as soon as they appear. In those shoots that are left for development, the tops are pinched after the appearance of the 6th leaf.

Diseases of indoor lemon

Often, diseases appear due to non-compliance with the rules of care: underfilling leads to drying out of the tree, when oversaturated with moisture, the root system rots, and the leaves turn yellow.

If the foliage becomes covered with yellow spots, and then turns pale and dries out, then the lemon is most likely lacking iron.

If the tips of the leaves dry, and they seem to rust, then this indicates a lack of phosphorus.

A lack of potassium leads to wrinkling of the leaves, and with a deficiency of manganese, the ovaries generally disappear.

Proper, timely fertilization of the plant is an ideal prevention of the above negative manifestations.

It is not enough to know how to grow a lemon. You need to know how to protect it in a timely manner. Weakened plants are the first to fall into the risk zone, it is they who are most often exposed to diseases. Proper care is the basis of keeping a lemon at home. If the tree is sick, then the affected leaves, flowers, fruits, branches should be removed immediately. If a pest is detected, then a defensive “attack” must be carried out immediately, but after certain types processed lemon will no longer be eaten.

Good results are shown by the drug "Fitosporin". It suppresses a wide range of causative agents of citrus diseases. It is also good because it has no smell, does not contain toxic compounds. It is diluted with water when watering, irrigate plants. This drug is very good for the prevention of diseases.

When communicating with comrades of interest, one can often hear complaints: “a room lemon dropped its leaves, what should I do?” The main reasons for such a reaction are insufficient lighting, overfilling or underfilling, depleted soil, excessive dryness of the air, heat or extreme cold. For reference, we list the most common diseases of domestic citrus, give a brief recommendation to eliminate the cause:

1. Scab or wart - has fungal origin, manifests itself on young shoots and leaves: first, pale yellow spots appear, which later become grayish warts. The growths grow, cover the shoots, which subsequently die. Scab also affects the fruits: bright yellow spots appear on them, which then turn red and darken. All affected parts of the plant must be cut and destroyed, and the trunk with a crown should be liberally treated with 1% Bordeaux liquid (a mixture of solution blue vitriol and milk of lime).
2. Anthracnose is the most common fungal reason why indoor lemon leaves turn yellow at home. With this disease, the tree loses buds, the fruits appear brown spots branches die. All affected shoots, fruits must be removed, and the plant itself should be treated with the Fitosporin preparation described above or Bordeaux liquid.
3. Soot fungus is a consequence of damage by pests - a mealybug or scale insect. Active preventive measures are the right way to protect the tree from such consequences.
4. Gommosis - manifested by the appearance of dark red spots on the trunk and branches, at the sites of damage the bark cracks, a sticky liquid (gum) is released from the crack, which subsequently hardens. There are many reasons for this disease: excessive deepening of seedlings, "dirty" soil, mechanical "injuries" of the plant, improper care for room lemon. Treatment - finding out the root cause of the disease, as well as a radical cutting of the affected areas with a sharp knife. Damage should be treated with a 3% solution of copper sulfate, and then covered with garden pitch.

This citrus perennial should be regularly examined to notice the disease at its very beginning. As you know, any disease is easier to cure at the initial stage. You need to inspect not only the trunk or foliage, but also the root system of the tree, the soil.

Lemon in the apartment - benefit or harm

Of course, the benefits of it are much greater than the possible harm. Everyone knows the healing, protective for human body properties of this citrus. Vitamins, flavonoids, biologically active substances successfully suppress viruses, create a powerful shield against pathogenic bacteria.

The use of this yellow citrus strengthens the immune system, normalizes hormonal levels, improves vision, and stimulates the digestive tract. Lemon mobilizes the internal resources of the body, helps with sore throats, colds. It is widely used in cosmetology: face masks (whitening, healing, cleansing) and hair (growth stimulant). Even just a green tree (a room-grown lemon from a seed, grown at home) saturates the air with phytoncides, improves mood, and makes breathing easier.

Contraindications to use may be individual intolerance, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, chronic gastritis, pancreatitis. In everything you need to know the measure, since eating a lemon in large quantities will not lead to anything good.

Considering all of the above, now you know how to grow a lemon from a seed at home. Despite the abundance of information, this process does not require special knowledge or skills. It is necessary to understand and take into account the main criteria - the rules of maintenance and care, competent pruning, timely prevention of diseases.

How to start growing lemon at home? You need to start growing a lemon at home with an assessment of your home for the fundamental possibility of growing citrus fruits in it.

These plants are very photophilous. They will develop normally, bloom and bear fruit only where the sun illuminates them at least a few hours a day.

Therefore, having only northern windows at your disposal, it is better not to start growing lemon at home at all. After all, even on the southern windowsills in winter, these plants will require additional lighting with lamps.

