Lemon tree advice please

ALIBOBSY

Mine citrus are both still out in an unheated greenhouse and look pretty happy, but always debate each year if I should bring them in the house or not. When it went down to -15 I brought them into the unheated porch to keep the worst off them.

Ali x

DaftyDuck

Anyway... my greenhouse collapsed in the storm last night, so I guess my cosseted citrus are effectively going to rough it outside with the others anyway!

Just spent an extended lunchbreak searching online for replacements... there are hundreds of suppliers and thousands of greenhouses.... Yikes!

Returner

I wonder if I might have some advice please?

I bought my first ever citrus a few weeks ago, a Meyer lemon. It is covered in flowers. Which, having now read this thread, makes me think it is a little out of step with the citrus world and should now be dormant for the winter? Or not?

It is currently in an unheated, south and east facing conservatory. How should I care for it through the winter and whilst it seems very insistent in putting on fruit? It's only a little thing...maybe 18" tall. But very determined I think!

Thanks

DaftyDuck

Being covered in flowers now isn't too unusual, but it will take quite a bit of energy from the plant. The conservatory is as ideal as you can make it - short of moving a few hundred miles south.

It may have been forced into flowering in order to sell, or did the flowers develop after you'd got it (which would indicate you are doing everything right anyway! :A )?

So, I'd keep it in as sunny a spot as possible. Don't worry too much about cold, and certainly light is better than cold, so I'd not move it into the house, not even for a few days.

Don't over-water it. I was away in Cyprus for two weeks, mine got no water during that time, and didn't need it for a few days after my return. Seriously, the majority of citrus get over, not under watered in winter. Let the soil begin to dry a little, then water... but never leave to stand in a puddle! You can even prop the pot up in its saucer (on gravel or a couple of sticks).

It the air is dry, spraying the plant with a mist will help keep the flowers, but you'll get water marks on the leaves (which isn't a problem, just looks nasty).

You can use fertiliser if you want, and specialist fertilisers are available, but they cost £££ (and are of debatable use... they all argue over what NPK ratio is best for citrus....). Miracle grow is a reasonable fertiliser to use, and is a heck of a lot cheaper. Maybe use fertiliser once a month, not much more. Fertilising heavily during winter is not really essential - especially as you want most of the flowers to fail to make fruit. Indeed, pick of setting fruit, except for about five on a plant of that size.

Don't be tempted to repot yet. Citrus can manage with tiny pots, and will let you know they need repotting by pushing themselves up in the pot. If needed, it's best done when the plant can be poked outside in early Spring.

Nope, I think your lemon sounds pretty happy where it is. So long as it doesn't over-exhaust itself by trying to grow a dozen lemons, it should be fine. Those lemons flowering now may take all year to grow, so they'll be ready this time next year. G & T for Christmas.

Cheers ....

Returner

G&T next Christmas it is then!

Thank you for your advice, my meyer and I appreciate it I assume I select which tiny fruits to thin based more or less on position so as to have no crowding?

DaftyDuck

Returner wrote: »

G&T next Christmas it is then!

Thank you for your advice, my meyer and I appreciate it I assume I select which tiny fruits to thin based more or less on position so as to have no crowding?

Edit: (Sorry if tupos... have sliced fingers with a knife)

Mainly remove fruit for "looks". Imagine the fruit is full size, and branches might touch some friut marking it. Try to remove fruits from ends of stems (as it will weigh them down and may break them) and spread fruit out on each branch. NOt all fruit that looks like it has set (stays green) will be fertile, so wait until each fruit is about last-joint-on-pinkie-finger-sized then select those that look "good". Some fruit will rapidly blacken at less than this (either not fertilised, or loses circulation to stems), and that is best picked off. (They small divine drying on a radiator).

I think, on an 18" plant, I'd aim to thin to fifteen fruit pinkie size (early March) then take that down to six or seven whan thumb joint size (May?). Obviously, in a perfect world, you'd thin to just six or seven straight away but, with my luck, two or three of them would then fail.

Returner

I think a knife-sliced finger earns an extra G&T, don't you DaftyDuck?

Thanks again for your help. I shall follow your guide and see what happens. I have so many lemon recipes that I shall need several lemon trees once I have the knack!

DaftyDuck

Fixed fingers with insulating tape and kitchen paper... all now well I think. Mind you, it might be too much G & T that led me to forget the knife in the washing up water!

Don't try to grow more from seed... it's generally pretty unsuccessful!