Room lemons: description.
Usually house plants lemon are small elegant trees that have shiny dark green leaves that can fill the room with the fragrance of dreams, dazzle the whiteness of flowers, please with pimples green points, through time which are filled with golden shine of fruits, bringing happiness and health to the owners.
In Russia, the history of the appearance of this plant has been preserved. Ironically, initially citrus plants could only be found in poor people's homes. More than a century ago, a handicraftsman brought two casks in Pavlovo (on the Oka) from Turkey, in which were lemon trees. And since that time lemons are grown at home and every tourist who comes to the city of Pavlovo will see in the windows of houses greens and citrus fruits.
The homeland of citrus: subtropical and tropical regions, Southeast Asia. Therefore, for good growth, flowering and the presence of fruits, the plant needs light, moisture and sufficient heat.
Of citrus plants, the lemon has gained great popularity and is used not only in pottery, but also in industrial production.
The lemon tree is sprawling, not high, in many varieties there are strong spiny branches. The flowering of the lemon continues throughout the summer, blooming with fragrant flowers. On the branches both ripe fruits and green fruits can be simultaneously. If you leave a ripe fruit on the tree, it will turn green again, and will turn yellow again in the new season.
Sow the seeds need fresh, that is, just taken out of the lemon. A month later shoots are beginning to appear. At the age of 3 years, the plant is planted with oculization, with the bark well separated, this time occurs in May or August. If the plant is more than three years old, then it is planted with cuttings with the presence of two kidneys. In this case, the plant begins to bear fruit after 3 years. The first buds must be removed. For 4 years you can leave on the tree 4 ovaries. Each time the load of fruits increases, and on an adult tree they can be several dozen.
All lemon plants grown in room conditions have a noticeable periodicity in their life cycles. For a year, flowering, and hence the tying of the fruit in some cases observed up to 3 times. This is due to the fact that vegetative growth of the plant occurs in waves, while new shoots grow on branches.
With the help of a nip you can accelerate the beginning of flowering plants. Each time a young shoot leaves 3-5 leaves, only the top of the plant is removed. The lemon trees thus formed look compact. The leaves are 2 times larger and in the tree the substances necessary for further lush flowering and for successful fruiting are accumulated. In this case, the trees of the lemon start to bloom for the first year, they hardly shed their leaves and are not sick.
A citrus leaf can live about 3 years. It was noted that the yield depends on the preservation of the leaf cover.
To speed up the flowering process, it is possible and in another way: if the lemon tree was grown from cuttings, it is not transplanted, but is transferred until the age of two.
Plant transshipment is carried out only when the root system occupies the entire container and leaves the drainage holes.
The rules of lemon care.
Location. Lemon - plants that do not like drafts and prefer the scattered sun. For a better life of the plant it is placed on a stand, next to the window. In the summer, the tree can be put on the street. In winter, the plant is placed in a bright ventilated room with a temperature of up to 8 o C.
Buds develop at 15-17 degrees, if the temperature is higher, this adversely affects the flowering. But in the period of development of the pods, the temperature should be 2 degrees more. In the autumn-winter period it is advised to provide the plant with additional lighting, thereby prolonging the light day for at least 4 hours.
Watering. Watering is moderate and is carried out as the substrate dries up with soft water. In the morning and in the evening it is necessary to spray the leaves, because the plant does not tolerate dry air, and begins to dump flowers and leaves. If the plant is kept at 20 ° C or more, it is advised to increase the humidity of the air, for this it is sufficient to place a container filled with water near the plant.
Care. In summer, the plant is fertilized 10 days once, in winter at 30 days once.
It is preferable to use a 0.5% solution of potassium nitrate and a mixture of superphosphate solution with the addition of slurry. In fertilizer in the form of slurry (at the rate of 1 part of manure, for ten parts of water), the plant needs especially in May.
The crown of the tree needs formation. To do this, the young plant is pruned in February with a tip, but leaves 5-6 buds, which later form shoots of the first order, of which there are symmetrically located 3-4 shoots. So form a second-order branch. After the formation of 4 branches of the bush is considered formed. Until the bush is formed, flowering is not allowed, because as soon as the buds appear, the vegetative growth stops.
Pollishes a blossoming lemon with a brush or cotton swab, with which the pollen is transferred from the stamens of some flowers to pistils of other colors.
Transfer. In their entire life, these houseplants can only grow in two pots. First, the lemon is planted in the first 20-25 cm pot, but as soon as it grows small the plant is transferred to a 40-45 cm pot.
The composition of the nutritional mixture: humus, turf and leaf earth, sand, everything is taken in equal parts. The pot must be equipped with drainage.
Propagation by cuttings, grafting and lapping.
From young ripened shoots (0.5 cm in thickness) cuttings are cut in early July. Cuttings should be with 4 kidneys and in length 10-12 centimeters. The lower cut thus passes through the node, and the upper layer above the kidney is 3 mm. The lower leaves are removed, and the stalk is planted in moist river sand (pre-washed) and covered with polyethylene.
Diseases. Dry air, drafts, carrying the plant from place to place, excessive watering and drying of the earth coma in winter - all this leads to the fact that the plant begins to discard the leaves.