Lemon Tree

[Jackie464]

I have a lemon tree which I have had about 10 months. I keep it indoors in the winter and out on the pation in the spring and summer.

After it arrived till the spring it kept producing many blossoms and at the same time losing leaves. It didn't lose all its leaves. We have just brought it back indoors. Currently it looks healthy, has about 15 reasonable sized lemons growing and some more blossom. The problem is that in the 10 months I have had it it hasn't produced a single new leaf. Lots of blossom almost all the time, plently of fruit some of which has set and others dropped, but no new leaves. Does anyone know why??? Jackie

[starloc]

They grow in stages, they grow roots for some time, then grow new shoots, normaly they grow quite a bit of new growth just as the weather gets sunny, quite early on.

what fertilisers do you use?, have you ever repotted it?

A lot of citrus fertilisers are totaly incorrect npk and as such they will often keep a plant alive but not give best growth

If its in the original pot and a bit rootbound but the compost looks ok, it will stay small with low leaf and shoot growth, more engery will go into flowering, as long as its still looking healthy i wouldnt mess with its pot size now,

if its still not growing in march ( best time to repot citrus ), i would knock it out of the pot and see if the roots are circling the pot, if so, find another pot about an inch bigger in width (1 maybe 2 inch wider but not any bigger ) , and then using a sharp kitchen knife chop downwards through the soil taking the outer edge ( about 1/2 an inch ) off the rootball all the way round and across the bottom removing all the outer roots, then repot in the slightly larger pot using a decent citrus compost preferably with some perlite added
The roots will all shoot new growth when you trim the ends off, and shortly afterwards it will grow leaves and shoots,
as long as you only go about an inch bigger it will still flower next year, go to a massive pot and as well as watering problems you will find it will not flower much giving only a few fruit , this is a common problem when people go up from something like 5L to 30L pot thinking a big pot is better, its great if you want a big tree and no fruit for some time as long as you control the watering but not if you want fruit, for fruit stick to small pot size changes.

[Liza]

At this time of year they are fine / best outside ( they grow quicker due to light levels and pefer the moisture in the air ), once it gets to october they need to be inside untill there is no chance of frost, if you have frost and want it outside you an wrap the plantpot with bubblewrap and then the whole plant with fairy lights nd frost fleece on the outside, the plant then will grow ok outdoors, as long as you kep frost off it the temperature isnt usualy a problem but it must not actualy freeze so its best kept indoors in winter, bring them in and take them out at a point when the room is about the same temperature as outside so they dont notice the temperature difference

Heated mats if its in the winter, inside the house , it will stop the leaves from falling of and the plant dieing , the roots need to be over 70F for the plant to operate, any light on the leaves if below 70F the leaves overheat and fall off, the lack of leaves means te roots will be too wet as they cant use the water and the roots rot and the plant dies

2 ways for winter, cold roots and dark, or warm roots and light , both need humidity in the air, if you put it on a bright window ledge light is ok, but not direct sun on its leaves unless you have a heatermat

How big do they grow....It depends on the plant!, but if you prune them you loose the fruit for that year as most types of lemon mainly fruit on the newest growth, they dont grow that quickly though, but the bigger the plant the more lemons, new branches grow all the time from the center, so they grow lemons on them and you can prune a bit at the top if needed ( but you shouldnt ), it will branch underneath anyway when pruned and flower on the new branches, they tend to flower all year long unlike most citrus so unless pruned a lot its not that much of a problem

if you keep it in the house over the winter the most important thing other than the warm roots is the air temperature, the daytime temperature is not important as long as it gets no frost, the night must drop below 12C for 400+ hours over the winter ( when you add up all the cold hours ) to make it flower next year, the more cold hours the more it will flower
Cooking in the room wouldnt hurt i dont think as the steam will increase humidity, as long as it doesnt get too hot, but thats unlikely

Hi Starloc,

I have a one foot tall lemon I got for xmas, its in a cool conservatory on a heated germanator tray ( lid off ! ) I am watering it directly into the tray so it creates some humidity feeding with winter Chempak.

The leaves are dopping one a day, any suggestions ?

And where can you get heat mats from ?

many thanks

Liza

[northmaid]

I bought a lemon tree last september and the advice given was to bring it in to the cold greenhouse around October. I wrapped the pot in bubblewrap over the really cold period and it has survived, albeit with some loss of leaves. The grower told me not to bother with the faff of summer/winter feeds but to use seaweed extract watered in throughout the year about every ten days in summer, less in winter when it should only be watered the pot was drying out. Re-pot with ericaceous compost around February/March and that I would need to re-frame it with longer canes. I think this was because of the variety it was, as she was also selling other varieties which wouldn't need staking.

[starloc]

Hi Starloc,

I have a one foot tall lemon I got for xmas, its in a cool conservatory on a heated germanator tray ( lid off ! ) I am watering it directly into the tray so it creates some humidity feeding with winter Chempak.

The leaves are dopping one a day, any suggestions ?

And where can you get heat mats from ?

many thanks

Liza

The heated tray should work fine, but if your heating it put it in as bright light as you can get as long as the roots are warm, it will drop leaves here and there due to shock of new suroundings

Watering into the tray, never leave water in the tray to wet the pot, the roots will get too wet, put the pot onto the tray to heat the pot and to add moisture to air , put a tub of water in the tray , just so it cant water the plant, you need to let the plant dry out very dry to a couple of inches down before soaking the pot well with feed/water

[starloc]

I bought a lemon tree last september and the advice given was to bring it in to the cold greenhouse around October. I wrapped the pot in bubblewrap over the really cold period and it has survived, albeit with some loss of leaves. The grower told me not to bother with the faff of summer/winter feeds but to use seaweed extract watered in throughout the year about every ten days in summer, less in winter when it should only be watered the pot was drying out. Re-pot with ericaceous compost around February/March and that I would need to re-frame it with longer canes. I think this was because of the variety it was, as she was also selling other varieties which wouldn't need staking.

Citrus need high levels of nutrition, the seaweed stuff is ok but the tree will suffer in the long run, the npk is incorrect for the plant so the plant will starve of nutrition , also there are many micronutrients needed that are in the citrus feed that the plant needs, Citrus feeds vary most arent that good reading the bottle you can see the NPK ratio and the micronutrients listed, any of the seaweed based ones (even listed as specific citrus ones) are incorrect for citrus!, ones by chempak,global orange groves, vitax and the citrus center work well , i tend to use the chempak one as its easiest to get, but i will be going back to the citrus center one for my larger trees as its cheaper and gave more flowers and fruit

Some time back it was thought that it was best to feed till the autumn, but it has been proved that feeding a citrus tree in the winter will give better growth and fruiting next year , the feeding untill the cold came from the belief that the plants were dormant in the winter and also from the fact that trees were mainly grown in places like spain and florida in the ground , when grown in the ground there is a high level of fertiliser that the plant can feed from you just dont add extra in the winter to let the plant harden up for the winter, when grown in a pot there are no reserves for it to feed from so you need to keep feeding in cold months, but you need to be sure that you dont over water so feeding will be more spread out as you still need it to dry between feeding

[indian]

Well i have lost all the leave's of my lemon plant,as i had knowhere this year to put it inside,so will just have to hope that it has survived and trust to luck