Everyone's favorite citrus fruits, in addition to their taste and bright skin, are famous for their richness in vitamins, which is very useful for the human body, especially in the winter season. This is vitamin C, and folic acid, and potassium, and bioflavonoids (antioxidants), which are found in lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, limes, and pomelo.
This article will discuss how to grow citrus fruits at home. What kind of plants are citrus fruits? What are they and where did they come to our house from? They came from the sun-kissed, fertile lands of southeastern Asia. These are plants in the form of shrubs and stunted trees belonging to the Rutov family, and some of them are great for growing a house. There are also specially adapted miniature forms for this. Citrus fruits have a sweet and sour taste, an aroma that cannot be confused with other fruits, and a bright color, which in contrast with the rich dark green leaves can truly delight the eye.
Citrus blossoms all year round. Their flowers are pale pink or white, filling the room with a fragrant aroma, and their fruits are able to stay on branches for months.
Before you start growing citrus fruits at home, you should know that these plants, especially citron and lemon, tolerate shade well, and this greatly facilitates home growing. Lemon and citron should be protected from direct sunlight, the rest love the light more and feel great on the windows facing the south side (but the pot must be protected from overheating). In the summer, these tropical plants will be useful to keep in the open air, and in the heat and dryness of the room, the flowers may fall.
In the spring-autumn season, citrus fruits need abundant watering. The water should be soft and well settled, since these delicate plants do not tolerate hard water and chlorine, this leads to yellowing of the leaves. Citrus fruits also respond well to systematic spraying with warm water. In the period from February to autumn, they need to be fed with fertilizers, since at this time they have an active growth. In the autumn and winter, plants easily tolerate temperatures reaching 12-15 degrees, they are much more comfortable in a cool room than where there is dry air. It should be remembered that citrus fruits should be kept away from batteries and from cold drafts. In addition, it is advisable to constantly humidify the air.
If you grow citrus fruits at home, you should not forget that light, heat and humidity are no less important than the composition and properties of the substrate. In addition, the plant needs very good drainage so that the water does not stagnate and the soil does not acidify. A transplant is performed as the entire volume of the vessel is filled with roots. When it becomes necessary to transplant citrus fruits at home, you need to be very careful, because if the roots are damaged, the plant can lose leaves. The capacity for transplantation should be chosen slightly more than the previous one.
In order to successfully grow citrus fruits at home, you need to pay special attention to the moisturizing regime. Between watering a plant, the earth should not dry completely. The water temperature should be higher than the air temperature by 2-3 degrees. If the difference in temperature of the water and the substrate exceeds 8 degrees, the plant will get stress and discard the fruits and flowers. Watering can be done either by immersing the pot in a container of water, or in the usual way. In the second case, after an hour, the water running into the pan must be drained.
With good and proper care, home-grown citrus plants usually do not get sick, and flowering and fruiting occur regularly. Thanks to the release of volatile and essential oils, the air is purified in the house, which has a beneficial effect on humans.