lemon tree

deemy

Has anyone any advice on how to look after a lemon tree. Thanks

The Sweeper

Deemy, any info on what cultivar you have?

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you have a Eureka (apparently the most common type of lemon in the world).

Your healthy citrus should have dark green, evergreen leaves. Yellowing of the leaves, curling of the tips and spots on the leaves is a bad sign. It can be pests or infection, but also I find lemons very picky about where they 'live'.

Lemons shallow root so they're subject to drying out if you're in a dry area or they're getting a lot of sun or wind and no water. They also hate the cold and frost. If you haven't planted them out already, try planting near a brick wall, or in a corner where two brick walls meet - the walls absorb heat during the day and radiate it back at night, providing a little protection from cold. (Don't plant them near a metal fence, because they'll radiate cold at the tree if there's a frost.)

Buy a specialist citrus fertiliser and fertilise the tree as per the instructions on the packet. Eurekas crop in Winter, with other, smaller crops in spring and summer.

If the lemon is already planted out in a very open area, and if it is I'll assume it's struggling, you'll either need to erect some sort of shelter for it or plant something fast-growing to act as a windbreak. Another trick for winter is to cover the ground around the lemon with sand. Sand won't freeze and it absorbs heat during the day which it will reflect back up at the tree at night, helping create its own little solar zone when the frost comes.

Never underestimate how susceptible citrus is to looking truly doomed depending on its location. I have a kaffir lime in a 25 litre pot and I relocated it to what I thought was a sunnier position, without realising it was open to the prevailing winds in the same location. Two weeks and it started looking extremely sickly - yellowing leaves, drooping, (if it could cough it would have been coughing). I relocated it to a sheltered area, with just as much sun (the joy of having it in a pot) and fed and watered it appropriately and it's perked right back up.

Beruthiel

majd,
A friend of jeff's gave him a little seedling of a lemon tree for me.
It's tiny, maybe 3 inches high.
I know nothing about lemon trees.
At the moment it's in a little pot outside on my window sill.
Should it really be inside as it's only tiny, or is it grand where it is for now?

The Sweeper

Ruthie this is a broad judgment, but I find that many plants destined for outdoor life don't cope well with the transfer from a domestic setting to outside.

The transfer from greenhouse is different, because greenhouses don't have central heating - they just intensify sunlight and keep off frost. A lot of indoor plants, when moved outdoors from areas that have had central heating, will lose foliage and die a bit while adjusting, so on that basis I'd keep your lemony seedling on your outside windowsill for now as long as that's a sheltered area.

As I said originally leaves should stay green, and yellowing or curly appearances should be identified inmediately to figure what the problem is. Otherwise, leave it, feed it and repot it if it growth spurts.

Lots of lemon trees perform very well - fruit and all - as pot specimens if fed appropriately and pruned annually when they get big enough.

TrapperChamonix

I have a 4 ft one in a pot. Happily producing up to Lemons (small to ready to pick) on the tree at any one time

Here's what I know

Needs a frost free winter environment (sheltered outdoor spot or preferably indoors). From May to Sept it should be happy outdoors.
Suspitable to red spider mite. CAn spray to get rid. Also I find the most effective way to get rid is to leave the plant out for the summer season.
Growth this year gives flowers and fruit next year. So pruning produces vigourous growth this year, but it takes a little time for the fruit to follow.
The advice I've seen is that it does not like to sit in water. Best to allow it to dry out between watering. Then when watering give it a good amount of water.
I also use specialist fertiliser.

Nice decorative plant, but the harvest isn't enough to keep the wife in GnT's.

Minder

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Lots of lemon trees perform very well - fruit and all - as pot specimens if fed appropriately and pruned annually when they get big enough.

Any tips on pruning citrus - my Kaffir lime has gone mad - producing some very long shoots, flowered and now has tiny fruits developing. I'll wait until the fruit has finished before pruning. Are there any hard and fast rules - like counting buds from the main stem? Can citrus propagated? When should it be repotted?

TrapperChamonix wrote: »

Suspitable to red spider mite. CAn spray to get rid.

Red spider mite and citrus spider mite are very damaging to the plants. They will suck the sap from the leaves, resulting in a mottled effect. Leaves die and drop. Most pest controls will kill the mites but leave the eggs. I found it effective to blast the tree with a hose, making sure i got underneath the leaves and rubbing the leaves while washing the plant. I covered the soil with clingfilm to stop the mites falling into the soil. Once dry, i applied the insecticide. After two applications, it seems to have worked. Fingers crossed.

deemy

Jes, I have no idea what variety it is. sorry. Its about 4foot tall and i have kept it in the pot I bought in.(nothing wrote on its tag) I had intended to keep it in doors as tbh I didnt think it would survive outdoor in ire. I hoped to keep it in either the porch or kitchen, both of which are sun traps in morning and evening respectively.
It looks fairly healthy. There is a few black spots on some of the leaves but these rub off with kitchen paper. Should I take off black spots. I guess so. Just noticed also that when i rub some of the leaves a blood looking substance is coming off on paper, when i rub a few white spots that are also on it. I suppose these mean that it has some sort of bug problem?? Any ideas on a natural remedy rather than using any chemicals.
Looking at it again there is a few yellow spots any 5 or 6 of the leaves so we must have mites.
Thanks for all info so far. Thought it was fine but now looking more closely me thinks there is a prob so hopefully someone can help me out
thanks a mill

The Sweeper

Minder - pruning - this linkie has good information:

http://ag.arizona.edu/gardening/news/articles/18.21.html

Basically it seems that if you can leave your citrus tree alone, then do. The pot-based pruning I've seen here done by someone who has good success; she takes out one, large, central branch, at the trunk, whenever the tree starts to outgrow the pot. This allows the surrounding branches to become bushier (producing more leaves which, as with the above link, produces better fruit) and takes the height out of the tree, keeping it as a manageable pot specimen.

She also - (and this is interesting, because this woman's gardening is like a dark art but her success is indisputable) - she identifies branches as 'male' and 'female'. She says some branches will bud and fruit, she calls those the females, and some won't flower at all, and those are the males. When taking out a central branch, she always ensures she cuts a 'male' branch, one that doesn't flower, so she's not interfering with the fruit-bearing potential of the tree.

As for citrus propagation, most of what we'd grow from seed probably won't bear fruit, though it will grow into a healthy enough plant. Most citrus you buy from garden centres and nurseries is grafted from guaranteed stock so you'll definitely get a plant that will bear fruit, being a clone of a fruit-bearing tree.