Lemon tree temptation!

[SkyChild]

Oh I've just been trailing round Dobbies and had to stop when I saw a BEAUTIFUL lemon tree with half a dozen huge fruits dangling from it. £35.00.

Problem being I'm in Scotland and don't have any sort of greenhouse/conservatory nor space for one. My shoulder-devil is busy saying "You could grow it in a sheltered corner against one of your south-facing walls" and my shoulder angel is telling me not to buy such a gorgeous plant just to condemn it to death!

Sorely tempted - try to talk me out of it?

[skeggijon]

We have two lemon trees and a kumquat tree. We keep them in the house over winter and then leave them outside in a sheltered spot during the summer.
As long as the temperature doesn't go below about -5 C they'd be fine.

I wouldn't pay £35 though. Got one on fleabay for £19.99 and the other two I got from the market for a fiver each - with lots of fruit on.

[Alison]

You'll definitely need to bring it in over winter but that may not be a problem for you.

[rhonsal]

I'm in central Scotland and keep mine in the garage (which gets lights through glass in rear door) over the winter!

The leaves and flowers smell amazing - although agree with others that you'll get one cheaper on t'internet!

[starloc]

They wont live outdoors in the winter, just keep them in the house for winter, outdoors in the summer

Usually round this time of year within the next 2 weeks you can get them in Aldi about £10 to £15 , very good trees, usually have a few lemons on them and are usually healthy, I was hoping i would be in the UK again when they got them in

This is an aldi one, but only one lemon, it had more



More expensive can be better, but not always , every year people sell lots of the Aldi ones on ebay for £45 within a week or so

Big trees are obviously better, but harder to put a way for the winter, these are 6 foot tall, old trees, £160 from seagrave nurseries, they also have smaller ones (and much bigger ones) and are very healthy trees



This one was £8 on ebay , again very healthy, small but doubled in size by the autumn, no lemons yet

[hamesy]

Sorry to hijack this thread, I've also been thinking about getting a lemon tree. Could I get a way with fleecing it in the winter and store it in the greenhouse?

[starloc]

Greenhouse is usually fine, better than the house, but you need to shield the leaves from direct strong sun, light is fine, just not light that may heat the leaves if you have string light then you need warm roots
They dont like it that cold , -5C or so but inside a greenhouse they should be fine, i have had them outside wrapped in fleece, the pots wrapped in bubble wrap with bulb ( not led ) christmas lights on them at -20C

[hamesy]

Thats good to hear. I'll keep an eye out on eBay and the local shops and I'll pick a small one up.

[skeggijon]

Like Starloc said, Aldi should be bringing out their stock pretty soon. Might be worth waiting.

[SkyChild]

Oh no I definitely wouldn't be buying the £35.00 one, no matter how lovely!

Good tip on Aldi, I will wait around. House doesn't have much space, but also no central heating so probably quite like a greenhouse environment!

We do get below -5 most winters so will need to pick a smallish tree and try to hide it in a corner. But it should be happy in a pot outside in Summertime so I think I might just give it a bash.

Thank you, shoulder-devils!

[Stevie50001]

Firstly hi - I'm new here

I have just returned from Aldi with my £15 2ft very healthy looking lemon tree.

Problem now though is that I'm not sure what the best place to keep it will be until may/June (when it will go outside)

I have read conflicting advice on overwintering these - I'm not sure its just driven out of necessity or what.

Anyway, my options are as follows:

1) on the floor in a fairly brightly lit kitchen which keeps a pleasant temp and higher than avg humidity (from cooking).
2) office room which is warmer than kitchen and tree could actually be positioned on a table right next to a large window
3) cool closet - no light
4) unheated porch - glass all around. Well lit but rather cold indeed now.


The plant is small enough to go anywhere and my house isvlarge enough to basically put it anywhere it wants to go.... I'm slightly confused on what the best option is as some people seem to favour unheated greenhouses with more light than indoors with less.... Is heat without enough light a problem?

Please help.

I'm tempted to return to Aldi and purchase another 1-2 of these so any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

(Just to be clear I plan to move them outside from may to sept )

[skeggijon]

First of all welcome to the vine stevie - someone more knowledgeable will be along soon (starloc ), but in the meantime, I would suggest the kitchen - I have 1 of my lemon trees in there and find I can get away with spraying the leaves less than the trees I keep in the lounge.

I suggest you buy some winter citrus feed and will soon need a supply of summer citrus feed 9 both available on eeebayyy). Happy fruiting

[starloc]

They always like humidity so kitchen is good, but beware of gas fumes(not often a problem in amount in kitchen)
As long as air temperature is not too cold (frost) the most important things are to not let the roots get cold, the warmer the roots the better, when you water soak the pot and never water until its dry...dust dry! for the top inch or so, when watering in the winter....try to avoid watering and use 25C water, water makes the roots cooler by 10C or so because of evaporation so warmer water makes te plant remember its alive and drinks the water,
underwatering will make a tree shrivvle and leaves fall, over watering will make roots rot and leaves fall, looking like it needs watering
never ever stand it in a saucer, no water must collect on the bottom of the pot,

dont bother repotting the aldi ones for a couple of years....they look rootbound but are fine for a year or 2 they like to be rootbound and wont flower much if they are not
,When it come to repotting , take out of pot and take a kitchen knife to the edges of the roots and chop half to one cm or so off the edges, then repot with fresh compost around and under it it in a pot about 1 inch larger and about 1/2 inch deeper, never add drainage bits to the bottom either, if you do repot it only do it in warm weather just after a batch of new growth is slowing down, the roots are about to grow then it grows in cycles

[Stevie50001]

Thank you both

Just another question (or two) - is the amount of light they receive important? The kitchen position will be on the floor but this particular patch of the wall/floor gets a few hours of south facing window sun shining on it (my wood floor is actually a tad faded from the sun in this area). Yet the floor is cold to the touch ...

Im concerned that I wont get the right balance between root temperature and leaf temperature/light.

It will look very sad indeed in my kitchen if all the leaves fall off!


Also, I was thinking of repotting it into a terracotta pot (of the same size) - purely for aesthetic reasons - since this will be left in quite a prominent area of the kitchen (and a cheap plastic pot that it came in looks a bit 'meh')



Like I said above im thinking of getting another - I don't really want two trees in my kitchen though - would the study be a no go? Here it would be positioned next to a window (south facing) and fairly close to a radiator (but I can turn this off - I thought this might actually be advantageous as I think some people use heat pads to keep the roots warm if the light is intense??)

[skeggijon]

The more light the better. I wouldn't repot - especially at this time of year, but theres nothing to stop you putting the pot inside another more pleasing planter