How to grow lemon at home so that it gives a good mood and regularly brings a crop? This article contains all the necessary information about the features of caring for such an unpretentious plant.
How to grow a lemon
There are two ways to grow lemon at home.
The first way is to sow the seeds. They can be taken from a regular lemon purchased at the market. It is important to choose a large fruit of bright yellow color and without external flaws. In the seeds of such defective fruits, infections and diseases that can not give good germination may lurk, they will soon die. How to grow lemon from seed? It is necessary to get seeds from the lemon, they do this by cutting the lemon with a knife, but with care so as not to damage the outer shell of the seeds. Then the seeds are sorted: only large ones are left, small ones are not used, since they are unlikely to germinate. It is advisable to plant the seeds immediately in a pot in the ground until they are dry. But if you use dried seeds, then they are first soaked for several hours in water, then planted in the ground.
The second way to grow lemon at home is by grafting. The stalk should be at least three buds and take it from a regularly fruiting plant, then put in water for several days until the appearance of small roots.
What to choose a tank and soil for planting
Growing lemon on a windowsill is a rather fascinating and not complicated process. The capacity must be chosen the right size, there should not be too large a pot, because of this the root system will not develop properly. To begin with, the seed can be planted in a plastic container: a disposable glass or the bottom of a cut plastic bottle is suitable. At the bottom of such a container, it is necessary to make holes for air circulation and drainage of excess liquid from the soil, put on a saucer, where water will drain.
For planting, you can use a regular flower pot or a wooden box. If the container is large, then you can sow several seeds at once (or plant cuttings). It is necessary to plant with a distance of twenty centimeters from each other, so that each sprout has enough space for roots. Drainage is poured into the container for planting, the thickness of which is about one and a half centimeters. Without drainage, excess fluid will be worse off, air circulation is disturbed, fungus may form in the soil, which will cause the roots of the tree to rot, and the plant will die.
For drainage fit:
- Styrofoam pieces.
- Coarse sand.
- Small stones.
- Rubble.
- Expanded clay.
- Broken shards.
- Broken brick.
For drainage material, it is important that it does not rot and cannot damage the roots of the plant. Further, fertilizers in the form of manure, moss or peat, the thickness of which is one and a half centimeters, can be laid on the drainage layer. Then pour soil for indoor lemon . It is believed that lemon is a fairly unpretentious plant, and can grow in any soil. For him, warm air and regular watering are important.
To grow a fruitful lemon, the soil is prepared in this way: one part of sand, two parts of turfy land, one part of leafy and two parts of humus. You can also use ready-made soil for indoor plants, which is sold in stores for gardening. If cuttings are planted, then the topmost layer can be poured sand to sprouts better take root.
How to plant seeds correctly
How to grow lemon from seed? In the soil, small dimples are made, two centimeters deep, spilled a little with water and planted seeds, sprinkled with earth on top and lightly compacted. Two or three seeds are placed in one hole, since some may not germinate at all. Next, cover the container with polyethylene or a glass jar to create the effect of a greenhouse, and put in a warm place where the air temperature is not lower than 18 degrees.
If lemon is planted in the winter, then the container can be placed near heating radiators. Until sprouts appear, there is no need to put in a bright place. The greenhouse sometimes needs to be ventilated by opening a jar or film, often watered, but do not overdo it so that the soil is not too wet. If several shoots appear from one cavity at once, they leave the strongest, others remove.
How to plant cuttings correctly
How to grow lemon at home from cuttings? It should stand for several days in the water until the roots appear, then they are planted in the soil. The plant is planted to such a depth that there are two buds above the ground, the rest should be underground. Lemon seedlings are regularly watered abundantly. The air temperature in the room must be warm - about twenty degrees. With this method of planting, it will take the lemon about two months to harden and go into the stage of active growth.
What are the features of lemon sprout care
Lemon tree does not tolerate drafts, so the container with sprouts should be protected from them. Only emerged seedlings need watering twice a week, prefer sunlight. And when the first leaves appear, the film is removed. Water for irrigation can be used rain or melt, room temperature, which is recommended to stand.
How to use fertilizer
Topping up lemons at home is a must. Seedlings should be fertilized every two weeks. In gardening stores, you can buy special fertilizers for lemon, or others designed for exotic plants, which should include boron, manganese and zinc. The leaves of a lemon tree are regularly sprayed with water and wiped with a cloth, thus cleaning them from dust. A container with sprouts is placed in a place well lit by the sun's rays, the leaves will stretch to the sun, so you need to turn the pot slightly about once a month.
In no case should you turn the pot completely 180 degrees, otherwise the leaves may fall. In early spring, a stronger plant can be transplanted into a more spacious container. In the first year of life, homemade lemon is transplanted about four times. The grown lemon can be in the same pot for several years, the only thing that is necessary with some periodicity is to change the top layer with renewed soil.
How to understand that a lemon tree needs to be transplanted
Sometimes you can notice how roots come out of the bottom holes. This means that they have already sprouted through the drainage and, accordingly, the pot is small in the plant. Transplant the lemon with extreme caution so as not to harm the plant. Moving it to a new pot, the remains of the previous soil are not removed from the roots, so the adaptation period will pass easier and faster.
