How to make a lemon bear fruit and will it do without grafting a tree grown from seed or cuttings?

Lemon - a plant unpretentious and heat-loving, who came to us from the southern countries. A good option for growing at home, as it does not require serious care and easily blooms at room temperature. Lemon can be easily grown from a seed that is simply planted in the ground. Also come with cuttings.

However, in order for the plant to bear fruit, you need to be able to properly care for it. It is about leaving, in more detail, will be described in the article. In it, future or current owners of a lemon tree, will be able to find answers to all their questions and have a healthy lemon at home, which will certainly bear fruit. It is important not to forget that every plant needs care and attention. Without them, they usually die soon enough.

What does a lemon tree need?

Light, temperature and humidity are the main conditions for growing a citrus tree. It is possible to create favorable conditions for lemon at home.

Health and Immunity

Viruses and bacteria are one of the causes of tree disease. Some of them carry insects, others spread through the air and can be planted in a pot due to a lack of oxygen. Weakening of the immune system is the most common disease of homemade lemon, and often the person himself is to blame.

Main reasons:

• Poor soil.
• Adverse conditions such as fever or humidity.
• Incorrect watering and (or) fertilizer.

Proper maintenance and care

1. Lemon prefers a long daylight - for this it is necessary to correctly position the tree in the apartment (for example, east or west windows). In winter, the plant must be placed closer to the window and illuminated with a phytolamp 5-6 hours a day. In summer, the tree should not be exposed to drafts and direct sunlight.
2. The plant does not tolerate heat. The optimum temperature in room conditions is from 18 to 20 ° in the summer and 12-15 ° in the winter. Lemon does not tolerate a sharp change in temperature, therefore, during the period of winter dormancy, the tree can be watered with slightly warm water.
3. In the room where the citrus is located, the air should be well moistened, for this the room needs to be systematically ventilated, and a container with water should be placed next to the plant.Once or twice a week, lemon must be sprayed.

The timing of flowering and fruiting

Many people wonder when indoor lemon should begin to bloom and bear fruit. It turns out that it can bloom in the first year of life, however, it is recommended to cut off the flowers in buds, since flowering greatly depletes the young plant and can destroy it. It is recommended to bear fruit when there are already at least 20 leaves on the tree.

Himself the period from the beginning of flowering to fruiting takes 6-8 months(depending on grade) while maintaining the necessary conditions. Homemade lemon blossoms twice a year - in winter and autumn. After planting, the tree will be able to please the fruits only after three to four years.

With proper care, lemons at home can bloom and bear fruit for about 40 years. The main factor in the life of the plant is your concern, since the life of a tree can always be prolonged with the help of air cuttings, cuttings and grafting onto other plants.

Why doesn’t the house produce a crop?

There may be several reasons for the absence of homemade lemon fruits, for example:

• If citrus is grown from seed, the plant must be grafted and wait a few years before flowering begins.
• Pests and bacteria.
• Dry air or high humidity.
• Poor soil, lack of fertilizers and minerals.

Improper care

However, the main reason why indoor lemon does not bear fruit is because of improper plant conditions:

1. Increased or reduced room temperature. The optimum temperature in the room for growing a lemon tree is from 18 to 20 degrees Celsius.
2. Wrong watering. It is necessary to water the lemon regularly, with pre-settled water, so that all the chlorine can disappear from it. In summer and spring 2 times a day, in winter - 2 times a week. The temperature for watering should be selected room.
3. Lack of fertilizer. Homemade lemon is fertilized during the period of active flowering from March to September, once or twice every two weeks, otherwise the tree will lose its color. During winter dormancy and in the presence of diseases, the plant should not be fed.
4. Incorrect location and lighting. Lemon is recommended to be placed closer to sunlight. An excellent option would be rooms with windows facing west or east, and a warm loggia is also suitable.

   But it is worth considering that citruses are afraid of drafts, especially during flowering. In a hot season, the tree must be shaded. Unacceptable sunlight on the plant, this will lead to burns of the leaves.

