Features of growing lemon at home in a pot. Growing lemon at home: don't be afraid of difficulties! How to speed up fruiting when growing lemons

Lemon is native to tropical India and China. Cultivate lemon Tree in food and decorative purposes steel for the first time in the subtropical countries of Asia.

To this day, citrus fruits are grown on a large scale there, as well as in Spain and Italy.

In the CIS countries, lemon is grown as a houseplant.

This beautiful tree with a neat crown exudes phytoncides (substances that disinfect the air) that are useful for our apartments and proper cultivation produces aromatic and vitamin-rich fruits.

In our article you will learn all the intricacies of turning a small seed into a fruit-bearing lemon tree.

The best varieties of indoor lemon

Pavlovsky– characterized by its short stature, the tree tolerates low light levels well and is adapted to life in apartments
Anniversary– a low (up to 1.5 m) tree, resistant to the dry air of apartments, is different high yield, bears fruit and grows quickly. The fruits have thick skin
Panderosa- indoor hybrid of lemon and citron. A low and bushy tree forms a beautiful crown. At the age of 2 years it already bears fruit
Meyer– a hybrid of lemon and orange well adapted to indoor life.

What is better to buy - an adult plant or seedlings

For growing at home, beginning flower lovers can buy already mature plant: There will be fewer problems and hassles with growing.

True, the price of such a lemon will be higher than that of a young seedling. Seedlings can cost from 200 rubles, and an adult plant is about 1000 rubles.

And yet it is much more interesting to grow it yourself from a seedling, watching its growth day after day. Better yet, grow your own tree completely. from the seed.

It’s not easy, but it’s quite possible to get a full-fledged, beautiful and fruit-bearing lemon. Through 5-7 years(with the right approach) you can admire the view of an evergreen tree and drink aromatic tea with your own lemons.

Planting a lemon from a seed

The very first step is to eat a lemon and select a few large seeds. It's better to take 10 or more seeds.

It is advisable to prepare them: for successful germination and root growth, you need to treat the seeds growth stimulator– a solution of sodium humate (it is sold in a botanical store), in which the seeds should be immersed for a day.

Then you can further process the seeds other stimulants– a solution of the drug “Citron” or “Epinas-extra”. This manipulation will allow future young plants to withstand poor light conditions and dry air.

Important! For germination, take fresh whole seeds and immediately plant them in the ground. The success of germination increases several times!

Which container to choose

You can plant the seeds in a pot or in small temporary containers (cassettes or boxes). It is better to take a clay pot for planting seeds, approx. 7 cm in diameter.

Priming for planting consists of:

0,5 parts of humus;
0,5 part of river coarse sand;
2 parts of turf (it can be dug up, for example, in a meadow);
1 parts of leaf soil (it can be dug up in a deciduous forest);
1/4 part of charcoal.

The soil should turn out loose. But you can do it simpler: go to a botanical store and buy a special soil that states that it is for citrus fruits.

Plant the seeds deep into the prepared soil. 1.5 cm. To prevent rotting, you need to cover the soil with a film or a transparent bag and spray it with water daily from a spray bottle.

Temperature for germination should be approx. +18°С.

Shoots will appear later 3 weeks. After this, you need to move the containers to a bright place, and remove the film after the second pair of leaves appears.

Note! Do not overwater or overcool lemon shoots! Avoid drafts and do not use fertilizers!

Then it is produced selection of seedlings: culling the worst and selecting the strongest, with a stocky trunk, preferably without short needles, but with a large number of leaves, without long thin shoots.

Growing lemon at home

For successful growth, a young lemon needs warmth, light and water. Some specific requirements for citrus fruits should be taken into account.

There is no need to feed lemon in the first months. In spring and summer, for a grown plant, use fertilizers.

In the botanical store they will offer you the necessary ones and tell you in detail how and how much to apply them, plus any fertilizer is always given instructions.

Watering should be regular, but not excessive. You need to water the lemon every day when it’s hot, and on other days when the top of the soil dries out. In summer - 5 times per week, in winter - 2 times per week.

