In order not to get bored on long winter evenings, get a room lemon! It will fill your home with joy, a wonderful scent of flowers, and the taste of plucked fruits cannot be compared to those purchased. Europeans have adorned their houses and terraces with beautiful lemon and tangerine trees for a long time, lemons came to Russia under Peter I. Since that time, small fruit trees of tangerines, oranges, lemons amaze and surprise everyone who sees them. Combined with myrtle, olive and citrus fruits, they give the apartment a Mediterranean style.
Fruiting lemon in the apartment is real |
There are many varieties of lemon. They differ in the height of the tree, the size and shape of the leaves, and, of course, in the fruits. For our premises, it is advisable to choose undersized or medium-sized varieties so that they can be formed into a beautiful compact tree without damage. It is also important that the plant withstands the dry air of our apartments during the heating season, which lasts almost six months. Why, for example, our winters do not withstand the beautiful citrus fruits brought from the south? Yes, because in the south they grow in open ground and winter at +5 ... + 7 ° С. We cannot provide such conditions, a cool wintering on our windows. And yet, southern lemons are grafted onto the wild lemon Tripoliate, such a rootstock is not suitable for a room.
I want to tell you about the best, in my opinion, varieties for keeping in a city apartment on the south or east window. This is Meyer's lemon, Yubileiny and Novogruzinsky.
Meyer's lemon, or the Chinese dwarf, is distinguished by its small stature (it can be formed at a height of 60-70 cm), an abundance of small fruits (up to 130 g) of golden-orange color with a thin skin, which can be eaten even without sugar. In 2008, we removed 37 fruits from one Meyer's lemon per season.
Lemon Novogruzinsky possesses the most fragrant leaves, flowers and fruits. The height of an adult tree can be from 80 cm to 1.5 m - as far as the area allows. Fruits are oval in shape, with a spout, weighing 120-130 g, very aromatic, contain the maximum amount of vitamin C for a lemon. Up to 40-50 fruits can be harvested from one tree per year. We call this lemon "a gift from Georgia", for tea it is unsurpassed in taste and aroma!
Lemon Jubilee - the most unpretentious and stunning variety in terms of beauty and abundance of flowers. Has the largest leaves in comparison with other varieties - leathery, dark green. The average height of the tree is 80-120 cm. It blooms in bunches - 10-12 flowers per inflorescence, the flowers are very large, beautiful, up to 5 cm in diameter, the bush is literally covered with flowers - an amazing sight. Fruits are large, weighing up to 300-500 g, oval or round in shape. This lemon does not need to be formed, it is shade-tolerant, it tolerates the dry air of the apartment very well. We can say that this is the perfect strain for beginners and very busy people.
A little about agricultural technology.
For planting lemons, you need to use 3-4 liter pots, preferably made of plastic. You cannot plant in a large pot, as the plant will fatten. Lemon is transplanted into new soil once a year in a dish slightly larger than the previous one - 3-5 cm higher and wider. For lemons, I use purchased Lemon soil or make a mixture of deciduous trees and commercial soil in a 1: 1 ratio. One of the common mistakes when growing citrus fruits is over-watering during the winter. Lemons are watered in winter 1 time in 7 days, abundantly, in summer - 1 time in 3 days. You can spray daily. As a top dressing I use Agricola fertilizer for flowering plants in sticks. When planting, I put 7 sticks of fertilizer in the pot and add 3 sticks every 2 months.
Everyone can grow and always have their own lemons, and this is not a myth, but reality.
Lemons are very durable plants. I have seen trees strewn with fruits that were over 30 years old.