It is also very important that these natives of the subtropics need a mandatory cold (+ 5-10 degrees) wintering. It was at this time that flower buds are laid on ripened shoots - harbingers of the future harvest.

You can solve this problem by expanding the window sill and figure out how to isolate the plant from the warm air of the apartment (at least with plastic wrap).

To increase the humidity of the air when growing a lemon at home, you can install dishes with water on the batteries and the windowsill, and spray the plants with a spray bottle. Even better - increase the distance between window frames. But this will require significant effort. And not only physical ones.

And, finally, we must take into account that citrus fruits are quite large plants with a developed crown. Therefore, even a not too tall (1-1.5 meters tall) lemon will take up quite a lot of space in the room.

And if we take into account that it is extremely undesirable to move it for most of the year, then it may be difficult to choose a place.

Having decided on the solution of these issues, you can proceed to the next steps on the path to growing a lemon at home.

The answer lying on the surface - to go and buy a finished plant in a store or on the market - is not at all perfect. In this case, you are buying a "pig in a poke", i.e. completely dependent on the honesty of the seller.

To grow a lemon at home, it is more correct to go to a place where citrus fruits are sold and choose one that you like both in appearance and in taste. And if the fruit is ripe, then almost all of its seeds will germinate.

Here we have to make a small digression. The fact is that I have told amateur citrus growers countless times about this method of propagating lemons, oranges, tangerines, etc., but each time I heard an indignant assertion that “wild birds” will grow as a result.

This very common misconception arose, most likely, from the experience of sowing seeds of apple trees, pears and other fruit trees.

Yes, indeed, no matter how large and tasty an apple you take seeds from, the fruits of a grown tree will be small and bitter, i.e. such as the wild ancestor of all cultivated apple trees. But this is not the case for citrus fruits.

The fact is that wild forms of citrus fruits on Earth have not existed for a long time. What we are dealing with now are cultivated plants long ago. During the time that people grow citrus fruits, and this is at least more than two thousand years, all the traits we want have been firmly fixed in the seeds.

Of course, there will be some difference between descendants and parents. But, firstly, it will be very insignificant. Secondly, this difference is bilaterally directed, i.e. it is quite possible to obtain offspring that have higher consumer qualities than parent specimens.

So - sow without a doubt. But remember that the first flowering and fruiting of your grown lemons at home will occur only after 8-10 years. And then on the condition proper care behind them.

The fact is that any living being is able to give offspring (plants - bear fruit) only after becoming an adult. For example, guinea pigs 3-4 months are enough for this, and elephants will need at least 25 years. It is the same with plants: tomatoes bloom already on the windowsill, without even reaching the dacha, and figs grown from seeds will begin to bear fruit at the age of 40-45 years.

But as a result of your hard, consistent and long enough work, you can get a very decent result.

Key Benefits of Growing Lemons at Home from Seeds

Firstly, the grown tree will be full-fledged, properly folded, beautiful, finally. Remember that plants obtained by cuttings or grafting never acquire correct form and often look like a branch stuck in the ground.

Secondly, grown seedlings bloom and bear fruit much more abundantly than their counterparts obtained by vegetative propagation. The simplest explanation for this is that they were born with you and grew up adapted to the conditions of your apartment. But it’s not for nothing that they say: “Where you were born, it came in handy there.”

Thirdly, it will really be YOUR plant, which for me, for example, would be quite important. And if suddenly everything seems too long and you want to stop halfway - remember the elephants.

How to care for a lemon grown at home?

Lemon seeds are usually sown in January to a depth of about 1 cm in previously abundantly watered soil.

The soil for sowing lemon is made by mixing equal volumes of good garden soil, peat and coarse sand. Often shoots appear within a month. After the appearance of one or two true leaves, the plants are planted one at a time in cups, without deepening the root collar.

The first year of growing at home, lemons are kept in "Spartan" conditions - without illumination, without top dressing, rarely spraying. This will allow you to choose the most viable from all those who have ascended. Pay special attention to plants that have begun to branch already at a height of 10-15 cm.

They may be the most promising for obtaining fruits. Having chosen well-growing and actively branching specimens, they begin to apply special techniques that accelerate fruiting:

• to form the crown of a tree with shoots of the 4th-5th branching orders;
• after the end of crown formation (usually in the fifth or sixth year), transplants should be carried out as rarely as possible;
• during the period of active growth, fertilize twice a month with slurry mixed with 0.5% superphosphate.

Home grown lemon shaping

The formation of a lemon grown at home is usually started in the spring in the third year of the plant's life. It is advisable to choose a copy that has 3-4 branches on the bottom of the trunk. They will become the basis of the future crown and therefore are usually called skeletal or first-order shoots.

