Citrus care

 
Цитрусовые

Citrus fruits belong to the root family. At home, lemon, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, kinkan and other citrus fruits are grown. Although it must be said right away that attempts to grow a fruiting citrus tree at home are often interrupted when evergreen trees that have been plowed more than a meter high do not bear fruit. Although with an annual cold wintering (+ 5-8 ° C) citrus fruits can bloom and bear fruit after 2-3 years (rooted cuttings).

If you decide to grow citrus fruits from the seeds for the sake of their fruits, then even if you achieve fruiting, the taste of the fruits will most likely disappoint you, as it will be too sour and bitter. It is easier to buy an already fruiting citrus tree, in which case you will not need to take care of the vaccination and wait for years when it pays.

In general, at home, trees obtained from grafted or rooted cuttings are more likely to bear fruit, and wildflowers grown from the pit do not bloom for a very long time - decades, but in their natural habitat, somewhere in the vastness of Spain, trees begin to bear fruit at the age of 6-7 years. For some, it will be a pleasure to grow a tree from a stone and it does not matter whether it will bear fruit or not. Be that as it may, in order for a citrus plant to develop well, it is important to know the conditions in which it needs, and something about the formation of the crown.

Orange, Lemon, Mandarin and Citrofortunella on this site are described on separate pages. Grapefruit and kinkan are also popular among citrus lovers.

How to care for citrus fruits

Temperature and Lighting

Citrus fruits, like southern plants, are demanding on light and heat. Most of them grow beautifully at home with any window orientation, if you can skillfully organize lighting. Of course, the best option is the south side of the windows, southeast or southwest. On the other hand, if you have north windows, citrus will not be hot and you can always place daylight lamps (or LED lamps) nearby. Some citrus fruits are quite shade-tolerant and do not need a lot of sunlight.

Temperature is more difficult, since the concept of warmth does not mean that plants love warm heated houses, not at all! Warmth implies that citrus fruits, especially those planted in pots, cannot tolerate frost. At the same time, tying buds, flowering and fruit formation occur best at an average air and soil temperature of + 15-18 ° C.

In winter, it is advisable to keep citrus fruits in a light cool or even cold room, where the temperature is from 8 to 12 ° C. The lack of cold wintering can lead to the fact that your plant does not pay, but is very bald, depleted.

Watering

Watering in summer is plentiful, immediately, after the soil dries in the upper half or third of the pot. In winter, watering is rarer or moderate, depending on the temperature, it can be once a month (at 10 ° C), once every three weeks (at 12 ° C) or more often, in any case, do not allow complete drying of the soil. When kept in warm home conditions in winter, watering is needed the same as in summer. Do not forget that plants die from excess moisture, citrus fruits easily rot when the soil dries for more than 5 days.

In autumn, watering is reduced with the onset of cloudy and rainy days - air humidity during such periods rises to 80% and the soil dries very slowly. To avoid decay, you need to periodically loosen the earth in pots, closer to the edge.

Air humidity

The optimal humidity is 40-60%, therefore, on dry hot days in summer and in the heating season in winter, spraying is necessary daily 2-3 times a day. Spray with warm boiled water. Citrus fruits must be kept clean, washed off dust, rinsed with a warm shower, if the size of the pot allows you to take it to the bathroom.

Flight connections

Young lemon trees must be transplanted by transshipment. Transshipment must be done in a timely manner, otherwise, due to a lack of nutrients, the plant will develop worse. Transshipment should not be carried out if the roots of the plant have not yet been burned with an earthen lump. In this case, it is enough to change the drainage and upper layers of soil in the pot. During transshipment, the pot must be washed with boiling water or potassium permanganate solution.

Fruiting lemon trees are transplanted no more than once every 2-3 years. Transplant before growth. It is not recommended to replant plants at the end of growth.

It is not recommended to replant lemon trees with flowers or fruits, as this leads to the fall of both. Soil for young plants is needed light, and for large ones heavier. Usually a mixture of sod earth, greenhouse manure and sheet earth is taken with the addition of coarse sand.

Pots and tubs for transplanting citrus fruits do not take too large - if the capacity is large, there is a danger of acidification of the earth. During transplants, you should not greatly destroy the earthen lump. It is necessary to ensure good drainage, both in pots (at least 2 cm) and in tubs (at least 7 cm). The root neck in the new dish should be at the same level as it was in the old dish. Newly transplanted plants should not be fertilized.

Citrus soil

  • For young plants: 2 parts of turf, 1 part of leafy land, 1 part of humus from cow or horse manure and 1 part of coarse sand (fine gravel).
  • For adult plants 4-5 years and older: 3 parts of turf, 1 part of leaf, 1 part of humus from cow or horse manure, 1 part of sand.
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Instead of transplanting old plants planted in tubs annually in the spring, the topsoil is replaced with fresh soil. Plants planted in pots or small buckets are transplanted whole, but the root lump does not need to be opened, only to shake off the ground from the sides. Remove roots formed above the root neck. Soil acidity for citrus fruits should be pH 6.5-7.

