Now many grow lemons of different sorts in the room: Pavlovsky, Meyer, Novogruzinsky, Panderosa. Florists appreciate this plant for its beauty and a lot of useful properties. But, despite the relative unpretentiousness, there are certain rules for maintaining and caring for the lemon. Want to know how to grow lemon at home without problems? Read and learn.
Specially excreted lemons are very fast, often even blooms bloom, which accelerates their rooting. Some of them (for example, Panderosa) are generally a hybrid between a lemon and a grapefruit. The lemon tree is medium-sized, small, so it does not require much space. The leaves are large, blooming, flowers with long petals, larger and more fragrant than other lemons. Buds lay at the ends of branches in the inflorescences or one or two in the axils of the leaves. The fruits are large, weighing from 200 g and above (individual weigh up to 500 g), an obovate firm, with a light greenish flesh and a lot of seeds. The taste of fruit is less acidic than that of those sold in stores.
With the water, determine yourself
For good growth at home, lemons should be provided with sufficient watering. But the amount of moisture should not be excessive. With insufficient watering, the plant quickly withers and loses its foliage. This process is quite easy to prevent, but it will be very difficult to correct the situation. With too much watering, especially if the soil is in a high-density pot, the roots are not delivered enough oxygen and the plant starts to hurt. There may be chlorosis, in which the leaves are painted in a white-yellow hue. Lemon can not tolerate overflow even more than drying. Therefore, you need to know how much moisture your plant needs. And watering is also necessary correctly. Here are some basic tips for watering:
1. The water you are about to water your lemon should be at room temperature. To excessively cold water (from the tap) it is always necessary to mix warm.
2. Part of the water during irrigation must always penetrate through the bottom of the pot on the pallet. For this, there are holes in it.
3. Sometimes a plant watered quite often, maybe even every day, but little by little. And only the upper layer of the earth moistens with water, and under it everything remains dry. And you are perplexed: why does the plant dry up during daily watering. So for this, too, you need to monitor and do not do unnecessary actions.
4. It's hard to say definitely how many times a week you need to water a lemon. This can depend on many factors. The size of the flowerpot, the age of the plant itself, and the density of the earth coma play a role. Important factors are also the air temperature, and its humidity in your apartment. Remember: the more loose the soil is in the pot and the smaller it is, the more earthen soil dries out and the more often the plant needs watering. Sometimes you even have to water a lemon every day.
5. Water to the plant is required in accordance with its size: the higher and higher the lemon - the more water. If your apartment is warm and dry, then you need to water more and more often than in a room with moist and cold air.
6. Do not forget that a lemon, like any other indoor plant, needs abundant watering during a period of active growth, especially in spring and summer. In winter, watering the plant can be much rarer. The earth needs to be allowed to dry a little between two waterings, but do not allow it to dry out. Even in winter, because of the excessive dryness of the land, lemons begin to lose leaves.
SMALL RAINING ON LEAVES
In addition to watering from time to time it is necessary to moisten and leaves. Such measures are needed to clean the surface of the leaves from the accumulated layer of dust. Such moisturizing "like" almost all indoor plants, not just lemon. In addition, you need to know that the leaves also absorb the water that accidentally hit their surface. That's why it is useful for a lemon to wash the upper surface of the leaves weekly. And try to buy a small sprayer (they are now sold in hardware stores in a lot) and spray it with leaves. Especially it is necessary to lemon by the end of the winter period, when the central heating batteries are still hot and the apartment is very dry air, and the pre-spring growth of the plant has already begun.
AGE WE LITERATE
The transplant should be carried out once a year, each time in pots of an increasing size. The calculation is as follows: a one-year-old plant - the volume of a pot is 1 liter, a two-year pot is 2 liters, and so on. A ten-year-old plant can usually be grown in an 8-10-liter pot and is no longer transplanted, only the upper layer of the soil is replaced annually.
During the transplant, the main thing is not to destroy the old earth clod. You do not need to throw out the old earth either. It is enough just to add to the bottom and sides of a new good land, filling it with voids in a new large pot. Root system after transplantation grows very quickly, forming a new network of roots, which flies outside the whole earthen lump. With an annual transplant, you can achieve that in a large pot the roots of the plant will be placed inside the earthen coma almost evenly. So it will be easier for them to digest minerals from the soil and feed them all the plant, since the roots will have access to the entire mass of earth in the pot.
