I’ve always wanted to grow my own citrus, but zone 7 laughs at that. I do have the ability to bring it in for the winter though and put it out during the summer.
I’ve never had a Meyer Lemon but have read how they taste. Are there any places I may be able to try one?
Do these grow easily from cuttings or would I be better served to buy one despite them being a bit expensive?
Do any other trees do well in containers?
You can get citrus on dwarfing rootstock. You’ll still need to prune to keep it manageable. I have a dwarf lemon tree out front that I only prune to keep it out of my driveway and the sidewalk. It’s about 6’ tall by 10’ wide and produces a ton of fruit.
You will probably be able to grow one in a container and have it bloom, but most people have problems getting it to actually fruit. Spider mites and scale while indoors will also be a problem.
So definitely doable, but your will have to do some research!
I’ve managed to get mine to fruit a little, but the spider mites and scale are sure a real problem inside
I’ve had better luck with the Bearss lime than the lemon
Last summer i had thrown some citrus seed into the garden near my tomatoes… one of them sprouted over summer and i dug it in the fall…the thing then went and bloomed in the house! My guess is its a grapefruit since i eat a lot of those and they are seedy. It has done fine over winter in the house but is still small and in a 1 gallon pot. I’ll repot it when it warms. I use to grow a ton of citrus from seed, but got sick of getting stabbed by them (the young trees have spikes//as do many juvenile trees==pears/etc) so i chopped them up and composted them.
I have grown citrus in containers for maybe 5+ years now (zone 5a, 8300’ elevation), and they are doing well. I have a couple of Meyers Lemons and a Key Lime and am looking to add a “tangerine”.
While I have had some issues, now that most of the kinks in my system have been worked out, the trees are fine and producing fruit. At first the trees spent summers on an open porch and winters inside by S facing windows. When my large greenhouse was up and running a couple years ago, that became their winter home. They produced fruit in both locations. I actually had less trouble with insects/disease when they over-wintered in our living room. There are a few tricks to learn, such as how/when to move them inside, and keeping the roots/pots warm enough to function while indoors. But otherwise it’s not that hard. Lots of sites to get ideas and answers on indoor growing.
BTW, I have seen Meyers Lemons at local stores (Whole Foods and others) from time to time.
It tastes like a regular store bought lemon (usually Eureka) just a tad bit sweeter, the skin is more orange, softer and fruit is rounder. You can try one at whole foods / Safeway - they usually have it.
Pics here to show how they look -
They are quite cheap to buy online. Local stores here sell them for around $20-40. Better to graft on a rootstock rather than root cuttings.
Look for “Improved Meyer Lemon” rather than “Meyer Lemon”. Useful link if you try to root/graft http://www.fruitmentor.com/ but much easier to order a tree online to get fruit sooner. Rooting from cuttings would be my last resort.
Meyer, Kishu, Kumquats are good choices
good pointers here for indoor citrus growing - Growing Citrus
Looks like I need to do a bit of researching on the improved variety vs. standard ones. The lime option seems interesting.
Inside pests a re definitely annoying. I really need to just get some heat in a greenhouse here to do this. Stock it with ladybugs and let them do the work for me.
Didn’t see them at whole foods and we don’t have safeway in this area of the country. I think I remember those being out west.
"Look for “Improved Meyer Lemon” rather than “Meyer Lemon”. " Improved meyer lemon = standard meyer lemon without being a carrier of tristezia virus. No standard meyer lemons out there anymore. Meyer lemon can be a symptom less carrier of citrus tristezia virus. They do good on their own roots. There is a propagator in Texas who sells rooted cuttings.
They are sour like a regular lemon, maybe not quite as sour but also bigtger. They are not sweet and only turn orange at the end of the season. Early season they are green, then yellow and finally orange.
I’ve been growing one in a pot here in Michigan. They tend to flower in the house and fruit before it’s warm outside. That’s not a problem though. You’ll need to research the potting soil. It’s more of a granite mixture for good drainage. I do okay with just an east facing doorwall. If you have a southern exposure you will do just fine! Mine grew three big lemons last year. It has two on it right now. You can put spinosad in a spray bottle and spray if you get spider mites.
You can grow Improved Meyer Lemons from cuttings but make sure it has at least one half of a leaf on the stem to help better chances of rooting. Other than that, many online stores can sell and ship you Improved Meyer lemons as you’re not in a citrus quarantine zone. Raintree Nursery, Logees… they offer. If you’re confident in grafting, you can try growing flying dragon rootstock and graft a lemon to it. It would be excellent ultradwarf suited for container growing.
As to the indoor spider mites and aphids, they can be controlled by a mixture of rosemary oil, liquid soap, canola oil.
Also watch out that common with indoor plants are root aphids that you don’t see. To treat root aphids, add a mixture of horticultural oil, soap and tea tree oil into a bucket and soak your infested pot in it.
Use light colored container for growing your lemon and the shape must be so that it is very easy to take out to repot.
I don’t want to start another thread, so I hope it’s ok to threadjack this old thread.
I have two small indoor citrus trees. I got them at a big box retailer, when I couldn’t find the small size / variety I wanted at reputable plant nurseries. They thrived outdoors over the summer, but one has not done so well indoors. (I didn’t notice at first because the other - a pink variegated lemon - has leaves that are so color variegated… but it too has started to yellow and spot.)
The plain lemon has green veins and the rest of the leaves are yellow or spotted. There were a few little spider web looking things. When I looked super close under the leaf, I saw white dust, and rubbing it felt like dust, so I assume they’re eggs.
I saw a few options online as to which mites that could be, so hand-cleaned each leaf with a wet dishcloth covered in dish soap and baking soda. The cloth came away bright yellow with grey bits, so there was a lot of hidden schmutz on those leaves. (The white dust you may see now is baking soda.)
In case of magnesium deficiency, I added Epsom salts to the soil and watered it in.
Anything else you recommend?
Thank you!
-Leah