The lemon trunk must be cut above the top of the selected branches, and the branches themselves shortened to 20 cm. The branches grown on skeletal branches will be second-order shoots. It is easy to guess that shoots of the third order will appear on them, etc.

Practice shows that the first flowers appear on shoots of the 4th-5th order. All pruning is done in such a way that 2-3 buds remain on the branches for shoot growth. In order not to weaken the plant, pinching can be done without waiting for the branch to fully develop.

The pinching place is chosen in such a way that the last bud remaining on the branch, from which the strongest shoot of the next order will develop, looks into that part of the crown where it is not yet filled.

If necessary, the angle between the trunk and the side branch can be changed by pulling the latter with a ribbon, or bending it, tying a suitable weight to it.

In the same way, you can change the position of the lemon branches between them by bringing them together with a wire bracket, or pushing them apart by inserting a wooden spacer of the appropriate length. After the lignification of the shoots, the need for these devices will disappear.

Caring for an already formed plant comes down to periodic pinching and removal of weak, ugly twisted and simply superfluous shoots that overly thicken the crown.

For the symmetrical development of the crown, a lemon grown at home can be rotated with respect to the light, but not by 180 degrees, immediately, but by ten degrees every 10-15 days. Then the plant will not suffer from a change in orientation, and the crown will develop evenly.

You can form bushy lemon crowns, flat ones - in the form of a palmette (like a palm leaf or a fan), spherical ones on a trunk, etc. With any formation, you need to make sure that “tops” do not appear - fattening shoots that grow very quickly parallel to the main trunk. They are removed immediately or transferred to a horizontal direction with a cord or weight.

Basic care when growing lemon at home

Growing lemon at home can be done in any dish. The main thing is that it should be opaque, have a good drainage hole and not be too loose, only 2-4 cm more than the previous one.

As the size of the plant increases, the soil mixture should become more and more “heavy”, i.e. the proportion of land proper must increase in it.

Lemon must be watered very warm. boiled water, because citrus fruits tolerate excess alkali very poorly. But sometimes this measure is not enough, and the water has to be acidified.

Many acids are suitable for this, with the exception of hydrochloric acid. For example, you can take: 0.1 g of ascorbic acid per 4 liters, or 0.5 g citric acid per 3 liters, or 4-5 drops of concentrated nitrogen or phosphorus per 3 liters. You can water with infusion of high-moor peat (200 g per 3 liters of water, leave for at least a day).

It is very important to spray the lemon often, reducing the evaporation of water from the leaves, and thus facilitating the vital activity of the roots. On very hot, dry days, you can spray 2-3 times a day, pouring into a sprayer hot water. Dispersed in the air, it will cool significantly, and the mist reaching the plant will be warm, as required.

For the summer, citrus fruits can be exposed to fresh air, to the balcony, after gradually accustoming them to direct sunlight. It is very important to ensure the normal temperature of the soil coma, which will overheat in direct sun, regardless of the color of the pot.

Usually the pots are placed in wooden boxes or larger dishes, filling the free space with moss or expanded clay, which is watered from time to time.

It is very important to correctly return the plant to the windowsill. In autumn, 2-3 weeks before the onset of frost, plants begin to prepare for winter on the soil. During the day they are still kept outside, and at night they are brought into the house and sprayed with water.

If you realized it when the temperature outside had already dropped to frost, then special measures should be taken. The problem is that thin leaves, having warmed up in the room in just a few minutes, will immediately begin to evaporate water. But the roots located in the supercooled earth will be able to compensate for the loss of moisture only after the earthen coma warms up. And this will take at least a day. During this time, dehydrated leaves will fall off, and the plant will most likely die.

Therefore, bringing it from the cold into the heat, be sure to immediately pour abundantly with an earthen lump hot water(+ 40-45 degrees) or put in a container with water of the same temperature for half an hour to activate the activity of the roots.

The need of citrus fruits for cool, moist and fresh air especially difficult to satisfy in winter. The best option- put the tree away from the battery and turn on the lamp above it for at least 10 hours a day. If the plant is on the windowsill, then only supplementary lighting is required, i.e. lamp lighting in the morning and evening.

Please note that if the plant is kept in a warm room, then in winter it has to be watered sometimes even more often than in summer. It is necessary to water abundantly, always with very warm water, completely soaking the earthen ball. The main thing is that the earth should not dry out much, but also not be constantly wet.

So we outlined only the general principles of growing lemon at home. More details about this are written in various books. Encountering in them different, sometimes contradictory, recommendations, do not be surprised - each of the authors describes own experience, which gives the result in its specific conditions.

Analyze, try it yourself, look for your own ways of growing lemon at home.