Growing citrus plants at home is not a difficult process, but it should be approached correctly. Lemon, tangerine, orange and other exotic plants are, as a rule, natives of tropical latitudes, cultivated and adapted for home cultivation. In order for plants to form correctly, they need systematic top dressing, correct watering and optimum crown illumination. About lighting for indoor lemons and tangerines we will talk in this article.
On the importance of lighting citrus plants
Light is one of the key factors for plants, which allows them to exist. If it is too much or too little, this will immediately affect the nutrition of the plant, since they consume energy only in this way. Light allows the process of photosynthesis to proceed, in which organic substances are produced in plant cells from inorganic compounds consumed by plant roots, which are used to form leaves, shoot growth, flowering and fruiting. Too much light and too long a period of illumination disrupt the natural processes in the leaf cells and negatively affect development.
How to independently assemble the backlight from ordinary fluorescent lamps Optimal lighting for citrus plants is considered to be 5000 lumens and a duration of twelve hours.
How to get the lighting right
A very large number of factors affect the amount of light received by a house citrus plant.: this is the orientation of the windows in the direction of the cardinal direction, their size, the number of storeys of the house, and indeed whether they are washed or not.
And, since light is critically needed for indoor lemons, tangerines, citrons and other citrus fruits, and in order for them to receive it in sufficient quantities, the habitat for them should be properly organized.
Lemon in its natural habitat receives a large amount of sunlight Many people remember from school that the intensity of light decreases very much with distance from the light source, namely, in proportion to the square of the distance to it. And if you don’t remember, then it’s okay, for us it only means that the plant needs to be placed as close to the window as possible. If, for example, a pot is carried away at a distance of 3 meters from the window, then only 4% of street light can reach it.
You should also know that the most dimly lit places in the house are the corners. There you need to be very careful to ensure that the light is sufficient.
But there can be not only little light for a plant, but a lot, and in this case it becomes not a friend, but an enemy. Direct scorching rays of the sun, especially on the south side at noon, can cause severe burns on leaves of both lemon and tangerine. If there is no other option where to place the pot, then you should shade your citrus by building an obstacle in the form of gauze or a mesh that scatters direct rays. This should be seriously monitored, even an adult plant can die from heavy burns on the leaves. But if you suddenly didn’t watch and the leaves were damaged, then you must definitely spray them with soft water, adding a small amount of stimulant - Epin.
Special light for plants, usually has a one-time shade In addition to leaves, the roots of plants can also suffer from overheating, especially if they are grown in dark pots. In this case, it is recommended to shade the pot, for example, with a sheet of cardboard, or to place the plants below the level of the windowsill so that the crown is illuminated, but the plant is not.
If everything is organized correctly, then spring and summer will become the most intensive period for growth and development for a home citrus plant, since at this time it receives enough light and can fully grow, bloom and bear fruit. At the same time, do not forget about complex top dressing so that he has something to eat.
Lemon lighting by seasons
But in autumn-summer period, when natural light is reduced by reducing daylight hours in our natural zone, it is also possible to allow a citrus plant to fully grow and develop. Indeed, in conditions of lack of light, plants start the processes of consuming stored nutrients, which will significantly slow down the development and growth of the culture.
To support a homemade lemon, tangerine or other exotic plant, use artificial light. For this, special lamps for plants with a specially selected spectrum are used. Typically, their light looks like pink, but is actually a mixture of red and blue light.
If the plant is illuminated, then it develops faster Citrus plants require 5,000 lumens of light and a daylight cycle of 12 hours of light and 12 hours of rest. Lumens can be measured either by pointing the camera at the surface of the sheet - many digital cameras have such a function, or by installing a special application on a smartphone and measuring the illumination through the phone's camera. To manage this, you should purchase a special timer that will turn the light on and off at the right time.
Growing indoor lemon is a matter hard work, but very rewarding. In addition to fruits, we get fresh air in the apartment, because citrus fruits emit phytoncides that reduce the concentration of harmful microorganisms in the air up to 300 times! And we can get 15-20 fruits from a well-formed 5-7-year-old tree in a year.
indoor lemon growing conditions
light
For a homemade lemon, you need a fairly spacious room and good lighting. Therefore, windows on the south and southeast sides are considered the most favorable. In winter, the plant needs illumination for 5-6 hours with a fluorescent lamp. The tree needs to be gently rotated every fortnight at a small angle, precisely at a small angle. If you make a large angle with respect to the light source, then this can slow down the growth of shoots and leaves, since lemons are very sensitive to rearrangements and changes in lighting. So for the proper formation of a tree, this is important.
temperature
For leaves and shoots, the optimum temperature is about 17 °, and for the development of fruits 21-22 and the soil temperature should not be lower than the air temperature. In winter, when the plant stands on a cold windowsill, this problem arises. In order to somehow cope with it, you need to insulate the pot, standing on the windowsill.
If the house has battery heating, the air will become dry and the lemons may die. To avoid this, move the tree away from the heaters, put a wet cloth on the radiator, spray the lemons with soft, warm water. But do not overdo it in spraying so that the plants do not get sick with fungal diseases.
watering and feeding
With regard to lemon, the rule applies - it is better not to add than to overfill. And you need to water with warm settled water. Approximately every 10-12 days, fertilizer is added to the water for irrigation (if you use min. fertilizer, you can find special fertilizer for citrus fruits in the store). This fertilizer contains nutrients and microelements necessary for lemon, it can also be used for root and foliar top dressings (spray over the leaves).
cutting and shaping
The lemon needs to be cut, as it tends to grow long powerful branches, if not cut, then the crown will be voluminous, and this is inconvenient in the room. Therefore, it is better to choose dwarf varieties.
