Lemon

Lemon description

As you know, the lemon belongs to the Rute family and the Citrus genus, originating from India and the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. Now it is difficult to believe it, but in nature the lemon appeared by chance - this is a hybrid that developed independently, then in the 12th century it was domesticated and spread widely throughout the world. Lemons are grown in most countries with subtropical climates, but besides that, it is also popular as a houseplant. Growing lemon at home, you get not only an ornamental plant that looks great in the interior of an apartment, lemon is one of the few exotic plants that are capable of producing crops at home. Moreover, in terms of taste, these fruits are no different from those lemons that are grown on an industrial scale, have a strong and pleasant aroma and are no less useful than all other citrus fruits.

Lemon varieties

In addition to the fact that lemon fruits are tasty and healthy and the range of their use is very wide, the undoubted advantage of this tree is its lifespan - on average, lemons live for a hundred years. They have found their application not only in cooking, but also in medicine, cosmetology and industry. Of course, we will not be able to tell about all the varieties of lemon, since at this time there are about 150 of them. Therefore, we will list only a few of them.
Genoa. Low-growing high-yielding variety.

Meyer's Lemon. Also a low-growing variety, characterized by early maturity, the fruits are sour.
"Kievskiy Lemon" is one of the record holders for large-fruited.

Novogruzinsky is a tall tree with unusually fragrant fruits.
Lisbon. Also a fairly tall variety, it tolerates high air temperatures well.

"Lemon Pavlovsky". The height of the tree is no more than two meters, it bears fruit well not only in a sunny place, but also in the shade, and the fruits of this variety are popular due to their thin peel.

Lemon care

This is not to say that lemon is a very capricious houseplant, but nevertheless it needs to create the necessary conditions if you count on fruiting. Despite the fact that its homeland is the tropics, the most optimal temperature in the warm season is +20 degrees. You can take the plant out into the garden or on the balcony, but it must be taught to the fresh air gradually, starting from a couple of hours and increasing daily exposure to the street. It is very important not to allow temperature extremes, so at night it must either be brought home or covered with geotextiles. In winter, the lemon is dormant, so your task is to ensure a lower, but stable temperature, + 14 ... + 16 degrees.
Lemon does not need direct sunlight, diffused light is more suitable for it, so the plant should be shaded if necessary.

Lemon, like other indoor plants, does not like chlorine, so it is absolutely impossible to water it with water that has just been poured from the tap. The water should either be boiled or settled for several days. Lemon is watered twice a week in the warm season, and in winter, one watering every 7-9 days will be enough.

Lemons need high humidity, so regular spraying from a spray bottle is necessary (for this procedure, the water should also be defended). If you do not have the opportunity to reduce the temperature in the room in winter, when the heating devices turn on and the air becomes especially dry, then you can spray the plant almost daily.Sometimes you can give your lemon a warm shower, especially if the plant is large enough and there is no way to wipe all the leaves to remove dust from them.

Special complex fertilizers for citrus fruits should be applied every week, starting in spring. In winter, only fruiting specimens are fertilized, feeding is enough to be done once a month.
A young plant needs to be replanted every year, and an adult lemon is transplanted only when it outgrows the size of the pot, you will learn about this by the roots peeking out of the drainage hole. If your lemon is fruitful, then do not replant it during flowering, formation and ripening of the fruit - this can completely lose the crop. When planting, be sure to pour expanded clay or any other drainage on the bottom of the container; use soil for citrus plants as a substrate, which can be purchased at garden centers or flower shops, it contains all the necessary additives.

Tree formation

Particular attention should be paid to pruning and shaping the crown of the plant. If you do not pay attention to this, then the shoots are strongly stretched, the plant does not look as attractive as we would like, and flowering is postponed indefinitely.

Pruning should be done in the spring months, when the plant comes out of dormancy, the best time is early April.

First you need to decide on the purpose of growing lemon. If it has an exclusively decorative function, then a small compact crown can be formed. If you plan to harvest, then the plant will need a branched crown and several basic strong shoots.

The first time you need to pinch the lemon, when it grows to 25 cm, the second pinch is done when the plant grows another 15 cm after the first procedure. There should be at least four buds between the nips, this is very important, since the main shoots will form from these buds.

The shoots must be pinched when they grow 25 cm, wait until they ripen, and then cut off. Trimming is carried out 5 cm below the place where the pinching was made. The next shoots are shortened so that they are 4-6 cm smaller than the previous ones. When you pinch, it is important to ensure that at least 5 leaves remain on the shoots. The formation of the plant is completed after pinching the shoots of the third or fourth order - these are exactly the branches on which fruits are formed in the future.
If the formation of the crown was carried out correctly, then in the third year you can expect flowering.

Harvest lemons at home.

The first flowering will be a very joyful event, mentally you will already begin to calculate the future harvest, but most of the flowers will have to be removed. Flowering and fruiting are natural processes, but they are very depleting for the plant. Since you and I are responsible for those who were raised by removing some of the flowers, we help the plant to continue its growth and form several fruits, without exhausting all its strength and without losing its decorative qualities. After the lemon has faded and the ovaries are formed, you need to leave three or four lemons, and remove the rest. Every year, the number of ovaries left can be increased by 2-3 things.

Reproduction

Most gardeners at different periods of their lives have tried to grow a lemon from a seed and know that this process does not cause any difficulties. The first disadvantage of this method is that you do not know which variety you are growing, since the employees of the grocery store hardly have this information. The second minus is that the lemon grown from the seed will begin to bear fruit very slowly. But this problem can be solved by grafting a scion from an already fruiting specimen.
The most common way to propagate a lemon is by rooting cuttings.This can be done in spring or summer by preparing semi-freshened ten-centimeter cuttings with two or three buds. Cuttings can be rooted in water by adding activated charcoal (the water should be changed to avoid cloudiness). Once the cuttings are rooted and 2 to 3 cm in size, they should be carefully planted in a small pot of citrus potting soil.

If you decide to root the cuttings in the ground, then add a little sand to it, deepen the cutting a couple of centimeters and place a greenhouse on top - a bag, jar or other transparent shelter. At the end of the third week, you will notice that fresh leaves have appeared on the cuttings - this means that rooting has taken place, and the shelter can be removed. You do not need to transplant the cutting until it outgrows the pot.

Possible problems and solutions

When growing any indoor plant, a number of problems can arise. By changing the color of foliage, wilting or dropping of leaves, plants signal to us that they are not comfortable enough and more attention should be paid to caring for them.

If the leaves of your lemon dry up, curl and crumble, then most likely this is due to insufficient watering and excessively dry indoor air. For the same reason, only the tips of the foliage can dry out - this is the first symptom of insufficient moisture. Also, with insufficient watering and low humidity, lemon can shed flowers.

If the leaves of your lemon lose their rich green hue, becoming paler, then the plant does not have enough light. Place it closer to the window, but make sure that the light remains diffused.
If the plant unexpectedly drops leaves, then the reason for this is most likely a sharp temperature drop or a strong draft.

The yellowing of the foliage may be due to a lack of fertilizer and too high air temperature during the dormant period.

If you follow all the rules for caring for indoor lemon, problems with pests should not arise, however, sometimes lemon infects spider mites, scale insects or mealybugs. To combat harmful insects, you can use insecticidal preparations or resort to folk remedies - it all depends on the area of ​​damage and the number of pests. In any case, the affected specimen should be isolated from other indoor plants for a while and treated until the parasites are completely destroyed.