Growing citrus plants. How to properly care for citrus indoor plants

Instructions

Orchard the apartment looks attractive. Citrus fruits bloom with beautiful, exotic, fragrant flowers. Their fruits are quite bright, and the foliage itself serves as an interior decoration. You shouldn't count on a huge harvest. But enjoy exotic fruits, grown on a windowsill, is quite possible.

You can buy a ready-made seedling in a store, but more often citrus fruits are grown from seeds or cuttings. With seeds - longer, but more interesting. You can observe its development from a tiny sprout to the moment of flowering and fruiting.

Citrus fruits are grown in large containers. Best fit plastic containers– they are light and comfortable. Required condition is the presence of drainage holes. Drainage is poured into the bottom of the container - expanded clay, polystyrene foam, pebbles. Then - soil mixture for citrus fruits. And they plant pre-sprouted seeds or replant trees bought in the store.

All citrus fruits need bright, but diffused light. It is best to grow them on southern and eastern windowsills, and shade them in the summer when it’s hot. Citrus fruits are not as picky about temperature and humidity as many people think. A normal room temperature of +20...22°C and periodic spraying of the leaves are enough for them.

The frequency of watering citrus fruits depends on the time of year. In winter it is less intense. The more leaves a plant has, the more moisture it needs. During the period of flowering and fruit set, the watering rate also increases. For indoor citrus fruits, it is necessary to loosen the soil frequently. They need constant root aeration.

Indoor citrus fruits need more fertilizer than their “brothers” in open ground hot countries. The substrate purchased in the store contains enough nutrients for two months. Therefore it is necessary regular feeding, especially in spring and summer. You should not get carried away with nitrogen fertilizers - they will cause abundant leaf mass to the detriment of fruiting. A complete balanced complex of microelements is suitable for citrus fruits.

In crop production, citrus fruits remain the most popular among fruit-bearing plants. Everything about these plants is attractive: the tough, waxy leaves and the fragrant spring bloom, and no less fragrant fruiting in autumn and winter. IN home gardening Among citrus fruits, the most common are Lemon, Orange, Clementine, and Citron. The latter, by the way, is known for its original fruits, which are used in confectionery production, but are not eaten raw.

Oranges or lemons growing in pots are quite possible if you know all the intricacies of caring for these subtropical plants. Moreover, with proper maintenance, you can even get fruits regularly.

Except natural species Today you can buy various cultivars and hybrids. Among them, for example, is compact (Citrus Limon Mejer), famous for its sweetish taste of fruits that appear throughout the year. Also interesting is (Fortunella japonica), which has the appearance small tree, whose fruits can be eaten directly with the peel.

If desired, citrus fruits can be grown from seeds. But this method is suitable for the most patient growers; moreover, there is a risk of not waiting for flowering and, accordingly, fruiting. ON THE PICTURE: Citron (Citrus medica)

Features of caring for citrus fruits

Citrus fruits came to us from Southeast Asia with a subtropical and tropical climate. High air humidity, plenty of heat without seasonal fluctuations temperatures, daylight equal to night - characteristic of the area citrus plants. This determines the main features of care.

Determining a suitable location

First of all, you need to take care of the location of the plant. Place the pot on the windowsill winter period- not the best The best decision. Cold air from the window, as well as increased temperature from radiators, negatively affect the exotic. The most suitable place for citrus fruits is a fairly warm place with intense light and high humidity. In spring, summer and early autumn, it is best to place the plant in a southwest or southeast window with softer, diffused light.

Soil selection

The basic requirements for soil for growing citrus fruits are good air and moisture permeability. The soil should be slightly acidic. Special soil mixtures are available for sale, but they are only good for the first time. Literally a year later, their nutritional composition is already depleted, and the soil should be changed.

Compliance with watering rules

It is necessary to provide the plants with regular moderate watering. In summer, citrus fruits should be watered approximately once every 2 days, and in winter, the frequency of watering is reduced to 5–7 days. Upper layer the soil must have time to dry out.