How much water to pour depends on the age of the plant and air temperature. A young seedling will need about a glass of water at a time, and an adult tall tree will need from 0.5 to 1 liter of water.

Main, spray the plant daily, since lemons do not tolerate dry air. In spring, water the plant in the morning, and in autumn and summer - late in the evening.

In summer you can take it out to the balcony or take it to the village. The main thing is that you cannot expose the tree to direct sun. It should be rotated daily to ensure the branches grow evenly.

For wintering, it is advisable to take the tree into a room with a temperature about +15 °C, but not lower than +12 °C. If this is not possible, it is recommended to additionally illuminate the lemon with special lamps.

It is important not to forget to clean the leaves from dust so that the gas exchange process takes place at the proper level.

Crown formation

Lemon does not branch very readily. To create a beautiful and compact crown you will have to work a little.

Aged up to 1 year, and even better, from 3 months, begin to stimulate the growth of lateral branches. It's done like this. During periods of increased growth, the top is pinched off.

Sometimes it gets pinched off repeatedly, since the lemon can stubbornly continue to grow only to the top. As a result, the axillary buds wake up and the lateral branches begin to grow.

The tops of the lateral branches are also pinched off early, when 2-3 sheets. In this way, the crown of the lemon is formed in the future.

It is important to prevent the occurrence "tops"– too long internal branches from the crown. While the “tops” are flexible, they are tied to a stick stuck in the ground so that they take root.

Lemon transplant

When the roots of a young plant begin to entangle the pot, it is replanted. In the first year, transplantation is carried out 2 times. Mature plant can be replanted once every 4 years.

Transplantation is underway in early spring . Move the lemon into a new pot a little larger diameter by adding fresh soil.

Do not damage the roots, as citrus fruits contain mycorrhiza– a symbiosis of fungi and roots beneficial to lemon.

The appearance of mycorrhiza on the roots is biological feature citrus fruits. A similar phenomenon is observed in legumes - their nodule bacteria are in symbiosis with the roots.

Because of this, lemons do not tolerate transplantation well. To prevent the plant from being damaged, you need to minimally touch the earthen ball surrounding the root system.

When replanting is not carried out, the soil is simply updated by adding a little fresh soil. Periodically, the soil is loosened to regulate breathing.

Lemon care at home

Lemon is a capricious plant:

It can be involuntarily sour or pour;
He does not tolerate temperature changes and drying out;
Loves the light;
Doesn't like to move frequently.

Proper feeding plays a role important role. Overfeeding, like lack of fertilizer, will not be beneficial.
They start feeding the lemon in the spring.

From February to September, special fertilizers for citrus fruits are regularly applied ( “Lemon”, “For citrus”, “Citrus”, etc.). In winter, the tree is not fertilized.

In preparation for winter and at the end of February reduced by 2 times the usual concentration of applied fertilizer. A sign of excess fertilizer is a dry edge along the edge of the leaves and their rapid fall.

Flowering occurs after a few years. But purchased prepared seedlings can bloom in the first year. For a lemon to bear fruit, it must pass 10-15 years from germination from the seed, but the process can be accelerated. For example, through vaccination.

How to graft a lemon

Graft- This is a procedure that accelerates flowering and fruiting. It is carried out with lemon from the seed and simple seedlings.

The rootstock is the plant that will be grafted. The first vaccination is given 2-3 year old tree.

The top cuttings are grafted from other plants(you can even use an orange). The leaves are removed, leaving the axillary buds.

It is best to plant in early spring. There are 2 methods of vaccination:

Kidney vaccination. Using a special budding knife, carefully cut out a small bud from another plant, being careful not to touch its cut with your hands. Then a T-shaped incision is made on the rootstock, where this bud is inserted. This place is then covered with a bandage. Engraftment will occur within 3 weeks. The part of the shoot that is located above the bud is soon cut off (about 10 cm in height)
Grafting with cuttings carry out special . Cuttings should have young bark and several buds. They need to be cut at an angle. The bark of the rootstock is split lengthwise and the cut cutting is inserted. This place is then also rewound until the cutting is completely established.

