When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade, but what does help you get more lemons? We can easily grow a lemon tree in the home garden. The fresh lemon from the home garden helps to refresh your drink’s anytime you want. There are so many ways to grow a lemon tree, you can grow from seeds or you can buy the plants from the garden shop. I start with growing from seeds.
Growing from seeds:
- Cut the lemons without damaging the seeds.
- Collect the seeds and wash properly and dry them in a paper towel.
- once its dried soak in it water for 4-6 hours
- Plant the seeds in a small pot filled with organic potting soil.
- Water gently throw sprayer
- Keep it in a semi-shade area.
- In 7-15 days you will the plants growing the pot.
Germination Ratio
If you plant 5-7 seeds usually on an average 3 to 4 will germinate. to speed up the germination you can peel the protected layer of seeds using a pin. We can also use the old paper towel method to germinate the seeds.
Transplant
Once the plant grows 2-5 inches, change into bigger pot and keep it in full sunlight area. which helps plants to grow well and produce more leaves and steams. Growing from seeds takes time, we should be wait to get our harvest. Normally it takes upto 2-3 years to get our first harvest.
Potting soil
Citrus plants love the higher PH soil. Make sure your potting mix is a little bit acidic in nature. You can easily find the type of soil by a simple soil test. Soil should contain at least 30% of organic compost/manure, 10% cocopeat, or perlite. Perlite/ cocopeat helps to absorb the water and develop a good root system.
Light
Lemon loves direct sunlight, Keep the pot in full sunlight, which helps plants to grow well. If you growing in the balcony or semi-shade area, make sure the plants get at least 6 hours of proper sunlight. In winter plants might look dull due to the weather, but they will bounce back when the climate is set. if you living in a colder region, you can cover the plant using poly covers at night.
Watering
Check the soil before watering, the plant doesn’t need much water, in beginning, we may need to water frequently. as time goes you can reduce the frequency of watering. Check the top soil, once the soil is dry water them.
Fertilizer
- Organic fertilizers like cow manure, kitchen waste compost, vermicompost help the plant to grow.
- We can dig some topsoil and mix one of the above-mentioned twice a year before flowering season.
- Liquid fertilizers like panchgavya, seaweed, compost tea help to get bigger and bright lemons in the plant.
- Buttermilk mixed with coconut milk called Theemoor karasal (locally)helps to prevent the flower from falling from the plant.
- As said the citrus plant loves acidic soil, check your PH and add some limestone to make it acidic in nature.
Pest control
Leaf miner & Leaf curl disease is common in lemon plants. Leaf miner can be controlled by spraying organic neem oil. If you spot the leaf curl in early stage you can plug the affected leaves and discard. In the case of highly affected plants try spraying some buttermilk, which helps to control the disease. Make sure the plant has all energy to fight the virus, give some liquid fertilizers to boost their energy level.
Pruning
Pruning is very important for trees, it helps to grow better and bigger. After the harvest gives a good haircut to the plant which helps to reduce disease-free healthier plants. Use good pruning scissors to prune the plant. Make sure to sterilize the scissors to avoid any fungal or bacterial infection.
Pot Size
Many people wonder what should be the ideal pot size for lemon. Normally 18-inch pot is enough to grow but as the plant grows bigger, if you had space you can allow the plant to grow and change into a bigger pot/ container/ Grow bag.
Harvest
First, we will spot some flowers in the plant, from there the process of lemon starts, once they get pollinated, it became small cute fruit then it goes bigger and bigger day by day. We can harvest in green as lime or yellow as a lemon. If you want it for juice wait untill turn to yellow and harvest.https://sako.co.in/?p=7212