In summers, lemon juice is very affective to cool down body temperature, Vitamin-C, kidney stones, reduce body weight, and few other diseases. Its a small fruit but very affective.
You can grow lemon in your gardens too. Actually, lemon tree should be common in all the terrace or ground gardens. So I hope, if you have a garden then you will plant lemon for sure.
Let's understand how to grow lemon in pots at home.
How to grow a lemon tree/plant at home in the garden?
Lemon tree farming requirements at home
Pots/containers
It doesn't make too much difference to choose either cement, soil pots, or plastic bags pots for lemon plants cultivation at home.
For each plant, you need 15 to 20 inches in diameter and a 12 to 15 inches deep pot. One thing common among all these pots is drainage holes to release extra water and moisture from the soil. This unnecessary water can damage the roots and reduce the growth of the lemon plant.
If you are growing lemon plants direct from seeds, then you need at least 25 inches big pot for 10 to 15 seeds. Later, when these seeds become sprouts, you can transplant them in the same pots as mentioned above.
Soil preparation
Lemon plants can't grow in your normal garden soil. They grow better in fertile soil with the proper required components. To prepare soil mixture for lemons, you need a ratio of 5:3:2 of garden soil, vermicompost/organic compost, and river sand respectively. It means, for a 1 kg soil mixture, you need 500-gram garden soil, 300-gram vermicompost/organic compost, and 200 grams of river sand.
For each plant till harvesting, 6 to 8 kg of soil in each pot is required.
After mixing them, spray some water to make it moist and fill in the pots. Now you can sow the lemon seeds or plants.
Fertilizers use in lemon farming
The most common market stuff is NPK and urea. They increase the growth of plants for sure but they are harmful as well. We don't suggest you use any kind of non-organic fertilizers.
Instead, you can use vermicompost or organic waste compost direct in your pots. There are almost nill side effects of organic or vermicompost.
You just have to spread the compost in the soil mixture and immediately spray some water(not to wet the soil but to maintain moisture).
Lemon tree farming process in pots
Sowing of seeds and nursery plants
People complain that their plants are not getting flowering or buds like the lemon plants. The reason is simple. Before 5 to 7 years, lemon plants don't get either flowers or buds. So it is better to use 5 to 7 years old nursery plants directly in your garden pots.
Fill each of the pots with a prepared soil mixture. Dig holes in each pot of 5 to 7 inches deep and 4 to 6 inches wide in the middle. Spray some water on the nursery lemon plant roots and put it in the holes and cover it with the same soil mixture.
Spray some water gently and keep it in the direct sunlight.
You can use a small cultivator to dig holes and transplant the lemon plants.
Lemon plant growing stages from a nursery plant
Stage 1(Initial growth)
In this stage, you have to make sure that plant gets strong roots and starts to grow and produce new leaves. You have to maintain moisture as well as fertility in the soil. Provide them proper sunlight of 5 to 7 hours.
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Stage 2(Strong stem and dense leaves)
In this stage, plants start to reach their height and produce denser leaves. This is the mid-growth period of lemon plants. You have to follow the same routine as you followed in stage one including spraying pesticides.
Stage 3(Appearing buds and flowers)
After 180 to 200 days, each lemon plant starts to produce buds. These buds become flowers after 4 to 6 days. After pollination, these white flowers convert into lemon fruits.
Stage 4(Harvesting of lemons)
After 230 days(considering you followed each step), white lemon flowers convert into green lemon fruits. It takes at least 10 to 20 more days to become yellow lemon from green.
The best time is the morning period to harvest them. Use scissors to cut them from their joints.
Irrigation of lemon plants
You have to be aware when you see soil get dry during the growing period. Just pick the soil from each pot and rub it with your fingers to check the moisture. If you find it dry then spray water. But don't shower too much water, especially in winter, otherwise, the soil will get wet and affect the growth of the plants.
In winter, you can provide them with water once in two days period. In summer, it depends on the temperature and soil moisture at that time. It is uncertain when you have to provide them with water. The common time is the morning period to provide each lemon plant water.
You can use spraying pots or buckets or utensils to provide each plant water through spraying.
#Don't spray water when buds start to appear on each plant, otherwise, they can fall from the lemon plants.
Compositing lemon plants every 12 days, you can provide organic compost to each plant. They don't hesitate to grow if you maintain the same duration. But spray some water just after you spread the compost in the pots. It makes it easy for plant roots to absorb the elements from compost.
Remember, your last composting must be 20 days before buds start to appear on the plants. If you spread compost during buds become flowers, then flowers will not take time to fall.
Pesticides for lemon plants
Pesticides are important in lemon farming. We suggest you use a Neem mixture with water. In one liter of water, you can use 30 ml concentrated neem(either oil or neem fruit).
It is better to avoid disease instead of later treatment or cure. So each 5 to 7 days, spray this liquid mixture on each plant. This will avoid the bad insects and your plant will be healthy.
#Don't use pesticides when buds appear on the lemon plants.
Mulching in lemon plants
Mulching is a process to maintain moisture as it covers the moist soil from direct soil. In a real practical sense, mulching slows down the vaporization of soil moisture in direct sunlight.
You can use dry leaves or any common organic dry stuff to cover the soil. Later, this layer of dry leaves or organic dry stuff melts into the soil and provides more fertility to the soil
The layer must not be more than 1 to 1.5 inches to cover the soil.
Lemon plants don't like pruning
People like decoration as well as the fast growth of the plants. So they start to cut the upper part of each twig. It works with some plants too.
In the case of lemon plants, pruning is not a good idea. Practically, lemon plants don't like any disturbance with their growth. If you apply to prune on the lemon plants, then plants will not get buds or flowering for a longer period.
If you want, then you can cut the dry wigs of plants from their joints.