The main mistake of many lovers is to try to give the young lemon plant everything at once. Often a small plant is planted in a large pot. Let, they say, grow several years in one without a transplant. Actually, on this growing of lemon at home usually ends. The plant either just stops in growth, or dies. This can not be done, since the main roots of the plant will develop only in the outer part of the earth coma, and the inner part of it will not be used.
COMPOST is NECESSARY
It is even better to take leaf earth instead of compost. If you can not mix it yourself, you'll have to buy it ready in the store.
To plant lemons, the land must be rich in humus. Therefore, the earth mix for them is prepared by taking in equal parts compost (or very thoroughly reparted manure), sod land and sand.
But even the best land will not be able to provide the plant with food for life. The first months after planting fertilizing are not needed. In fresh soil, which provides the plant with enough nutrients, the roots grow very quickly. In summer, lemon is fed with infusion of mullein 2-3 times a month, in winter 1-2 times. You can use for fertilizing and ready-made fertilizers, sold in stores.
DO NOT STAND!
Immediately after planting, a lemon for a week is placed on the western or northern window, on which the sun is least. And only then the lemon can be transferred to the most sunny window, the best is the southern one.
Too sharp temperature fluctuations in the home can not tolerate any houseplant. The same has to do with lemons. H is worth putting them in a place where the window opens for ventilation, especially in winter. In the case, if there is no other place, then the pot is rearranged for the time of ventilation, so that the plant does not fall under the cold air.
But keep in mind that the lemon feels better and grows more willingly when it can not be moved from place to place and do not turn around in different directions. Lighting is also preferable to the same.
ON SUMMER - IN THE GARDEN
Lemon is a southern plant, which means that it grows better, blossoms and fructifies when it receives more heat and sun. Therefore, in summer you can grow lemon on the balcony or in the garden. However, a sharp change in living conditions for him is also dangerous.
In the case when a plant from a room that was poorly lit, sharply falls into the conditions of strong illumination - one can not avoid burning the leaves. At the same time they form stains of dead tissue, often the leaves begin to fall off. So the plant should be gradually accustomed to new conditions, to strong lighting. To begin with, you can put it in a place protected from the wind from the north side of the building, where there is practically no sun. Later, the plant begins to move to new places with more and more bright lighting. But it is best to immediately determine for the pot with the plant a permanent place, having built for him some protection from the sun. In the future, it can simply be gradually removed. But nevertheless it is necessary to remember, that lemons concern to plants in which in direct sunlight leaves start to turn white (chlorosis), therefore it will not prevent them in the periods of especially bright sun finding under the covering material thrown on a plant.
HOW TO BREW
The lemon reproduces easily and quickly with the help of cuttings. Take a young shoot of lemon and cut into pieces (each should be 2-3 leaves). Do this with a sharp knife. When creating the appropriate conditions, each of the cuttings takes root. You can process the cuttings with any growth stimulant and plant it in calcined wet sand in a small box. So to do rooting in a box, depending on its size, you can have several cuttings. Planting cuttings can be pretty close to each other. The main thing is that the leaves get enough light. On the edges of the pot I stick a few pegs and put on a plastic bag. Once a week I remove the package for airing, sprinkle the cuttings with water.
Rooting occurs within 4-5-6 weeks. It depends on the time of year, the air temperature in the room and the temperature of the earth in the box). Determine that the cuttings are ingrained, you can by appearance. As soon as the buds buds sprouted and new shoots began to form with small leaves, it means that they gave roots and went to growth. Now they can be carefully removed from the sand and, shaking it, transplanted into pots.
WE PRODUCE BEES
Blossomed rooted plants for 3-4 years. In order to guarantee the formation of the ovary, during flowering I transfer the pollen with a soft brush (or a match with the cotton wool wrapped on it) from the flower to the flower. Usually this is done on the second day after the petals are opened. The stigma of the pistil becomes wet and sticky. Pollen, which is applied on the stigma, quickly sticks to it and sprouts.
The lemon flower (if it is normally formed) consists of five thick fleshy snow-white, corolla-curled petals. In its center is a thick pestle with a clavate-like greenish stigma. Flowers can sometimes be same-sex - only masculine. They are usually formed in diseased or weakened plants. Lemons are very abundantly blooming, and several times a year. But not all flowers will tie fruit, because there must be at least 10 leaves per ovary. Leave one fruit for 10 leaves.
The fruit, which began in March, may grow by the autumn, as its development occurred during the summer months. And from the September flower, it will grow longer - until August next year. If the plant is strong and healthy, then the fruits will be larger.