Citrus fruits growing on your windowsill need careful maintenance. For example, a lemon, which you will take care of as an ordinary indoor flower, will slowly grow on the windowsill, but will hardly bear fruit.
It is necessary to transplant indoor citrus plants into fresh soil at the age of one to three years, more mature plants - every 2-3 years. It is best to replant lemons in the spring, before the plant blooms.
Choose a loose, nutritious soil for lemon. Its suitable composition will be as follows: two parts of meadow turf and leafy land, part of dung humus, part of coarse sand. When using soil from the garden, you will make it difficult for the tree to bear fruit. It's better not to make up the soil yourself, but to purchase a suitable one at a flower shop.
If you use water from the water supply for irrigation, it should first be put to be defended from unnecessary impurities. Fertilizer should be introduced every 10 days, less often in winter. Observe the following dosage: a glass of top dressing will be enough for a pot of soil with a capacity of 4 liters.
Not all fertilizers available on the market are really good for lemon. At best, they have no effect. You can prepare such a composition yourself: mix fresh horse manure with water in a 1: 1 ratio and leave in a closed jar for fermentation for a week. Next, the resulting slurry must be filtered and diluted 1:10 with water. A couple of times a year, it is useful to water the plant with a solution of ferrous sulfate, 3 grams per 1 liter of water, and a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate (0.2 g / 1 l). You can use cow dung, but dilute it with water 1:15 before watering.
Mineral fertilizers, which contain many useful trace elements, must be used in strict accordance with the instructions. There is a good fertilizer called "Citrus Mix" - you can navigate by its composition if you do not know what to pick at the store you visit. The composition includes: P - 16%, N - 14%, Fe - 0.2%, K - 18%, B - 0.04%, Mn - 0.1%, Cu - 0.05%, Mg - 2 %.
Before applying fertilizer, you need to water the plant with water - this will help not to harm the roots. Watering should be about one hour before feeding.
In winter, with a short daylight hours, it is better to keep citrus fruits at a temperature of 7-14 degrees - the tree will be at rest and will not require strong lighting. If the room is warm, the temperature is + 18 … + 22 degrees, additional lighting will be required. Daylight hours should be at least 10 hours a day.
It is recommended to form the crown of the tree in the form of a low bush. To balance the crown, the lemon is occasionally rotated in its permanent position.
