Indoor Lemon tree

Help for Our Lemon Tree

~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

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Our lemon tree is covered with fragrant white blossoms and tiny lemons.

In October, we brought the tree indoors to our west facing kitchen slider window, but it needed more light.  The leaves began to turn yellow.  We did not want a repeat of last year’s winter of bare branches so we added light, fertilizer, drainage, humidity and mobility.  Some tiny lemons are holding on and the leaves are getting greener.  Our interventions are working so far.

A grow light hangs above the tree shining light for 12 hours a day. Now our kitchen has a Florida glow to warm the cold mornings and evenings. Lemon trees are sun loving. The best indoor place for a lemon tree is a south facing window that lets in sunlight all day unlike our window that lets in only afternoon sunlight.    The tree is set on a pile of river rocks inside a wheel based stand to allow drainage, humidity and easy turning.  It is rolled around so all the leaves get natural sunlight, too.  We feed our tree Jack’s Classic Citrus FeEd (recommended by gardeners at Sun Nursery) during its weekly watering.  Lemon trees do not like soggy roots.

Our family study the plant daily.  We all look for tiny lemons and wish for a winter watching lemons grow.

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My Lemon Tree has Flowers

~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment
Lemon Flower Cluster

Our kitchen smells like a fragrant garden from my blooming lemon tree. It has at least 35 flower clusters. Last winter, I brought the tree indoors, but it dropped all of its leaves. Through Spring and Summer, it stayed on our deck and grew healthy green foliage but no fruit. Before Storm Sandy hit our region, my husband brought the tree indoors. He set it in a sunny spot next to a warm air vent. There was one small lemon already growing on it, but within a few weeks, it was covered with many white buds.  Since there are no pollinators or windy conditions in our kitchen, I must be the pollinator.  This is how to pollinate….

1. Brush anthers (yellow finger-like part) with brush or Q-tip to collect the pollen.
2. Rub pollen on stigma (tall center part) to cover it with pollen.
3. Repeat often.

I am hoping for many Meyer lemons from my indoor tree.