5. Incorrect soil.
   • It is better to prepare the soil yourself (earth, leaf humus and sand in equal proportions).
   • Do not lay layers of different parts of the soil.
   • The earth should be loose, without lumps.
   • Drainage can be added to the ground to provide oxygen to the roots.
   • The soil acidity level is not more than 7 (pH = 7), determined using an ionomer.
   • The soil must be fertilized regularly.
   • Once every two years, a citrus tree is replanted with a complete replacement of the soil.
6. Bad pollination. The fruiting of the lemon will occur without any intervention on your part. If you want to get a plentiful harvest, you need to use a cotton swab to shake the pollen from the stamens on the pestle.

   It should be careful, as there is a high risk of damage to the flowers. The procedure should be repeated in the next couple of days. A tree can bear fruit both with pollination and without, but in the latter case, seeds are not formed in the lemon fruit.

7. Too much flowering. A large number of flowers takes a lot of power from a plant. It is necessary to periodically remove the extra ovaries so that the citrus can bear fruit.

   It is recommended to leave 10 leaves per 1 flower.

When will a bone-grown culture produce fruit without vaccination?

A lemon tree grown from seed without grafting will become fruitful only 12-14 years after planting. To accelerate fruiting, the plant must be grafted.

How to get vaccinated?

There are two ways to graft a citrus tree:

• Budding is the safest method. A young and strong lemon bud is placed under the bark of a young seedling. This method has a high percentage of survival.
• Copulation - more traumatic for the plant method. The cuttings of the fruiting lemon and the mother tree are cut at an acute angle with a special, disinfected tool and fixed to each other. It is important that there is no exposed wood after grafting.

Could the age of the crop be the reason for the lack of harvest?

Old lemon may not produce fruit for the same reason as young lemon - improper conditions of detention.

Lemon tree lives and actively bears fruit up to 40-50 years, the main thing is to properly care for him.

A young plant, on the contrary, will not bear fruit for the first few years. A grafted lemon grown from a stem under the right conditions will give the first fruits after 3-4 years, and one that has sprouted from the seed may not bear fruit even after 10 years.

Can I make a lemon tree blossom or not and how?

The proper development of the lemon tree is facilitated by proper care. There are several ways to make a plant bloom:

1. You can create extreme conditions. For example, perform a short cut or slightly damage the bark of a lemon tree by tapping it with a stick or other object. It is also possible to hang a small load on vertical branches so that the branches take a horizontal position. In this case, the tension of the bark will contribute to flowering in a stressful situation.
2. Crown formation. At home, it is recommended to form a tree in a flat shape. To do this, you need to incise and carefully break off the shoots to the windowsill. After the dimensions of the window opening and the crown become the same, they pinch or even trim. With this type of crown, the lemon will feel great and will be able to give a good harvest. The main thing is to have time to form a crown before fruiting.
3. Pulling branches. The branches need to be pulled together with soft wire at the beginning of the sap flow - in order to concentrate the nutrients in them, which will come in handy during the next flowering. In November, the plant is released from the garter.

What to do when buds appear?

With the advent of the first flowers, the citrus tree should be kept at the optimum temperature (16-18 degrees). Also, you need to adjust the number of ovaries and prevent overload, especially during the first flowering. From the beginning of flowering and until the fall, the plant is fed lightly using organic and mineral fertilizers. Watering a lemon tree during flowering is necessary twice a day.

Reasons for falling ovaries

There are several reasons why the plant blooms wildly, but does not bear fruit.:

• Unsuitable temperature and lighting.
• The age of the tree - perhaps the lemon is still too young to bear fruit.
• Too poor soil, lack of complementary foods and fertilizers.
• Inconsistency in the number of flowers and leaves (one flower per two dozen leaves; the rest to cut off in buds).
• Dry soil or, on the contrary, overflow.
• Improper pollination (gently transfer pollen with a cotton swab from bud to bud).

In this way, It’s difficult to make lemon blossom and bear fruit at home, but interesting. If you follow all the above recommendations and seriously approach the cultivation of a plant, it will certainly thank you with exuberant flowering and many fruits.

Watch the video: How Long Does a Lemon Tree Take to Produce Fruit? (December 2024).