Maintaining Humidity

How tropical plants, citrus fruits require high humidity- at least 45–50%. Therefore, in winter you should use a humidifier or maintain optimal level humidity using a tray with wet expanded clay.

Effect of temperature

The ideal temperature for keeping citrus fruits in summer is +22–24°C. In the autumn-winter period, before the dormant period - +16–20°С. Best temperature for setting citrus buds around +16°C, and for vegetation and fruit ripening - +22–24°C.

Unlike most others fruit trees, citrus plants do not require frequent pruning. But periodically shortening the branches will help form the crown and give rise to new shoots. However, it all depends on the species. Orange trees, for example, grow tall and require regular pruning. Since the crown of Mandarin is very dense, thinning it is necessary from time to time. Even more frequent pruning is required for Lemon with its weak branching. And Kumquat and Kalamodin do not need pruning at all due to their slow growth.
ON THE PICTURE: Lemon Panderosa

A little about the rest period

In autumn and winter, with a lack of sunlight and increased dry air, the growth of citrus fruits stops and a dormant period begins. At this time, you need to pay special attention to plants.

with a significant drop in temperature to 5–10°C and darkening (period of complete rest)
with a slight decrease in temperature and additional lighting (a period of relative rest).

Period of complete rest lasts about 3 months. In this case, there is no need for watering, since the humidity of the cold air is quite sufficient. You can place the plant in the basement, on the staircase, in the garage with periodic monitoring.

Period of relative rest takes place under intense lighting with the help of additional lamps and reduced watering. The air temperature should be slightly lower, about +12–15°C, so the plant is placed in a cool, moderately heated place. In “home wintering” conditions with insufficient air humidity, it is necessary to spray. In the spring, watering is increased and fertilizing is gradually added.
ON THE PICTURE: Lemon during dormancy

Vaccinations

Grafting allows you to transfer some varietal characteristics of one plant to another, speed up fruiting and improve the quality of the fruit. Cuttings of fruit-bearing plants are used as scions.

All types of citrus fruits can be grafted. We should not forget to promptly remove shoots of the rootstock, which can stop the growth of the grafted cuttings.

Used for indoor citrus fruits budding (grafting with a bud taken from a cutting cultivated plant) And copulation (grafting by cuttings with the same thickness of scion and rootstock). At the same time, some varieties of citrus fruits require a strictly defined rootstock. So, Lemon Panderosa is well suited for grafting Kumquat, and Pompelmus is suitable for grapefruit. Sweet orange is used to graft oranges and lemons.

ON THE PICTURE: Tarocco orange grafted by copulation method

Buy citrus fruits with an already formed crown. Growing from seed will take too long and the tree may not bear fruit.
Be careful when choosing your location. The best option for citrus fruits there will be a warm, well-lit place with high level humidity.
The rest period is very important for normal height and fruiting of citrus fruits.
Not all citrus trees need pruning. This depends on the development of the crown and its density.
Grafting citrus fruits can increase fruiting.

Citrus crops originated from Southeast Asia: in the tropical zone almost all year round warm, only in winter there is a slight drop in temperature, in addition, the plants are constantly in conditions of good light and high humidity. It is quite difficult to create ideal conditions for indoor citrus plants at home, but it is possible: if done correctly, they will become a real decoration for the windowsill and will even bear fruit several times a year. What are the features of citrus fruits, and what are the most common crops?

Many indoor citrus crops can bloom several times a year.

However, in winter time It is advisable to lower the room temperature slightly: since the duration of sunny day, the plant suffers from a lack of sunlight. Due to large energy losses, it will look exhausted, and leaves will often fall off. In order to avoid unnecessary energy consumption, it is necessary to either provide additional artificial illumination of the required spectrum, or lower the temperature in the room.