It is better to purchase cuttings from a lemon that has already bear fruit. Then there will be fruits already 3 year.

Also, to speed up fruiting, lemon can be pollinate, transferring pollen artificially from one flower to another.

Propagation of lemon indoors

You can not only graft, but also propagate lemons vegetatively - cuttings.

The simplest of them is to take cuttings from an already fruit-bearing tree and plant them in a new pot.

To do this, a cut is made from an adult lemon under the lower bud near the cutting. The cutting itself should be more than 10 cm and have more 5 leaves.

Lower 2 sheets removed, the cut is powdered with charcoal and the branch is rooted deep into the sand 2 cm. You can plant a future seedling in a greenhouse, greenhouse, under a film, where the temperature reaches at least +20 °С.

They will appear in a month first roots. The rooted cutting now requires the same care as a regular young plant.

Pests and diseases of indoor lemon

One of the most common problems is yellowing of leaves.

This may happen:

From nitrogen deficiency(leaves turn pale green) phosphorus(dull, narrow, yellowish), potassium(the leaf is lighter in the center, and turns brown along the edge);
From a lack of microelements iron, sulfur, magnesium, zinc, excess calcium (chlorosis);
From lack or excess of light;
As a result of defeat phytopathogenic fungi (rust);
Due to pests: spider mite (yellow dots) and aphids(light sticky spots).

Another problem is young branches turn black. This can happen if the roots are affected, namely:

They're rotting;
dried up;
Frozen;
Mycorrhiza has died off;
Happened overfeeding with fertilizers.

Features of growing lemon from seeds at home, you can watch in this video:

Lemon is one of the most famous and ancient hybrid species citrus plants. As early as 200 AD. In Italy, lemon cultivation was known. It turns out you can. The leaves of this not only beautiful, but also useful tree secrete phytoncides - substances that can refresh and disinfect the air. If you care for lemon properly, you can also get wonderful fruits.

Lemon is propagated at home by seeds or cuttings. When growing fruits from seeds, you can only wait 7-8 years, or you may not wait at all. Most best option plantings - from ready-made cuttings. Cut off a young tree from an adult tree green sprig with 4-5 leaves. For rooting, take a small pot of damp fine sand and plant the plant. Cover the top of the pot with transparent plastic bottle, having previously cut off its neck. Make several holes in the bottle for air circulation. This way you will create a greenhouse effect and the lemon will take root faster. The temperature should be high: 22-25 degrees. You can graft a tree that has already been grown from a seed. To do this, we cut off a shoot from a tree of the variety we like and insert it into the split. The splitting must be done quickly and carefully to avoid infection. Treat the grafting site with garden mixture. If everything is done correctly, then after about two or three weeks you will notice that the newly grafted branch has begun to grow. A fabulous effect and surprise of guests can be achieved by grafting a lemon on one side and a tangerine on the other. You will get an amazing combination and variety of fruits.

Caring for citrus fruits, which includes lemon, at home is quite a painstaking, although not difficult, task. This is a light-loving tree. Therefore, carefully choose the place for growing. Open sunlight should also be avoided; diffused light is needed. Replanting this plant is quite painful; it is better to transfer it to a larger pot without affecting the roots. To overwinter lemons, the room temperature should be reduced to 10-12C degrees, or the pot with the plant should be placed on the veranda. In this case, make sure in advance that the roots of the plant do not freeze; wrap the flowerpot in a warm blanket.
Lemon begins to bear fruit at home at the age of three years. If there are too many fruits, then the newly appeared ovary should be torn off. There should be 10-12 green leaves per fruit.

If you follow all the rules, growing lemon at home is not such a labor-intensive task. Make the plant happy proper care, and then it will delight you with beautiful, tasty and healthy fruits for many years!

There are two ways to plant a lemon in order to subsequently get a healthy, beautiful and fruit-bearing tree. You can sow seeds (seeds, or you can plant cuttings. Which is easier and what results you can get - the answers are in the article.

If you are concerned about the question of how to properly plant a lemon at home and still achieve fruiting, then pay due attention to the preliminary preparation.

