help with lemons

[lei]

Hi i have a patio lemon tree and have got 12 lemons (big) but they haven't gone yellow what can i do please

[rustylady]

Where are you Lei?

[starloc]

Lemons take a long time to ripen, its the cold that makes them go yellow ( not too cold though , not outside or anything ), it needs to be below something like 12C to go very yellow above that they will go patchy yellow with green but still can be used, green lemons can be used as well but are not as bitter, they go bitter as they ripen

They like room temperature to drop below 12C at night for chill hours to help them flower next year as well, if they are constantly warm they will not ripen as much

The lemons that were just flowering when i bought them from aldi last year about February are just ripe now, in a room that gets 25C during the day and has no heating and a window open at night ( if theres no frost!)

My big trees seem to ripen much quicker but i keep them outside so they get much cooler nights all through the year, but again summer lemons stay a bit greenish

A lot of the ones bought in supermarkets are harvested green and ripened afterwards using gas, but they dont tase as good

When they ripen on the tree, you can leave them on the tree as long as its looked after well for about a year as well