Citrus indoor crops have several more growing features:

They all love sunlight very much - it is recommended to place them on southern and eastern windows. If you want to plant citrus fruits, they should be well lit; you can plant them in the partial shade of other plants. Lack of light quickly depletes the plant, and it may die.
The optimal temperature is +18 degrees with air humidity up to 70%. It is difficult to provide such conditions in a room, so it is advisable to regularly water the plant with warm water. Without a seasonal drop in temperature and a dormant period, citrus fruits live no more than 3-4 years, so you need to harvest them for the winter from November to February.
Citrus fruits love water: it should be regular and plentiful. However, in order to prevent rotting of the roots, it is necessary to allow the soil to dry between waterings, and during the dormant period the plant is watered no more than once a week.

These are just the basic rules for growing citrus fruits; each crop has its own special requirements for maintenance. Let's take a closer look at the most common citrus indoor plants.

Indoor tangerine can be a dwarf or regular variety: this plant has long been used for growing in a greenhouse and on a windowsill. Mandarin can be grown as a bonsai - this is a special technology for forming a dwarf bush, which allows you to get a miniature tree that will bloom and bear fruit.

Mandarin is popular for its beautiful green leaves, white flowers with a pleasant scent and fragrant fruits that can hang on the branches for several months.

The fruits of indoor tangerines have only decorative value: they are not worth eating because the taste is too sour. It is possible to improve the taste of mono fruits through breeding work with several plants, but developing a new variety will take a very long time. look after indoor tangerine not too difficult, you need to meet a few basic requirements:

Regular, but not excessive watering. The more leaves a plant has, the more actively they evaporate moisture; the required amount of water depends on this. In apartment conditions, it is advisable to grow tangerine regularly, since the plant suffers from constantly dry air.
Regular feeding with soluble minerals. IN large quantities Tangerine especially needs nutrients in the spring, before starting - at this time it is carried out with a fertilizer solution 1-2 times a week. Do not exceed the dosage: the plant is not able to absorb large doses of fertilizers, and they can destroy.
. If you purchased not a room one, but regular variety. Several large branches should not be allowed to grow: their tips are regularly pinched to achieve the appearance of lateral shoots.
On young plants, flowers and ovaries need to be controlled: the fewer fruits a plant has, the larger they will be, so excess ovaries must be removed in time. At first, only one ovary is left, on next year the number of fruits can be increased.

Constant care will make the tangerine strong and beautiful: it will decorate your home with thick foliage and magnificent orange fruits with a pleasant smell. Growing a tangerine on a windowsill does not require much trouble: following the basic principles of care will allow you to quickly achieve good growth.

Growing oranges

An orange can be grown at home from a seed obtained from the most common store-bought fruit. In nature, this plant is a medium-sized tree up to 7 meters high; indoor orange can reach 3 meters in height. You can grow it not only from seeds, but also if one of your friends already has an adult plant at home.

When planted with seeds, an orange begins to bloom and bear fruit no earlier than after 7-10 years; growing a plant from a cutting goes much faster.

The conditions for growing a homemade orange are approximately the same as for other citrus crops: the plant needs a lot of light, regular watering, but it is not advisable to loosen it often - this can seriously damage the roots.

When growing an orange from a seed, you must follow correct sequence actions:

You will need a mixture of peat and fertile soil; it is placed in small pots. For planting, it is advisable to take seeds from several fully ripened fruits; the seeds must have the correct shape.
They are planted in the soil at a distance of 5 cm from each other, the seed planting depth is approximately 1 cm. In about two weeks, sprouts will appear.
Of all the sprouts, only the strongest should be left. A mini-greenhouse is equipped for them: the plants are covered glass jar to ensure sufficient temperature and humidity underneath. To ensure ventilation, the can must be removed for half an hour every day.
As soon as the sprouts have several true leaves, they are transplanted into separate pots and placed on a well-lit windowsill. Repeated application will be required when the height of the plant reaches 20 cm; from about this time it will be necessary to form a crown.

