Recently it has become popular to grow various exotic fruit trees in apartments. Such plants look unusual, decorate the interior. Some of them are even able to bear fruit. Among the most famous fruit trees that grow in flower lovers' homes is the lemon tree. Before starting the cultivation of exotics, you should learn how to grow a lemon tree from a stone at home. The advice of experienced gardeners and gardeners will help you get acquainted with all the tricks and tricks.
Lemon tree is a resident of hot countries: India, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey. This is a hybrid representing the genus Citrus. Once upon a time, lemon came from a fruit such as citron. In nature, the tree grows to 6 meters in height. Fruits once a year. In some countries with a very warm climate, lemon fruit twice a year.
Lemon in a city apartment
The tree is compact, evergreen. Leaves do not fall at the same time, but are gradually replaced by new ones. A feature of the plant is in its leaf plates. They have a lemon flavor, like fruits.
The plant is powerful, unpretentious. Schisandra can grow even in the most inappropriate places for this. For example, near the beach, where there is poor soil, and the sun bakes.
Additional Information! In Russia, lemon plantations can be found on the Black Sea coast, in the gardens of the Caucasus. For cultivation, special techniques are used. They consist of digging trenches that protect the rhizomes from low temperatures.
You can grow a lemon at home. In this case, the tree will not be as large as in nature, but it will still bear fruit. It all starts with seed germination. It is important to remember that the plant loves warmth. Therefore, you can germinate a seed only in a room with a comfortable temperature.
A step-by-step process for growing shrubs starts with the fact that drainage is put in the prepared container, then a layer of soil. It is hydrated. On it - seeds that are sprinkled with 1.5-2 cm of soil substrate.
Landing is covered with film or glass. This will create the greenhouse effect, and the sprouts will hatch faster. This will happen within 10-25 days.
How to grow a lemon tree at home? To do this, before starting to germinate the germ, it is important to observe a number of conditions. Among them:
- choose the right fruit from which the seed is taken;
- choose a place for the sprout;
- prepare the soil substrate;
- to get a pot.
Lemon picker
A ripe healthy fruit is purchased at the store. You can determine it by the following criteria:
- saturated yellow color;
- lack of dents, putrefactive inclusions;
- to the touch it should be resilient, not hard;
- it tastes pleasantly sour, without a bitter taste.
Sowing material should be worked on immediately after removing it from the pulp. Seeds have the ability to dry quickly and, accordingly, lose their germination. It is best to take immediately all the seeds that are in the fruit, so the chance of obtaining seedlings will be increased.
Important! Before placing on a substrate, soak the seeds in a growth stimulator for half a day. Another trick is to carefully peel the bones before soaking.
Bones are used immediately after being released from the pulp.
Place for sprout
The pot with the mixture in which the seeds are placed is placed in a warm place. You can place the container on the windowsill located on the south side of the house. If the yard is winter, then the containers are cleaned closer to the windowsill. Allowed to put it in the kitchen. However, this place will become home to lemongrass only for a while. Heat is needed to germinate the sprout. After the plant is extended, it is transplanted and put in another place in the apartment.
Soil preparation
It is best to purchase finished land in a store. It should be marked "for citrus." Additionally, fly ash is added to the soil. This will protect the lemon in the pot from disease.
Additional Information! Another option would be to use the usual universal primer for indoor flowers. Lemon can develop there too. In this case, experienced gardeners recommend adding two tablespoons of peat and one spoon of river sand to the substrate.
Container selection
Bone lemon at home is grown in a wide variety of pots. In order to germinate the seed, the most ordinary plastic container or a low pot is taken. Drainage holes are made in it. This is the first place of residence of a small plant. Therefore, the pot should be selected taking into account that it was then easy to transplant lemongrass from it.
Inexperienced flower growers decide to immediately stick a seed in a large pot. They do this in order to give the rhizome space. But this is unacceptable. The fact is that if there is too much soil space, the rhizome starts active growth, forgetting to build up the upper ground part. As a result, a lemon at home in a pot develops improperly and can quickly wither away.
The container should not be large
Watering regime hatching plants
Lemon at home is easy to grow. The main thing is to do everything right. For example, as soon as a green stalk appears from the ground, the correct watering should be arranged. You can not fill the plant, but leave it in dry soil is unacceptable.
