Lemons grown in a tub ?!

[whitbybabe]

Please help a complete novice ! I have planted tons of stuff from seed this year and so far so good . The thing is I have today bought a lemon tree , and have followed the instructions but there werent many ! I soaked it for an hour as instructed and then planted it in a tub with compost , and placed it in my conservatory as its cold out at the moment .
(A) Do I need to put it outside for any reason ?
(B) Do I need to cut the tops of the stems off a tiny bit as they are blunt and flat ?
(C) Do I need to give it 6 hours sun a day ?

Any help will be greatly appreciated .

Many thanks , whitbybabe (alison).

[md0u80a2]

Hi

You need to feed with a specialised citrus summer feed.
Keep on the dry side, then soaking well when dry - remember, they are not designed for wet UK.
Move outside in the summer and back inside for winter.

That is it. I have 6 lemons on mine and a few tiny baby fruits from its january flowering - I pollinated with a brush as there werent any insects!

Good luck

Morris

[starloc]

The best thing you can do is search the internet and read all the posts a few times on caring for citrus, theres some posts on here, but theres a a few citrus only forums such as citrus growers forum, citrusnorth , ubc etc , all the posts are about citrus so theres a lot of info there

The 3 most important things with lemons, dont overwater it, dont go to too big a pot, and use a very free draining compost, something like a citrus compost with 50% perlite added, using a normal compost the tree will die, usualy quite quickly from overwatering and incorrct pH due to most composts having lime added, citrus hate lime and nearly all composts hold too much water

Dont put it outside at night, untill there is no risk of any frost, unless you are going to cover it up at night
Dont prune it, at all, if you want any fruit, they only/mainly fruit on new growth , pruning will loose this years fruiting, the trees nornaly will have been pruned to give blunt tips, they will shoot new growth from the pruned parts anytime know
Lemoms do not need full sun, but they like a lot of what they get, 16 hours or so a day, but they will do with less, unlike some plants they do not need any dark hours

With it being in the conservatory, check the humidity isnt too low, they hate dry conditions in the air

Now you have soaked the pot, make sure you leave it till it drys dust dry about 2 inches down in the pot before watering again, ue a citrus fertiliser when you water it

A good tip to do is to spray once a week with citrus fertiliser to wash the leaves top and bottom ( stops spider mites ) spraying with water every night top and bottom is good as well, just dont get the compost wet when doing it, once a month add a teaspoon of epsom salts ( in a tiny bit of boiling water to dissolve it ) into a litre of fertiliser and use that to spray the leaves to make sure it gets enough magnesium.

In the winter, plan for a heater mat for the tree, it saves any problems with winter leaf drop ( WLD )