Like homemade tangerine, the fruits of indoor oranges have primarily decorative value. When propagated by seeds, due to cross-pollination, the fruit will not be the same as that of the parent plant. When growing oranges in greenhouses, breeders select seeds from the sweetest and most delicious fruits in order to pass on such qualities to the next plant by inheritance, but this is a long, many-year work.

It is better not to move your homemade orange from place to place; it may react to changing conditions by dropping its leaves. A spacious, well-lit window sill is immediately selected for it and conditions for consistently good growth are provided.

Calamondin is a dwarf citrus tree that most closely resembles a small tangerine with bright, small fruits. Its advantage is small sizes: It’s easy to find a place for such a plant on the windowsill, and you don’t have to worry about regularly trimming the crown. Calamondin requires approximately the same conditions as other citrus fruits, but there are still several important nuances in its cultivation.

Calamondin is a light-loving indoor plant, but it loves diffused rather than direct sunlight.

In summer it feels comfortable on the south and east side; in winter it can be moved to a windowsill with north side Houses. If calamondin does not have enough light, it will grow very slowly without flowering or fruiting. During the summer months it can be taken out Fresh air, it can be placed in partial shade for a while.

The plant requires regular, heavy watering during the summer months, but only needs watering once a week in winter. For wintering, it is advisable to move it to a cool room - the dormant period helps the plant restore strength and prepare for new flowering and fruiting.

Calamondin reproduces in two main ways - and. Seed propagation is too long a method; fruiting will have to wait several years. You can propagate a plant much faster using cuttings; this work is carried out as follows:

Cuttings are young shoots that should contain at least 2-3 buds. They are cut from an adult plant and placed for some time in a nutrient solution.
When the cuttings form their own young roots, they are transplanted into the ground. The optimal soil mixture consists of peat and flower earth, they need to be mixed well in a 1:1 ratio.
The cutting is covered with a glass jar to create high temperature and humidity. To change the air in a mini-greenhouse, the jar needs to be removed once a day for half an hour.
As soon as the cuttings have their first leaves, the jar can be removed, after which the calamondin is grown as a regular indoor citrus plant.

At proper care the plant will bear fruit every year, the bright fruits look beautiful among the thick dark green leaves. You should not eat pods as food; they will be too sour or even bitter.

Growing grapefruit at home is not as difficult as it might seem. With the correct formation of the crown, the height of the plant in indoor conditions does not exceed 1.5-2 meters; it will look very beautiful thanks to the dark leaves on especially curved petioles. Indoor grapefruit varieties are capable of producing juicy and quite tasty fruits, and their weight can reach 400 grams.

Grapefruit is a light-loving plant; it needs a sufficient amount of sunlight and free space.

It is suitable for growing not only in an apartment, but also in an office, in a greenhouse or on an insulated loggia. Grapefruit does not like cold weather; even short-term frosts can cause serious harm to it, so keep it at outdoors only possible during the summer months.

Watering the plant:

Grapefruit requires regular watering in the warm season, and the water should not stagnate in the pot - equip it at the bottom drainage layer expanded clay.
To ensure normal air humidity, the plant must be constantly sprayed with a spray bottle.
In winter, the plant is removed to a room with a lower temperature and less light; during the dormant period, it is enough to water it only 2 times a month.

Young plants are replanted annually, for adult grapefruits with replacement soil substrate should be carried out at least once every 5-6 years. During the period of active and fruiting, the plant is fed with complex, for example, "Rainbow".

Grapefruit – the best option For home grown from a seed. Ordinary seeds from ripe fruits germinate quickly and take root well; the plant can begin to bear fruit as early as the fourth year if comfortable conditions are created for it. It is important to provide it with a sufficient amount of sunlight: if there is not enough light, growth slows down and the trunk becomes bent. If it is not possible to place the plant on a southern or eastern windowsill, you need to purchase a special fluorescent lamp for indoor flowers. The result of care and maintenance will be regular fruiting and beautiful abundant flowering.

