Among the variety of exotic plants in offices and homes, you can often find a roomy lemon tree, which has long been no longer a curiosity. And if you have a desire to bring natural diversity to your greenhouse, we will tell you how you can grow your own lemon at home.
It would seem that there is nothing complicated in this, but that the exotic miracle year-round delighted the owners with a green crown, surprised with its flowering guests and qualitatively fruited, it is necessary to work decently."House of Dreams" will help you understand the issues of growing lemon in the home.
How to grow a lemon at home
Lemon incense in your house
The room lemon, unlike a tree growing in distant countries, primarily differs in size. The house sapling is short, can reach 1.5 meters in height and has little spines. However, the fruits of a lemon grown with love are in no way inferior to imported southern varieties.
To grow a lemon tree at home, two breeding methods are practiced - vegetative and seed. His active growth falls on February-March. Fruiting evergreen citrus tree begins on the third year, flowering happens twice, in the spring and in the autumn. Fruits ripen about 8 months, and they can be collected up to 20 pieces!
This representative of citrus with his presence will bring exotic notes to the interior, in a special way will embellish it and fill the room with a pleasant delicate aroma. In addition, the lemon is credited with interesting properties: the ability to disinfect air and kill harmful microbes, positively influence the mood of a person, cohesion in the family and material prosperity.
Lemon tree at home photo
Growing a lemon from a bone
In order to grow a lemon from a bone, which will give full fruits, serious preparation is needed. It is not only to bring lemons from the supermarket, take out the bones and put them in the ground. The first thing you need to stock up on is knowing what kind of soil to plant a seed, how to replant shoots, how to care for a growing tree and protect it from disease.
Seeds should be removed only from mature and intact fruits, and freshly harvested should be immediately planted. Since not all the bones can produce sprouts, it is necessary to plant a dozen seeds. Further, in order to choose "worthy" specimens from, it is desirable to plant all the seedlings, since some of them may die.
Soil for planting use purchased, as well as self-cooked. The proportions for the soil are as follows:
- 2 parts of the land, preferably from under deciduous trees;
- 1 part of sand;
- 1 tablespoon of ash and three humus( per glass of soil).
Water is added to the resulting composition to form a thick mass. Seed the seeds in small cups with a small volume to a depth of 2-3 cm and cover the top with a film.
Growing a lemon from a bone photo
The first shoots you will notice after three months. When the leaves appear, the film is gradually removed, accustoming the plant to the surrounding microclimate. If there are more than one in one vessel, those that are weaker will need to be removed. The transplantation time of the obtained seedlings will come in six months. Together with the earth, they are carefully moved to the pots by just 5 cm more in volume from the previous ones, since the root system of the lemon does not like a large space.
Lemon in the home from the bone
Fruits from such cultivation will have to wait a long time, but it is the simplest and most reliable. Saplings obtained from seeds adapt to room conditions better than cuttings. They adapt more quickly to the climate, are characterized by endurance and a greater likelihood of fruiting.
Reproduction of lemon by the way of rooting cuttings
Cutting is the second way to plant and grow a lemon at home. The best period for carrying out this process is April-May. The shoot in size 10-13 cm is taken from the upper section of the crown of an adult tree, the lower leaves are removed from it, and 2-3 upper ones are cut off. Before planting the cuttings, it is desirable to lower them into a growth solution using indolyl-butyric acid( 30 mg per liter of water) or heteroauxin( 0.1 g per liter of water).
The planting material is no different from the one described in the previous section. With the help of a film or a can of lemon it is necessary to organize a greenhouse that is periodically ventilated. After a couple of weeks, the cuttings will begin to take root, and after 1.5 months they will be ready to transfer to a half-liter pot. Transplanting the roots, you can not release them from the old soil.
How to grow a lemon tree
To grow lemon seeds or plant a stalk is the simplest thing that almost anyone can do. Room lemon requires a lot of attention, and to wait for the fruits, except knowledge, how to properly care for the lemon, you need patience for quivering care in a few years.
- Pruning
To prevent the lemon from turning into a thick tree and giving fruit, you should simulate its crown. When the central shoot reaches 20 cm from the ground, it is cut off. When the branches of the second order extend to 18 cm, they do the same with them, but the length of the cut off part is reduced. The process of pruning the lemon at home continues until the appearance of shoots of the fourth order. On them, and laid flower buds. Formation of the crown takes place for 2-3 years. As lemon grows, it is transplanted into a larger pot.
- Watering
Lemon needs moderate watering: in hot weather it can be up to 3 times, in cold weather - 1-2 times. Do not allow excessive moisture, since the roots can rot. For watering, use water at room temperature, without chlorine, melted, spring or spilled water. It is also necessary to sprinkle lemon leaves daily, especially in summer.
- Location of pots
The lemon tree, unlike some other southern plants, does not like bright sun rays. Therefore, pots should be placed on the southeast side and periodically rotated. Lemon also does not like hypothermia and drafts.
- Top dressing
For successful growth and fruiting of the plant, it needs a complete fertilizing, for which fertilizers for ordinary houseplants are suitable. Do not overuse and additional feeding, which can lead to his death. Increased fertilizer lemon tree is required only in spring, during the period of accelerated growth.
- Winter care
In the care of a lemon at home in the winter there is nothing complicated. First, you need to prepare a room in which the temperature will be 8-15 degrees, limit the amount of fertilizer, cut watering and continue to do a weekly inspection of the appearance of your handsome.
How to care for a lemon at home
Possible pests and diseases of a lemon tree
As with all indoor plants, a lemon has its own "enemies".The most common are scab, aphids, mites. They feed on the juice and greenery of the plant, which causes the leaves to shrink and the stems to curl.
Lemon should not be near other colors, as this increases the risk of infection.
To prevent the invasion, do almost daily "bypass" trees. So, when you notice something wrong in a timely manner, you can easily cope with the problem.
The observed pests are removed using cotton swabs or a soft toothbrush soaked in a soap or anabasin sulfate solution. Leave the solution for a day and repeat the procedure every week until the disappearance of traces of uninvited "guests."
The main diseases that develop due to improper care are black fungus and gummosis. When the lemon hits the fungus, the leaves become covered with a grayish coating and begin to twist, and with gommosis the bark is damaged, which leads to the drying of branches and leaves.
If, while growing at home, the lemon still succumbs to the disease, it is necessary:
- with a black fungus - sprinkle all the saplings with a 1% Bordeaux mixture and remove diseased leaves;
- in case of gammosis - clean the damaged area, treat it with a 1% Bordeaux mixture, close it with garden sauce and disinfect with copper sulfate.
You can treat lemon both with the help of shop preparations and folk remedies, for example, with infusion of celandine, garlic, onion husks or solution of laundry soap( 5 g per liter of water).
As you can see, in order to grow a lemon at home, you need to be patient and take good care of it - as a result, the homemade lemon tree will necessarily give you the fragrance of well-being, pleasure and enjoyment.
