Many beginning gardeners want to grow a real citrus tree in their area or in the apartment on the window. It is not enough to get glossy fragrant foliage and an even trunk - the main question is how to plant a lemon at home. Since without this obligatory procedure, the gardener practically does not need to hope for the appearance and ripening of fruits.
Lemon tree grows relatively quickly, but sour fruits appear only for 8-15 years of natural vegetation. If you perform a simple but very important job, you can get the first flowers in the second year of growth. How to plant homemade lemon correctly? Experienced gardeners share their secrets: you can engraft cuttings or carry out the budding procedure.
Vaccination with the help of small processes is carried out at any time of the year, but in the spring of this plant the most active growth is observed. March is considered an ideal month for the first attempt to work with cuttings. Most citrus tree owners are interested in how to plant a lemon from a stone and what materials and tools are needed. To begin with, a stock is selected on which the stalk will be fixed. Its diameter should be within 1.5 cm, and the maximum age - up to 3 years. This method allows the use of stocks of lemons, grapefruits, tangerines and oranges, and these same citrus fruits can act as cuttings themselves.
Before planting a lemon at home, it is necessary to prepare a sharp or special knife for this procedure, a garden var, the original scion and a film. Use shoots up to one year old from a healthy, fruit-bearing tree. The length of the process can reach 10 cm, also the scion should have a green bark and at least three kidneys. This shoot is cut off at the uppermost and sunlit part of the fruiting plant. Leaves are immediately removed to reduce loss of moisture and nutrients. The handle is carefully wrapped with a slightly wet cloth and polyethylene.
In this form, it can be safely stored or transported for 3 days. How to plant a lemon at home, if the shoot needs to be taken from somewhere? The cutlery should be stored in the refrigerator or in a special box for transportation. There are two traditional ways of grafting lemon:
- The lateral incision usually engraft in nurseries and shops. To do this, straight sections are made on the fused pieces: the bark of these two plants must be carefully combined. In this case, the diameter of the lemon and scion can be completely different. This method is not very convenient for beginners and is rarely successful.
- How to plant lemon at home "in a split"? For this method, the entire crown is removed at a height of 10 cm from the ground, and a stalk is inserted into the slot in the center of the trunk. The depth of the splitting is 3 cm, and 2 oblique cuts are made at the very base. Bark should also be combined, as in the previous method. The compound is wrapped, with the help of a garden varar all cuts are processed.
To plant a lemon with a regular kidney, you need a special oculant knife. This tool allows you to make the necessary T-shaped incision, measuring 3x1 cm. The harvested kidney along with a small shield is taken by the petiole, after which it is inserted into the incision with a knife. The device of the budding tool allows you to bend and return to the place of the bark, almost without damaging the trunk. The vaccine is fixed with tape, tape or medical plaster, but the kidney should be outside the winding. The incision is treated with garden var and wait about 3 weeks. A lemon grafted in this way gives fruit for 2-3 years.