Growing citron

Citron is a rarer citrus plant, in room conditions it is grown only for its sake decorative qualities. Citron has large yellow fruits that look beautiful against the background of dark green leaves. In indoor conditions, the plant reaches a height of 1.5 meters.

The most interesting decorative variety considered to be a finger citron - it is also called the “Hand of Buddha”.

He's interesting unusual shape fruits - in appearance they most closely resemble a bunch of bananas. Such a citron begins to bear fruit already in the third year after planting. This plant is a light-loving plant; even during the dormant period it should be in a well-lit room. In summer, citron needs abundant regular water; in dry indoor air, it is placed in a pan of water or regularly sprayed with a spray bottle.

Citron can also be planted as seedlings: the first option is longer, you will have to wait more than 5 years for fruits. When propagated, it is possible to obtain a plant that completely copies the parental traits; you can plant a citron with the largest and most fragrant fruits at home. It is not difficult to grow citrus fruits at home, and they will quickly turn into one of the main decorations of the windowsill. When providing good conditions any citrus plant will quickly begin to bloom and bear fruit.

More information can be found in the video.

A citrus garden at home is the dream of many! However, is it possible to grow it at home in order to be able to delight your loved ones with fresh “vitamins”? Yes, you can. In addition, growing citrus fruits at home can become your favorite hobby, and your citrus garden will become a source of pride for you. However, to grow such a garden you will need to make some efforts and be patient.

Citrus fruit care

Appropriate place

In winter, it is not recommended to place the container on the windowsill at home, because cold will come from the glass and heat from the battery, this will negatively affect the health of the green pet.

A warm, humid place with plenty of light is best. In spring and summer, place the pot on a window oriented to the southwest or southeast.

Temperature

These plants do not tolerate subzero temperatures. Remember this, otherwise your garden may die!

In the warm season, the optimal temperature is 19-27 degrees, and in winter it can be lowered to 12-17 degrees.

Since citrus fruits react negatively to temperature fluctuations, autumn period It is better to bring the plant into a warm room in advance before the first frosts appear. Citrus fruits come from the tropics, so you shouldn’t forget about air humidity. If the air is not humidified enough, purchase a special humidifier. Your citrus orchard will thank you for this.

Illumination

Your citrus garden will need good lighting, only protect it from direct sun rays sultry summer. In autumn and winter, plants will not have enough natural light, so it is necessary to add additional lighting with lamps; without this procedure you will not be able to grow a decent harvest. Provide additional lighting to the citrus garden so that its daylight hours are 12 hours.

Watering

Water the plants regularly, as it is better to prevent the soil from drying out too much. But watering should be moderate!

You should also not over-moisten the soil before next watering The top layer of soil must dry out.

On hot summer days, it is allowed to water daily, but in winter, water citrus trees less often and not so abundantly - once a week is enough.

Take water at room temperature, soft and not chlorinated.

Suitable soil for citrus fruits

The soil must be fertile and breathable. It is necessary to ensure good drainage made of crushed brick or expanded clay. For these plants, the soil mixture is prepared from peat, leaf and turf soil, and sand in equal proportions. The result should be a slightly acidic environment. There is a much easier option - buy ready mixture in the store, for citrus fruits it is usually called “Lemon”.

Fertilizing the plant

Feed the plant only during the spring and summer months when it is actively growing, but during the winter dormancy period, forget about fertilizers.

First water the soil well and then fertilize. Remember that better disadvantage fertilizers than their excess!

If you overfeed the plant, then root system may get burned.

As a top dressing, it is better to take special fertilizers for citrus fruits, which can be easily found in specialized supermarkets.

How to grow an orange tree at home?

Many people dream of growing it at home. After all, the orange tree produces incredibly tasty and healthy fruits. Where to begin?
1. The month of March is most suitable for planting. Take fresh orange seeds and rinse them in warm water.
2. Soak the seeds for 10-12 hours.
3. Plant them in a suitable fertile soil mixture and sprinkle with 1 centimeter of soil. Cover the pot with plastic and place it in a warm, dark place.
4. When the first shoots appear, the orange tree is moved to a more illuminated area.

