Citrus × limon
Lemon
Common names: Lemon tree
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 0 °C
- Harvest
- Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
- Spacing
- 300 cm, rows 300 cm
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen · Public Domain · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The lemon is the most well‑known citrus pot plant, an evergreen shrub that bears flowers and fruit almost year‑round. Its intense fragrance and sour, juicy fruit make it a classic for terraces and balconies. In the DACH region it is not winter‑hardy and requires a bright, frost‑free winter location. Robust varieties such as 'Meyer' are somewhat more tolerant and fruit more abundantly.
Care instructions
Move the lemon outdoors fully sunny from mid‑May (week 20) after the ice‑free period, to a warm, wind‑protected spot. Water regularly with low‑alkali water and fertilise weekly with citrus fertilizer from April to September. Over‑winter it in a bright place at 5 to 12 °C and water sparingly thereafter. Prune in spring (March, week 11) to shape a airy canopy.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestJan–Feb, Nov–Dec
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, well-drained, humus-rich
The lemon needs a very free-draining, slightly acidic substrate (pH 5.5 to 6.5). Waterlogging quickly leads to root rot. In the climate of the DACH region you grow it as a container plant in special citrus compost or a humus-rich substrate loosened with ripe compost and coarse sand or pumice, with a drainage layer of gravel or expanded clay at the bottom of the pot. Water with rainwater where possible: hard tap water raises the pH over time, and the lemon dislikes lime.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar–Sep
Start feeding from the first new growth in spring (March/April) and supply the plant regularly through the main growing period into late summer. In spring, work ripe compost shallowly into the substrate and add horn shavings as a slow-acting nitrogen source; during the growing season, keep up the supply with organic feeds such as worm compost. From September reduce gradually and stop feeding altogether for overwintering. In its dormant stage the plant gets no fertiliser.
Overwintering
Bring your lemon tree, as a container plant, into its winter quarters frost-free before the first night frosts, because it does not tolerate lasting frost. Place it bright and cool (for example a stairwell, conservatory or cold greenhouse), water only sparingly in winter when the substrate has dried out, do not feed, and gradually acclimatise it to the outdoors in spring after the last frosts.
Propagation
Methods
- Cuttings
- Grafting
- Layering
Cuttings (main method): From June to September, cut semi-ripe shoots 10 to 15 cm long and remove all leaves except the top pair. Insert the cutting into lean, free-draining seed compost (e.g. mixed with sand) and cover the pot with a transparent dome to create a humid microclimate. The position should be bright but without direct sun. Bottom heat of around 25 to 28 °C speeds up root formation; after 6 to 8 weeks roots are usually present. Cuttings are clonal and therefore true to variety.
Grafting (for the experienced): If you want a particularly robust plant with a hardier root system, you can graft a shoot of the desired variety onto a rootstock, for example Poncirus trifoliata (trifoliate orange). The ideal time is in spring. Make sure that shoots below the graft union always come from the rootstock and must be removed immediately.
Air layering / moss layering (as an alternative): On a strong branch, score the bark in a ring, keep the wound open and wrap it with moist moss. Seal the whole thing airtight with film and keep the moss evenly moist. After a few months roots form. Then you can cut off the branch and plant it. The advantage: the layer is supplied by the mother plant until it forms its own roots.
Sowing (not suitable for keeping a variety): Lemon pips do germinate with warmth and moisture, but the seedlings are mostly not true to variety and need many years to the first fruit set. Sowing is therefore unsuitable for deliberately raising a particular variety.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
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