Soil preparation. To plant a lemon, you need to take river sand and calcine it in the oven to destroy pathogenic bacteria. Then mix it in equal proportions with the citrus substrate. Moisten the resulting mixture. If river sand is not available, you can use any loose soil, for example, a mixture of humus and leaf turf.

Video about growing lemon at home

Selection of capacity. Pots made of any material are suitable for planting lemons, but ceramic ones are preferable. There is better air exchange in them, so the risk of stagnation is less. You need to choose a spacious pot for planting. Before laying the soil, it must be doused with boiling water or soaked in water for several hours.

Drainage. Lemons need drainage to prevent the soil from becoming sour from excessive moisture. Therefore, it is worth laying a layer of pebbles or pebbles at the bottom of the pot, they will not allow the water to stagnate. But remember that large and sharp stones can cause irreparable damage to the thin roots of citrus. The diameter of drainage stones should not exceed three centimeters.

The photo shows pots for planting lemons

It is better to give preference to seeds from the largest and juiciest fruits. Lemons grown and ripened under artificial conditions may not germinate. Or, after a while, it won’t bear fruit. They cannot be stored because they quickly lose their germination capacity.

So, let's start landing:

Sow fresh lemon seeds into a pot with damp soil.
We periodically moisten the soil, while avoiding the accumulation of water, otherwise the seed will rot.
Soon the seeds will hatch and small plants will appear.
It would be wiser to plant several seeds so that after 2-3 months you can select the strongest ones from the resulting sprouts or plant them in different containers and get a lemon garden at home.
When replanting, try not to touch the earthen ball on the roots.
To provide the seedlings with normal conditions, place the pots closer to the south or west side, but make sure that sunlight was scattered, direct rays can destroy the plant.

Photo of lemon from seed

There is an opinion, and its validity has been proven by many experienced flower growers that a lemon from a seed does not bear fruit. To do this, the resulting tree, when it grows up and its trunk reaches a thickness of 1 cm, must be grafted from a plant that has already produced fruit. At home, grafting is successfully carried out using the budding method, that is, using a bud eye with a small piece of bark, to increase the chance of double budding.

Planting lemon cuttings

Planting by cuttings is one of the most common and effective methods. By selecting cuttings from trees that are known to be healthy and bearing fruit, you will know exactly what you will get in the end.

Last year's shoots no longer than 8-10 cm with well-developed leaves are used.

Plant the cutting in a pot and cover it glass jar. Place on the windowsill and spray periodically warm water, moistening the soil. All! All you have to do is wait a little, and your cutting will take root.

Video about planting lemon

When the upper buds appear, begin to gradually accustom the seedling to the microclimate of the room, removing the jar for a short time. During the week, increase the seedling's exposure to the air without the jar, so that by the end of the week it will be completely removed. If heating devices or central heating are located close to the tree, you can fence it off from them with a piece of plywood or cardboard.

The lemon plant is a very capricious plant; planting and caring for it requires not only knowledge and experience, but also dedicated work. He needs special conditions, temperature changes, drafts and overheating are contraindicated for him. But all the hard work of a diligent gardener will be rewarded when a well-groomed lemon bears its first fruit.

Citrus trees are quite expensive, for example, a lemon tree about 45 cm high will cost 2.5 thousand rubles. Therefore, many people prefer to grow lemons themselves, especially since the seeds are easily accessible and can be bought at any supermarket. You can also purchase fairly inexpensive seeds of varietal lemons (and other citrus fruits, such as tangerines and oranges).

For those who decided to try their luck with a seed from a purchased lemon - this article.

Young lemon shoots, 1 month old.

Step 1. The right lemon

You don’t even need to be a professional to understand that the fruit must be mature, high-quality, environmentally friendly and, highly desirable, freshly harvested. If it is still possible to find lemons in supermarkets that meet the first three parameters, then what about freshness? It is clear that on the shelves there are imported lemons that have been sitting for some time. It's OK. You just shouldn’t take rotten, dried fruits or delay planting after purchase. If you bought a beautiful lemon, immediately remove the seeds from it and start planting.