Vaccinations

When the orange tree grows, it should bloom and then bear fruit. However, not all owners manage to achieve this, or the fruits develop, but remain small and have a bitter taste. All this is because a tree from a seed may not take on its mother’s properties, which is why it is so important to graft an orange tree. How to do it? There are 2 methods: classic grafting and budding.

In the first method, a cutting is taken from a fruiting orange; it is this that will give a certain variety to our “savage”. Then the seedling is used as a rootstock for a “thoroughbred” cutting. The second method is easier than the first, and for young plant less and less painful. In this case, a bud of a varietal orange tree is implanted along with part of the wood into the trunk of a wild citrus tree. It is better to introduce several buds at once from different sides of the plant.

Shaping the trunk

An orange tree can begin to bear fruit normally only after 5-6 years, but for this the crown must be formed correctly. What is needed for this? When the tree stretches 24-28 cm, the shoot should be pinched, leaving 18-20 cm in length.

Leave only the strongest side shoots, remove the rest so that the tree branches well. Young trees may also begin to bloom, but in this case it is better to get rid of flowers and ovaries, since the plant will waste its potential on only 2-3 fruits.

How to grow limes at home?

Lime is a wonderful plant of the citrus family; when grown at home, the tree spreads a delightful aroma throughout the room. In addition, lime is beneficial when eaten. This tree is also very beautiful, it will decorate any apartment! To grow it, you need to know some nuances.

Lime can act as a good rootstock for other citrus plants. You can graft lemon, kumquat, tangerine, etc. onto its massive trunk.

In order to grow lime at home from seeds, you need to follow certain steps.

1. Select a suitable container for planting limes. It should be spacious, 10-15 centimeters in length, and allow liquid and air to pass through.
2. Take fertile soil and ensure good drainage; you can sprinkle the bottom of the pot with sand.
3. Next, bury fresh lime seeds 2-3 centimeters into the soil. Cover the pot with plastic wrap and place it in an area with good lighting. Don't forget to water and ventilate our future lime!
4. When the sprouts hatch and the first leaves appear on them, you need to remove the polyethylene. Then the lime needs standard care, but do not forget to form the crown in a timely manner.

Your home garden will bear fruit well if it is properly cared for.

Nice to have on windowsills evergreens, capable of pleasing the eye even in winter. It’s even more pleasant to watch them bloom and even get edible fruits. Why not get citrus fruits in this case?

Citrus fruits are one of the few subtropical trees that get along well at home. In the article we will look at different kinds these exotic plants, we will give instructions to beginners and advice to those who are already confident in their abilities and want to try something new:

How to get citrus fruits: where is the best place to buy a tree and how to propagate it yourself?
What varieties and types can be recommended to a beginner, and which ones need a little more attention?
Why do purchased citrus trees die so often?
What to do once you gain confidence in your abilities?
How to keep a tree from growing so that it doesn’t break through the ceiling in 10 years?
What are the subtleties in their cultivation and reproduction?

Purchase in store

It would seem that it could be easier than going to flower shop and buy a lemon or a tangerine? But in fact, this path is fraught with many difficulties.

Those plants that are sold in stores come there from abroad, most often from Holland. There they grew up from birth ideal conditions. Supported optimal temperatures, high humidity, additional lighting was provided from all sides, and growth stimulants were constantly introduced into the soil. As a result, up to several dozen fruits can hang on a dwarf tree by the time of sale.

After reaching the windowsill, such citrus fruits immediately encounter stressful conditions. Here, the illumination is tens of times lower, the air is very dry compared to greenhouse air, and growth stimulants stop working after a while.