Pruning is done in early spring. First, uncomfortably growing branches are removed, dried up and the stem is slightly shortened, which stimulates branching. And the fruits of lemons grow just on shoots of 3-5 orders. They begin to form from the end of the first year of growth, the zero shoot is cut off at a height of 15-20 cm, while 2-3 leaves are left on the tree. In shoots from 1 to 4 order 15-20 cm long, the apical bud with 1-2 underdeveloped leaves is removed. This formation just helps the bush to remain compact.
attention, mistakes made when growing lemon
- Do not plant a lemon immediately in a large container, the earth will turn sour and the roots may rot.
- Pay attention to watering. Although underfilling is less terrible than constantly wet earth, which can turn sour, but with underfilling, some of the roots dry out and the plant grows worse.
- If your lemon tree is still small, but at the same time decided to bloom - do not regret it, remove the buds that have not yet blossomed, otherwise it will become very depleted.
- Dry air causes the tips of the leaves to dry out or fall off, and when flowering or the formation of ovaries, the fall of flowers and fruits. This is a very common problem that occurs in winter in our houses and apartments.
- Be careful with permutations and rotations of lemons, if this is done inaccurately, then you can cause severe leaf fall, slow growth and poor fruiting.
If the tree has at least 20 full-fledged leaves, then flowering and fruiting is allowed. And for each fruit in the crown of the tree there should be at least 9-10 mature leaves.
Humidity is very important, this plant does not like dry air, and does not like high temperatures. Lemons especially do not like when the humidity is low and the air temperature is high, it will definitely shed its leaves.
best indoor lemon varieties
pavlovsky lemon — fruitful, you can harvest from a plant from 20 to 50 fruits. The fruits of this variety have a thin peel and few seeds, the content of vitamin C is not less than in the southern varieties, and in other respects it is not inferior.
Maikop lemons - dwarf lemons, well adapted to the conditions of apartments. Maikop craftsmen managed to harvest, and often, up to 200-300 fruits per year.
meyer lemon — the smallest, most fruitful and early bearer. It grows very well indoors, blooms profusely and bears fruit every year, but requires bright rooms. Fruiting occurs in 2-3 years.
Panderose - A hybrid between lemon and citron. The tree is small with a beautiful crown, tolerates dry air and high temperatures, begins to bear fruit in 2 years. Fruits can reach 600-800 g.
Do you like lemons?
All the best to you, friends! See you!
It is not a pity to realize this, but the summer is coming to an end and ahead of our favorites are not the best of times. In the group, questions are increasingly being asked about wintering and the use of lamps to light up citrus fruits. This prompted Ivan Kuznetsov, an active member of the group, to write this article. As the author of the blog, I express my deep gratitude for this work, since I myself am interested in the issue of additional illumination and suggest that you, the readers, familiarize yourself with it below in the original.
To begin with, let's figure out why do we need additional lighting. Lighting- artificial improvement of lighting and extension of daylight hours. It's no secret that citrus fruits need 12 hours of daylight, and in winter we have at best 8 hours of daylight. And if plants overwinter in warmth, they will obviously lack light, which can lead to leaf fall, an oppressed state of the plant, and in the worst case, it can cause its death.
To date, there are a huge number of lamps on the market that can be used for supplementary lighting. The most commonly used in citrus growing are: fluorescent lamps, sodium DNAT and DNAZ, DRI metal halide lamps, and LED lamps; and in almost every one of these categories, there is a series of phytolamps. Phytolamps are lamps whose spectrum is adapted to the needs of plants - at least that's what the manufacturers say. The cost of these lamps is somewhat higher than the cost of "ordinary" analogues, their light is unpleasant for the human eye, since they lack the middle part of the spectrum. Reviews about these lamps are divided 50/50: some argue that their efficiency is very high, others that they are even inferior to "ordinary" counterparts.
Which lamp to choose is up to you. It all depends on the number of plants, which side the window faces, the distance of the plant from the window, etc. Sodium lamps (DNaT or DNaZ) are considered the most effective. They give the most powerful luminous flux. But it is advisable to use them with a large number of plants. If there are few plants, it is quite possible to get by with fluorescent lamps.
A very important point when choosing any lamp is its power (Watts). The more watts - the greater the luminous flux and the greater its efficiency.Many houseplants receive a fairly significant amount of light without the presence of lamps. It follows from this that the lamps themselves, for some plant species, can be relatively low-power. But citrus fruits are light-loving plants and, of course, without the help of lamps, we will not be able to provide them with enough light. For illumination on the southern windows in winter, you can get by with one standard fluorescent lamp with a power of 40 watts per meter of the length of the window sill (30 cm wide). For the north window, you will need up to three 40 watt lamps per meter.
If citrus fruits are grown under completely artificial light, we need much more power. That is, you either have to use a lot of fluorescent, or (which is much more convenient) use high-pressure lamps that give a lot of light.To illuminate a large number of plants on a loggia or in a winter garden, it is also much more convenient to use high-pressure lamps.
Lamps should be placed as close to the plants as possible. But the main thing is to find out at what distance from the lamp the temperature will not be too high. This can be determined by simply raising your hand to the lamp. If it is too warm, the lamp should be placed higher. Fluorescent lamps can be located at a height of 15-20 cm above the plants, then their efficiency will be maximum, with each subsequent cm the lamp efficiency will decrease. DNAT and DNaZ should not be placed closer than 50 centimeters from the upper leaves.
Illumination is advisable from mid-October to March.Last year at my citrus