Step 2. Germination and planting

You can do without germination by immediately sowing the seeds in the ground, for example, according to the scheme described below.

The easiest way to grow homemade lemon from a seed:

Buy soil for citrus fruits and prepare small containers (you can plastic cups), at the rate of 1 bone – 1 container.
Fill the containers with soil, plant the seeds in the soil to a depth of 3 cm. Water.
Cover with film. Place in a warm place. You don’t have to be zealous here, it’s standard room temperature 18-22° C. is ideal for lemon.
Ventilate regularly and moisten if necessary. You shouldn't pour it, it's better to spray it.
After three weeks, sprouts will appear.

Such sowing in the ground has its disadvantages: it is not visible which seed has sprouted, some of the pots will remain “out of use”.

Another variant

Fill the seedling boxes with soil, plant the seeds 1 cm deep, maintaining a distance of 5 cm between them. In this case, seedlings can be expected after 2 weeks. Waiting for a pair of real leaves the best seedlings are planted in separate pots 10 cm in diameter. Now the plants can be placed on permanent place– such a pot will be enough for plants up to 15-20 cm in height.

Which window should I place young plants on?

A south window would be a mistake; lemons do not like direct scorching sun, they need bright but diffused light. The best option– east or west window. Or still a south window - but with shading.

What do young seedlings look like?

Recommendation: it is advisable to grow several seedlings at once, because if you are inexperienced in growing citrus fruits, time will pass From seed to fruit, a lot of troubles can happen to the tree. Diseases, errors in care, and finally, an error in grafting and the plant will die. It would be nice to have a “spare”.

Two sprouts may appear from one seed; in this case, the weaker shoot should be removed.

Step 3. Shoots and further care

Care is not difficult, lemons can really be considered unpretentious indoor plants; it is enough to learn a number of simple rules.

Lemons love:

Moderate watering. On average, we can say that in summer you should water 3 times a week, in winter - 2 times. But you should focus on your conditions - you may have to water more often or less often. It is better to spray young shoots, watering only when the soil becomes dry. Overfilling is worse than underfilling, so don't overdo it.
Breathable, water- and air-permeable soil.
Regular spraying, possibly a shower. It is important that dust does not accumulate on the leaves. Air humidity is especially important if the plant is located near a battery. Do not neglect this aspect of care - it is not only about humidity, but also about preventing attacks by pests or diseases.
Turn the lemon towards the light gradually, by 20-30 degrees, not the full 180.
Pot size. A large pot of lemon is not recommended, the maximum for adult plants is 10 liters; it should be replanted as often as possible, but according to need and depending on the growth rate of the tree itself - as a rule, this is done once a year in the spring.
Fertilizers for citrus plants With high content manganese, boron, zinc. Feeding is advisable quite often - once every 2 weeks for the entire period active growth(from February to September).

But! Overfeeding a plant is more harmful than underfeeding; remember that nutrition is important for the formation of fruits. Young plants (up to 3-4 months) and plants immediately after transplantation into fresh soil (within 1-1.5 months) are not fed.

Why do lemons die or grow poorly?

This often happens to inexperienced gardeners; you can even hear that lemons are capricious plants. But this is not so, the reasons for the death are quite simple:

The air is too dry! Apartment air is really too dry for these plants - don’t be lazy to spray.
Temperature changes, drafts, changes in humidity - lemons are quite sensitive to changes in conditions.
Overflow. Once again, lemons do not like soil that is too wet! Be sure to wait until it dries between waterings.
Poor drainage. Drainage is necessary for almost all indoor plants, so we did not dwell on this issue in detail, but we receive letters that clearly indicate that this point is often neglected. Pay attention to drainage - the soil should be loose, well permeable, and excess water from the pot should drain well - this applies even to very young plants planted, for example, in plastic cups.
Wrong choice of seedlings. You should not take weak seedlings with long internodes - such plants will be of no use. If you want to receive more plants– it’s better to sow more seed, about twice as much.

Lemon tree at the age of 1 year.