In conditions of severe resource shortages, all the tree’s strength goes into maintaining the fruits with which it is so abundantly strewn. As a result, in the vast majority of cases, the new occupant of the apartment dies.

In Europe they treat this more simply. There, such trees are purchased as temporary decorations, like cut flowers in Russia.

What can be done to save purchased imported citrus?

cut off all the fruits so that the plant has the strength to recover;
when leaves fall, cover the entire crown with a bag;
use resuscitation drugs and growth stimulants (epin, amulet, etc.) immediately after purchase and again if the condition worsens;
if the tree is not in a state of active growth, carefully remove it from the pot, shake off at least part of the soil and plant it back, adding high-quality garden or purchased soil;
if the windows face north, northeast or northwest, arrange additional lighting.

Of the listed measures, the first three points give the best effect. As for the soil, it is suitable either loose, fertile, light earth With summer cottages, or purchased with pH 5-7.

But that is not all! Imported citrus fruits are grafted onto trifoliate or her close relatives. Trifoliata is a deciduous citrus that requires cold wintering. This means that in winter, the roots of your plant need temperatures of about 7-12 degrees Celsius to store energy for further growth.

When storing plants year-round at room temperature there is a big risk that it will fizzle out every year, shed its leaves in winter, stop growing or even degrade. In the end, it may simply die in a few years. Therefore, before going to a flower shop, ask yourself whether you can provide your future pet with winter coolness.

But even that's not all! When you emerge from such a sufferer, you will be surprised to find that the fresh growth is characterized by much larger leaves and long internodes (distances between the buds).

What's the matter? This is explained by the fact that in conditions of strong illumination, citrus fruits grow small leaves, and since there is no need to reach for the light, short stems with small internodes. Since there is much less light at home, soon dwarf and very decorative citrus loses its presentation and becomes like trees, originally growing on the windowsill.

Purchasing from citrus growers

This option is preferable because such trees are initially adapted to home conditions, so, most likely, when they get to the new windowsill, they will not experience stress. In addition, amateurs propagate citrus fruits by cuttings or grafting onto lemons, oranges, grapefruits, pomelo, and rarely, trifoliate.

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Those of them that do not grow on trifoliata roots are less demanding of cold wintering, but it is still recommended to arrange it for them as well.

A compromise option for those who do not have a glazed balcony is cool window sills without drafts. In winter, temperatures there can drop to +14… +17. Of course, this is higher than recommended (+7... +13), but better than nothing. This would not be enough for trifoliate, but self-rooted citrus fruits and those grafted onto lemons, oranges, etc. can tolerate such a wintering.

Disadvantages of buying from an amateur citrus grower: the possibility of deception with a variety or species, the risk of pests being introduced along with the purchased plant (especially).

Self-cultivation

It should be remembered that a tree grown from a seed, even if conditions as close as possible to the natural growing environment are provided, can bloom only after several decades if it is not grafted. Therefore, it is recommended to grow wild plants only for decorative purposes. They have only one advantage over other options: they are ideally adapted to home conditions.

Citrus cuttings

The most simple option For beginning citrus growers who want to get a varietal seedling, rooting a cutting is necessary. But! It is important to know which species take root well and which do not form roots.

Suitable Lemons, limes, grapefruits, and pomelo are suitable for this method of propagation.
Very rarely take root tangerines, clementines, kumquats, Australian microcitruses, trifoliata.
Intermediate position occupied by oranges, which can produce roots, but this requires diligence and a certain amount of luck.

The cutting process is as follows. Fresh growth 7-18 cm long is cut from an adult plant. No more than 3-4 leaves are left on it, and if leaf blades large ones, then they are shortened by half. If top part If the stem is too thin and limp, it is also removed.

The cutting is placed in damp sand, preferably coarse sand, covered with a plastic bag or cut plastic bottle to create moisture inside, and stored at room temperature. You can even build such a mini-greenhouse from a bottle cut into two parts. About once a week it is advisable to ventilate it by removing the top for a few seconds.