Lemon tree decoration
In order for the plant to please its neat appearance, it needs care. When the branches have already appeared on the tree, its trunk is cut to a height of twenty centimeters. Next, make out the branches, they are cut to a length of about nineteen centimeters. Thus, they repeat until the branches of the fourth generation are received, because it is on them that the fruiting buds appear. If you neglect the correct design of the tree, then the plant will have dense foliage, which will take a lot of energy to feed.
How to get a lemon crop
As soon as the central stem grows a half centimeter thick, the tree must be grafted. To do this, you will need:
- a stalk from another regularly fruiting tree;
- sharp knife;
- insulating tape;
- polyethylene;
- garden var.
Grafting process
- A branch growing from the central stem is cut, leaving a shoot up to 10 cm long.
- The process is carefully cut lengthwise into two parts.
- A pre-prepared handle is sharpened in the form of a blade and placed between two parts of the cut process.
- Top smeared with garden varieties, securely tightened with insulating tape at the places of cut.
- The upper part of the grafted graft is cut, left on it from two to four buds, the cut is treated with garden varieties and covered with polyethylene to create greenhouse conditions. Thus, the wounds will heal faster and the stalk will take root better.
- As soon as the first sprouts appear, the polyethylene is removed. The grafted lemon will begin to produce crops after two or three years. For the first fruiting, two flowers are left that can be pollinated with a cotton swab: pollen is collected from one flower and transferred to another. The next time they leave all the flowers and allow the maximum fruit to grow.
Features of plant care at different times of the year
By the end of autumn, the air temperature in the room where the lemon tree lives is gradually reduced to fifteen degrees of heat so that the plant can adapt to new conditions. At the same time, it is necessary to add artificial lighting so that the tree does not begin to dump foliage. In winter, a pot of homemade lemon is insulated with a blanket so that the roots do not get too cold.
In order to improve air circulation in the pot and protect against soil acidification, the soil must be loosened every five irrigations. By the end of spring, the lemon tree can be moved to the balcony or garden, but should be protected from the sun. Lemon tree loves warmth, moisture and moderate sunlight. Like other indoor plants, it needs fertilizers and protection against parasites.
How to properly feed
Lemon can be fed with special mixtures, which are sold in gardening stores. Their composition is optimally selected and contains the necessary elements and vitamins. As additional fertilizer, you can use fresh manure. You can also use folk remedies. These include:
- Wood ash. It is very rich in phosphorus and potassium. You need to take one teaspoon and dilute in one liter of water. The plant is watered with this water and an hour after watering, the earth is loosened.
- Used tea leaves or coffee grounds. They contain magnesium, potassium, nitrogen and other trace elements. Tea leaves or coffee grounds are first dried, then added to water for irrigation. ·
- Sugar. They can fertilize the plant at the stage of enhanced growth or a weakened tree. Sugar contains glucose, which serves as a source of energy. You can also use this method: distribute one teaspoon of sugar on the surface of the soil and spill with water, but use this method no more than once a week.
- Eggshell. It is crushed, mixed with starch and sprinkled on top of the soil.
How to protect lemon from parasites
To ensure the normal development of the plant, it is necessary to regularly inspect the lemon tree in order to detect diseases of indoor lemons, parasites and take measures in time. Often you can find pests such as ticks, scale insects, aphids and others.
A tick affects young leaves and shoots. It settles on the underside of the leaves, eats their juice, so the leaves dry out and turn yellow. For the destruction of pests, either special means with chemicals are used, or alternative methods are used. These include treating leaves with cotton pads soaked in alcohol or a solution of laundry soap.
A sign of wrecking scale insects is a sticky coating on the leaves. With the defeat, the lemon tree is pretty quickly depleted and dies. For its destruction, special insecticides are used, which when watering and spraying make the tree sap poisonous. The scabbard eats poisonous juice and dies. Processing is carried out up to five times every fifteen days. But this method has a minus - the fruits after such processing will be unfit for food.
A good method of control is also spraying with soap-kerosene emulsion. Ten grams of kerosene and five grams of soap are mixed in one liter of water. Spraying is repeated twice a week.
The aphid is a very small insect and quickly affects the stem, foliage, shoots of a lemon tree. Due to its light color, aphids are very easy to detect.
Pest Management Methods
- In case of minor lesions, it is possible to wash the places of accumulation of parasites with a solution of laundry soap. The procedure is repeated every week.
- Spraying once a week with garlic water.
- Thoroughly wipe with a solution of 3% acetic acid.
- Spraying with saline (seventy grams of salt per liter of water). Spend up to four times every five days.
Chemicals are rarely used if the previous options did not help get rid of insects.
It is important to take preventive measures: rinse the tree under running water, especially pay attention to the underside of the foliage. The ground during bathing is covered with polyethylene. It is also necessary to periodically inspect the plant in order to timely detect the pest at an early stage, when it will be easiest to get rid of it. It is useful to wipe the leaves with a solution of laundry soap, followed by rinsing with warm water.
How often to water homemade lemon
It is optimal to water a lemon tree in the early morning, so that excess moisture can evaporate during the day, this will prevent the fungus from appearing. Water the plant should be when the top 3 cm is already dry. In the summer, lemon tree is watered every day, and in a very hot season, watered twice a day. To moisten all parts of the soil, it is worth watering abundantly and without rushing. If quickly and superficially watered, the plant will not be saturated with water as it should.
If you provide all the conditions for growing lemon and care, the plant will delight for a long time with its appearance and regular harvest.