Learn more about fertilizing

If you don’t have time to bother with fertilizing, then they will do complex fertilizer like “Zdraven”, “Ideal” - almost every company produces a special fertilizer for citrus fruits. But it’s better to alternate feedings using:

Organic (you can alternate it with complex mineral fertilizer, using, for example, the following scheme: the first ten days of the month are minerals, the second ten days are organics, etc.).
Fertilizer can be used as a source of microelements (zinc, iron, boron, etc.) wood ash, inkstone, manganese. All these products are used according to standard schemes (for example, you can read about fertilizing), applying fertilizers both at the root and by spraying the leaves.

Substrate for planting

In a sense, it’s easier for city residents - they have ready-made substrates at hand. However, you can prepare the mixture yourself, remembering following rules:

The mixture should allow air to pass through perfectly.
The mixture should allow moisture to pass through perfectly.
It should be nutritious, lemons are “gluttonous” plants.
They prefer neutral acidity, although they are tolerant of slight deviations (acceptable pH level is from 5 to 8).

There are a lot of recipes for mixtures, for example:

Purchased land plus peat in equal proportions.
Turf soil, humus, sawdust, sand - in equal proportions.

Pests and diseases

Lemons are attacked, and quite often, by the following pests:

Shield.
Spider mite.
Chervets.

Despite the fact that they look different, the symptoms of the lesion are approximately the same. The leaves of the plant dry out, the shoots become bent, growth slows down, and the plant gradually dies.

The following remedies can be used at home:

Wash with soapy water, just make sure that soap solution didn’t get on the soil, it alkalizes the soil, plants don’t like it.
In the evening, you can carefully soap the places where “bandits” accumulate and wrap the plant in cellophane - in the morning, be sure to remove and wash these places, soap makes cellular respiration difficult, if you leave the plant in a soapy state, the leaves will simply fall off. Of course, the guillotine the best remedy from dandruff,” but it is still advisable to rid the plant of pests without losing foliage.
From chemicals Fitoverm is good at home. It is odorless and easy to use, although it cannot be said that it will help in one go. It is likely that the treatment will have to be carried out several times at weekly intervals.

Citrus diseases:

Sooty fungus.
Gommoz.

Shaping and pinching

They are getting started already in the first year of life, this is very important for future fruiting. Weak branches, growing inward, with deformations are removed. Pinch the branches, leaving 3-4 leaves on them.

The picture below shows a diagram of lemon pruning.

Harvest and fruiting

Lemon trees like houseplants very popular, in particular, because they are remontant, that is, they bear fruit all year round.

But be prepared that plants grown at home from seeds will bloom and produce a harvest, at the earliest - in 8 years! In addition, plants from stones do not retain 100% of the characteristics of the variety, which means that they can lose in fruit size, yield, and taste qualities. A plant grown from a cutting will produce a harvest in 4-5 years on average.

Propagation of lemons by cuttings - this method allows you to achieve fruiting faster. Plants from cuttings bear fruit in 4-5 years. The only “but” is that for this you need to have a high-quality lemon tree on hand that has already produced fruit, or go to a special nursery and purchase a cutting.

Grafting is the fastest, although it requires practice, method - in this case, active fruiting is only 2-3 years old. Seedlings aged from six months to three years are vaccinated - this best time for scion survival. Thus, it is possible to obtain fruits from seedlings grown from seeds in record time - in 2.5 - 3 years.

It happens that lemons bloom very early - such flowers should be removed, no matter how much you want to get golden fruits. But why risk the death of the plant? Fruiting requires strength, a well-formed crown and a sufficient amount of green mass; if there are less than 15 leaves per flower, the flowers can be safely picked off. As a rule, flowers are removed up to 3, or preferably 4. summer age plants.