Roots will appear in 3-5 weeks. The rooted branch is transplanted into a pot with loose, fertile soil and covered with a bag with a small hole for ventilation. Over the course of 1-2 weeks, the hole gradually increases in size, and when it becomes quite large, the shelter is completely removed. This is necessary to gradually accustom the young tree to dry room air, since if the bag is suddenly removed, the leaves may wilt.

Reproduction by grafting

Grafting is a more difficult method, which, however, is often successful for beginners. Those who have ever grafted other trees and shrubs will not experience any difficulties.

In addition, poorly rooted cuttings of tangerines and other citrus fruits listed above are successfully grafted onto young plants grown from seeds. In fact, this is the only way for hobbyists to reproduce such species.

You just have to remember that good rootstocks are lemon, orange, grapefruit, pomelo, trifoliate, and tangerines and its relatives usually reject grafting, even tangerine cuttings and buds.

For beginning citrus growers, if you have a wild one with a fairly thick stem It is recommended to start with vaccinations with budding or bud in the butt, since, firstly, with inexperienced citrus growers the percentage of successful fusions is higher than by other methods, and secondly, in case of failure, the wound overgrows over time, and the rootstock can be used again. With many other types of grafting, it is often necessary to remove the entire crown of the “savage”, leaving only a stump, and if the outcome is unfavorable, there is a risk of losing the tree.

This is interesting! More experienced flower growers can take an adult wild plant and plant several varieties or even species into its crown at once. Such an instance is called tree-garden. Citrus looks especially amazing, on which lemons, tangerines, and possibly other species grow.

Types and varieties of indoor citrus fruits

A novice citrus grower or a housewife who is not ready to devote a lot of time to a tree growing on a windowsill should choose those varieties and species that are easier to care for. If we talk about species, then for beginners a little lemons, tangerines, trifoliate are preferable for one reason: their growth is easier to contain. Oranges, grapefruits and pomelo have a lot of vigor, so after a couple of decades you can end up with a tree that is too bulky. And the previously mentioned citrus fruits are relatively low-growing.

However, the size of any crop, including grapefruit and pomelo, can be very well contained due to a cramped pot. Really, your pets' roots should always be a little cramped.

Important! Never replant indoor citrus fruits into pots that are significantly larger than the previous ones.

Following this principle, even vigorously growing species can be kept within 1.5-2 meters in height even after 20-30 years!

Varieties of indoor lemons

Of all the lemon varieties, Pavlovsky is the most unpretentious.. It grows well even on north-eastern and north-western windows, is able to tolerate relatively dry apartment air, and tolerates infrequent feeding. In fact, in terms of tolerance to home conditions, it is similar to wild lemon.

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Almost as patient is variety Panderosa, but he needs more light. But Panderosa suffers from a special syndrome that is found only in her: she produces too many flowers and stubbornly refuses to grow green mass. Accordingly, excess buds have to be constantly plucked off, and if the tree is still very small, then all of them need to be removed! If you have time for this, then feel free to take it, because in other respects it is undemanding.

Slightly less common Lisbon varieties And Meyer, which grow slowly with insufficient care. However, for flower growers, even with little experience, growing them will not pose any problems. All you need to do is place the pots on bright windowsills, feed them from time to time and, if necessary, spray them.

There are other varieties, but most of them are derivatives of the above.

Varieties of tangerines and other citrus fruits

The most popular of tangerines is Unshiu variety, and this is not without reason, since compared to others it is relatively tolerant of low light, like Pavlovsk lemon.

Also close relatives of tangerines are kumquats And calamondins. Fans of not just citrus fruits, but exotic fruits in particular, can be advised to acquire these.

Speaking about exotics, we can mention. It differs extremely unusual appearance fruit resembling a fleshy hand. But there is no edible pulp inside. However, the fruit is so exotic that an inexperienced Internet user, seeing a photograph of it, will decide that it is a photo montage.

Citron "Hand of Buddha"