The greenhouse effect film is still in place. Ventilate a young sprout every day. Watered every 2 days. Surely used filtered filtered water.
Many do not know what a lemon sprout looks like. At first it was just an elongated green shoot resembling a thin blade of grass. Then leaves appear on it. When the sprout reaches a size of 3-4 cm, it already has 2-3 strong elastic sheets. The color of the leaf plates is emerald. The surface is glossy. Seedlings can be planted a month after planting.
Lemon sprout
Temperature for seedling sprout
Lemon sprout needs not only warmth, but also the absence of drafts, sudden coolness. The optimum temperature of the newly emerged seedling sprout is about + 27 ... +30 degrees. Provides her a glass cap or bag, draped over the container.
For a worthy growth of a young plant that has already been freed from the package, the temperature should be at + 22 ... +25 degrees.
Note! As soon as the greenhouse cap is removed, the plant is kept away from the gas stove, balcony, from which not only cold air can blow, but also the aroma of cigarette smoke. Indoor lemon bush does not tolerate gas and smoke. Because of these smells, it can even stop in development.
The temperature for sufficient development of the seedling sprout is higher than for an adult indoor lemon. An adult plant feels good at + 17 ... +22 degrees.
The home tree has a very decorative look. For the crown, it is allowed to perform forming pruning. The lush bush can be turned into a sophisticated green ball.
Especially the lemon shrub is beautiful when snow-white flowers bloom on it. Each flower has elongated petals and smells pleasant, after which lemons are poured on the branches.
Additional Information! A lemon plant will decorate a variety of interiors, both classic decoration and hi-tech style.
Lemon tree in the interior
Homemade lemon how to care? It is impossible to grow a beautiful lemon shrub without proper care. It is not enough just to plant a seed, a plant must be maintained throughout its long life. Lemons are long-livers. They can grow for three decades. Lemon care includes:
- choice of a comfortable place;
- watering;
- pruning
- fertilizer application;
- organization of wet cleansing procedures.
They try to place a tub with an adult tree in a lighted place. It is allowed to put it on the floor near the window facing the south side.
Watering is organized as necessary, approximately 1-2 times a week. Like all exotics from warm countries, lemon adores moderately moist soil. If water remains in the pan, it is drained. This will prevent root decay.
They try to carry out forming pruning from the first year of life. If the goal is to get the fruit, then pruning is replaced by pinching the apical point of the main trunk and side branches. If growing a tree is only aesthetic, then there is one rule - the branches are cut so that a neat crown is formed, for example, in the shape of a ball or rectangle.
To get a neat crown, pruning is carried out from the first year of life of the plant
Fertilizing begins as soon as the first leaves appear on the sprout, and continues continuously. Introduce complex mixtures, organic is allowed. These substances contribute separately from each other. Fertilize planting every 2-4 months. In winter, they refuse this procedure.
Some exotic lovers may encounter such a problem as the lack of fruiting in the lemon bush. Perhaps you should just wait. The first flowering and fruiting of a house near a decorative tree can occur 4-6 years after planting. However, there is a method that will significantly accelerate this process. It's about grafting lemongrass.
How to get a lemon shot
Lemon vaccination is almost a surgical procedure. It requires experience, as well as the necessary tools and prepared material, which will correctly plant the plant.
Experienced gardeners advise before planting a lemon, prepare a scion and stock. The rootstock may be a young lemon shrub, which is still far from flowering. As a stock, it is allowed to take a tree of cultivated orange. Prioya is necessarily a shoot of a tree that is already bearing fruit. Still need a sharp knife, treated with alcohol.
There are two ways to get vaccinated:
- Copulation. In this case, someone else's graft is grafted onto the trunk.
- Budding. Here, one living bud from a fruiting shrub is attached and fixed to the trunk.
Copy vaccination
Growing a lemon at home is possible for both a beginner grower and an experienced one. Among the important agricultural rules are planting only fresh seeds taken from a ripened fruit, competent care for the sprout, and after that - for an adult plant. It should be remembered that the exotic perennial does not like drafts and fears the cold.