Lemon varieties

There are a lot of them, and many varieties can be grown in room conditions. Differences between varieties are usually in the yield and quality of the fruit. The most famous varieties (descriptions and harvest dates apply to trees grown from seedlings):

Pavlovsky– a classic, a very old variety, perfectly adapted to rooms, tolerates dry air and low light relatively well, which is inevitable in an apartment. The plant is large, up to 2 m tall, produces fruits in the 4th year, yields up to 40 fruits per year.
Eureka– a relatively short lemon. The yield is average, it blooms early, in the third year, the fruits are of medium weight, tasty, very common in open ground in Europe.
Meyer- a hybrid of lemon and orange. Very popular as potted plant. The fruits are larger and sweeter than lemons. Very productive, bears fruit for 4 years (we are talking about a tree grown from seeds).
Novogruzinsky– a large tree, fruits for 4-5 years, tasty and aromatic, without seeds. Productivity is high (up to 200 per year).
Maykop– characterized by increased productivity, up to 300 fruits per year, fairly large fruits, the variety is unpretentious.
Genoa- another low variety, up to 3 meters (in rooms up to 1 meter), fruits - in the fifth year, up to 50 fruits per year, the fruits are small but tasty, blooms profusely.

Meyer lemon blossoms.

Video consultation - how to get results?

Lemons are not difficult to grow from seeds, but it is not always possible to get fruit from such plants. What is the reason? Answer to the video.

Tell us how to grow lemon at home? My daughter wants to plant a seed, but I am leaning towards the option of using a seedling. So, this weekend I plan to go shopping for it. What does a home citrus tree need to grow well?

Among the indoor ornamental plants It is worth highlighting the lemon trees. Their glossy, dark foliage and easy-to-shape crown make them very attractive. In addition, with proper care, they will also delight you with aromatic, vitamin-rich fruits. Of course, they are always on sale, but homemade tastes better, and even more so, is healthier. There is nothing complicated about how to grow lemons at home. After your next purchase of exotic fruits, just don’t throw away the seeds, but plant them. And you can make it even simpler - if possible, buy at flower shop young seedling and surround it with care and attention.

Most often grown indoors low-growing varieties lemon. Among them it is worth noting Canadian lemon, Chinese dwarf and Genoa. Their height does not exceed 1 m, and the fruits are tasty, because they are lemon-orange hybrids. The Lunario, Maikopsky and Pavlovsky lemons are slightly taller and more sour.

Growing homemade lemon from seedlings

Most quick way to get a beautiful tree and drink tea with the first sour fruits - buy a ready-made seedling in the store. First of all, transplant it from the shipping soil into nutritious light soil. For the first time, a pot of up to 2 liters will be enough. Do not forget about drainage - it will protect the roots from rotting.

Soil for lemon can be made at home by mixing sand, humus and turf soil in equal parts.

Lemon loves the sun, but it is better to choose a place where the lighting will be diffused. But in winter, when the days are shorter, the plant will feel better on the window.

Care indoor lemon is simple and includes:

Daily watering in summer and less frequent (once a week) in winter. Do not use cold water so as not to provoke illness. In summer, spray the crown often, especially if you take the lemon outside. In winter, simply wiping the foliage with a damp sponge is enough.
Regular seasonal feeding. Buy a special mineral complex - it contains the full composition of nutrients necessary for citrus plants.
Annual transplant. Transfer the bush along with the lump of earth into a larger flowerpot, but you don’t need to take too large a container. In it, the soil remains wet longer, which is fraught with the occurrence of fungal infections.
Pruning. In spring, shorten long shoots and cut out branches growing deep into the crown. This will help the tree look beautiful.

How to grow lemon at home from a seed?

If you decide to go through all the stages yourself and nurture your citrus pet, choose large seeds from a large lemon. Then everything is simple:

pour the substrate into small pots with drainage holes;
moisten it;
plant a seed, but do not bury it too much - 2 cm is enough;
If desired, cover the container with film, but you can do without it;
Place the flowerpot on a bright and warm windowsill.

In about a month you will see a green sprout emerge from the ground. When the seedling grows up to 4 leaves, transplant it into a large container and care for it as you would for a store-bought seedling. The only thing worth considering is that a lemon grown from a seed will not begin to bear fruit soon. If you don’t want to wait 5 years, or even 3 times longer, it’s better to graft your lemon.