Do you like lemon tea? But a lemon tree at home can also be grown and delight yourself with citruses annually. True, in order for a wild bird to turn from a stone into a fruiting plant, it will take a lot of strength and knowledge.
But citrus fruits feel great in urban apartments, so the hardest part is to take the first step. You ask: "And where to get the seedling?" There are two options: you can take a sprout from the nursery, where lemons are for sale, or you can grow it yourself from the seed. The second method is not only much longer, but also much more interesting. For those people who want to get the fruits of a lemon tree quickly, it is better to choose the first option. Specialists from the nursery will explain to you how to care for the seedling, they will tell you after how many years the lemon will begin to bear fruit. In this case, the plant is often already grafted, which means it is guaranteed to bear fruit. But attempts to grow a lemon from a seed are also successful in most cases. This citrus tree has excellent survival rate in comparison with its other "counterparts" - oranges or tangerines. This explains the trend that lemon tree at home can be found more and more often.
Conditions for growing a lemon tree at home
Your seedling, no matter how you purchased it, will need enough sunlight and heat. Do not forget that citruses grow in humid climates, so try to reproduce the same tropical conditions in the room where the lemon is located. For example, spraying leaves very well affects the growth and survival of the sprout.
But it is better not to put a young plant in the sun, hold it for several days in partial shade, allowing you to get used to new sensations for it. Remember one more feature: the lemon tree does not like frequent movements around the house. Choose a place for him in the apartment where he can calmly spread his crown, and try to disturb as little as possible, move carefully. Lemon grows in stages, especially actively - the first 5 years. During this period, it must be transplanted annually into a larger container. In the tub where your sprout grows, you need to pour in a layer of drainage (fine
gravel, expanded clay or a special drainage mixture, which can be purchased at a flower shop), sand and humus. Lemon tree at home needs fertilizing with fertilizers and the period of "wintering". It is expressed in the movement of the plant into a room with a lower temperature. But its difference should not be sharp - it will destroy the sprout. Do this gradually, lowering the temperature every time by 4 degrees.
Grafting lemons
Citrus grown from seed will produce fruit only after 6-10 years. A graft sprout from a cultivated fruit-bearing lemon will reduce this period to 2-3 years. There are 2 ways of grafting: splitting and T-shaped grafting. To plant a lemon tree, you must first purchase a stalk of the citrus variety that you like. Leaves are cut on it, and the buds are left. When vaccinating in a split, cut the stem of your plant in half to a depth of about 5 cm. The graft (cuttings of a high-grade lemon) should also be sharpened with a knife so that it makes wedges. Now connect the stalk and splitting so that the layers match. Tie the vaccination site tightly with film or polyethylene.
T-shaped budding - the work is smaller, requiring accuracy from you. To plant a lemon tree at home in this way, you should carefully make an incision on the bark with the tip of a knife in the form of the letter "T". Insert the kidney from the scion into the resulting “pocket” and, just as in the first version, wrap the vaccination site (you cannot close the kidney).