In the spring, when the threat of frost passes (the average daily temperature does not fall below + 8 ° C, the plants are taken out into the open air and kept for 2-3 weeks in shading under a canopy. In the future, the pots can be rearranged to an open place, under the light shade of the openwork crown of trees.

Read more about citrus soils.

Citrus fertilizer

In the first half of summer, fertilizers are used. This increases the sugar content of the fruits and reduces the bitter taste, which is characteristic of citrus fruits at room culture. The more fertilizer the plant needs, the older it is and the longer it is in the same dish. Fertilizers are applied with water for irrigation, but only healthy, not weakened plants can be fed. With additional artificial lighting of citrus fruits in winter, they also need to be fertilized, but no more than once a month.

If citrus fruits were transplanted in spring into fresh land, then feeding in 1-1.5 months can begin with fertilizers for flowering plants. If the plants were not transplanted, then you need to start feeding with organic matter: 2-3 times with an interval of two weeks, it can be an extract from dry horse manure, well-lying humus, ready-made biohumus from the store. It is very important not to overfeed citrus fruits with organic matter and check the acidity of the soil. After two fertilizers with nitrogen fertilizers, you can already feed them with complex fertilizers for indoor blooms (for example, luxury fertility).

By the way

Sometimes on sale you can see citrus fruits with a handle - a small twig with a pair of leaves, mostly Chinese tangerines, passed off as Abkhaz. They taste good, but most importantly, if the branches are not frozen and did not have time to dry, you can try to carefully separate and graft them.

By the way

The light shade of citrus fruits from the scorching rays of the sun contributes to the formation of healthy, dark green foliage. When placed in direct sunlight, the leaves of plants acquire a pale green color, and after a gloomy winter, burns may appear in spring. In contrast, in a dark room, citrus fruits gradually shed their leaves, and new leaves, if they appear, are small and deformed.

Therefore, it is recommended in summer to keep plants on a window facing northwest or southeast (these windows are less sunny, but also less hot), and in winter to the south and southwest, so there will be uniform lighting for the plant throughout the year. But, of course, such permutations are possible in apartments and houses, where windows are on opposite sides.

You can also move plants deep into the room in summer, and in winter, on the contrary, move plants as close to the window as possible.

Orange and lemon fruits with a lack of light are characterized by increased acidity. However, in the summer, plants from the sun must be shaded in the afternoon.

Citrus pests

Shields: it is not difficult to detect this pest, shields are clearly visible on citrus fruits, but they do significant harm - spreading throughout the tree, their brown shields stick around the stems, petioles, leaves. If you run a nail over the shield, a damp spot remains. In a microscope, these pests are similar in shape, sorry for the comparison, to fascist helmets, shaggy from the inside, and just as nasty: they suck out cell juice, the leaves lose color, dry and fall.

Control measures: if your citrus tree is small, it is better to take it to the bathroom and wash the stems and leaves with a soap sponge. If a large tree is in a bucket or tub, wipe all available places with a cotton pad soaked in alcohol.

Now we need the insecticide Actar (or confidor), it is effective against any worms, including scutes. It is necessary to dilute the drug according to the instructions and pour lemon or orange under the root, and then spray thoroughly on the leaves. Repeat processing in a week.

Other insecticides are also produced against the shield and other insects of pests: actellic, phytoverm, carbofos, decis and others. But they are smelly, toxic and it is highly undesirable to use them at home.

The spider mite is one of the nastiest and most frequent pests on citrus fruits. Ticks are dangerous in that:

  • multiply and develop rapidly
  • it is extremely difficult to wash them off - they hide in the axils of the leaves, in the buds, in the upper layers of the soil
  • conventional insecticides are not effective against them, but only special drugs - acaricides
  • after two treatments, ticks form resistance - a new generation is more resistant to the active substance of the drug.

Signs of ticks on citrus fruits

  • yellowish or whitish spots on leaves without clear borders
  • strokes and dots are gray or silver, especially noticeable on young leaves
  • deformed flower petals, young leaflets, shrunken buds
  • on the back of the leaves are small grains, crumbs, husks - the pests themselves and skins from molting
  • with strong magnification (magnifying glass, microscope), the thinnest web is visible.

Therefore, if you have at least once appeared ticks, you will have to observe and observe and periodically, at least once a month, carefully inspect the entire plant

Control measures. First, wash or erase the pests manually. To do this, you will either have to take the pot to the bathroom or shower, put the pot on its side so that the leaves are on the weight, and pour a powerful pressure on the hot shower; or wash each leaf manually - take and wipe on both sides.

The problem is that there are no systemic drugs against ticks - so that they water - and the ticks die. Only intestinal contact: sprayed, took out a tick. Where the solution did not get - the ticks will survive and continue to multiply.

Against ticks, it is worth trying such means as apallo, vermitek, oberon, etc.

Read more about indoor plant pests in the pest section