Meyer Lemon

[Artisan]

I have a young Lemon tree that I planted in a container at the end of May this year. The Lemon is outside at the moment and gets fed with a liquid Summer feed every week. When I bring the tree indoors for the winter do I have to continue feeding or do I just water. I know I must not over water the tree in the winter but I'm not sure about the feeding side. If anyone could give me some advice I would be grateful.

[TrixC]

You can get special winter citrus feed but I never bother with mine, I just water it once a week.

[Artisan]

Meyer Lemon

Hello TrixC, thank you. I have seen the winter food but I did wonder if it was just another way of getting you to buy another product! Do you have your Lemon outdoors in the summer and bring the tree indoors for the winter? That is what I am going to do. I have the tree south facing against a south facing structure which it seem to like as the little tree is doing very well. Talking about the winter, living here in Devon in the South West I was hoping to keep my tree in my plastic pop-up greenhouse covering it with fleece in the coldest of weather. The only other place I have is my studio which, although, has good light it is not the same as keeping the tree in a conservatory.

If anyone has any comments concerning the over-wintering of the tree in a pop-up greenhouse I would be pleased to hear them.

[devonuk]

I am in Devon. I stick mine in an unheated glass greenhouse. Last winter I actually had a couple of seedlings outside all winter and they were fine (not recommended for valuable plants!) A grass frost won't kill them but one good hard freeze will - if anything colder than -3C is forecast I'd recommend fleece and possibly put them in a shed/bring them into the house on really cold nights. (It hasn't been cold enough for me to do that for several years, though).

They won't be growing much so won't need much feed (or water) - perhaps one very dilute feed a month of your summer feed or a general fertiliser. I wouldn't bother with specialised citrus feed.

[Artisan]

Hello devonuk. Thank you for the really helpful advice. As I do not have a glass greenhouse I was thinking of using a pop-up plastic greenhouse in a sunny but sheltered area in my garden up against a fence. I would secure the greenhouse against high winds by tying it into the fence. I also have an enclosed Paraffin greenhouse heater which I could use on the coldest of nights but I’m not sure about the safety aspect using flame, albeit covered, in a plastic greenhouse. Anyway, I also want to store a dwarf container grown Apricot tree for the winter to avoid Peach Left Curl from the winter rains.

Thank you again for the advice. It has given me the confidence to proceed with my plans for winter storage.

[starloc]

You will regret leaving it outside ( if you do ) for the winter, it is too cold! Meyer lemons are not that cold hardy.
Feed all year round any time you water with the summer feed., only water when it is dry so much less often in the winter.

[Artisan]

Hello starloc. Thank you for your advice. Would I still have problems even if I over wintered the Lemon in a plastic covered greenhouse in a sunny but sheltered part of my garden? Historically we get very few frosts in this part of Devon and often no snow at all. On reported frosty nights I can give the greenhouse some heat just to keep the temperature up a little.

[starloc]

The plastic greenhouses provide little protection, to keep outside i would put in the greenhouse and wrap that with bubblewrap a couple of times making sure it seals all gaps , to make it happy i would add a lightbulb soething lie an old tyle 100w bulb incase it gets very cold, the problem with adding extra heat when it does get cold is the heat may rise even lightly and the plant may start growing and then frost will get the new growth.
if it get icy or snow etc then tree lights and a bulb hung inside the `greenhouse` would protect it down to about -10C

I used to keep my large trees outdoors in Liverpool -10C was ok with a bulb hung inside and fairy lights then frost fleece the trees were fine but the frost fleece froze to the plants and killed ends of the branches, you need to keep it 6 inch or so from the plastic tent to stop damage.

I keep a few pomegranate trees (with a max low temp of -5C to -10C) outside here at -25C just by chucking a bit of polythene over and then wrapping with about 3 inch thick of bubblewrap, the thin branches die at the ends but the tree survives... but they are not happy about it!.

[Artisan]

Meyer Lemon

Thank you for the valuable advice. I think it would easier if I just went back to Tesco to buy Lemons!