The Little-Known Trick To Get Your Indoor Lemon Tree To Produce Fruit In The Winter

Growing citrus fruit is a fun and exciting adventure, but the adventure doesn't have to stop just because it is winter. If you have an indoor lemon tree, you can encourage it to produce fruit in the winter by ensuring that its needs are met. Of course, this isn't always easy. Winter can get pretty cold and dry, which isn't really ideal for lemon trees. However, an easy trick to help your lemon tree thrive over the winter and possibly even produce fruit is to use a humidifier. By placing one next to your lemon tree, you can raise the humidity in your home and replicate the tree's natural habitat. 

Before setting up a humidifier, ensure your lemon tree has its ideal growing conditions in your home. Lemon trees love the sun, needing at least six hours of sunshine a day. So, if your lemon tree is in the gloom, bring it to a sunny, south-facing window. You should ensure that your home is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, dropping no more than 10 degrees lower at night. You also need to feed your tree regularly, using a 2-1-1 fertilizer. Once you've taken these steps, you can introduce a humidifier.

As mentioned above, increasing the humidity around your lemon tree is key to keeping the fruit coming. There are loads of different portable humidifiers available, so have a look around to find one that suits your budget. Then, set it up next to your lemon tree and ensure that it is left on for multiple hours a day. This provides consistent humidity for your lemon tree, which will help it produce fruit. You can also use it with a digital thermometer and hydrometer to keep an eye on how effective the humidifier is, and if you need to change how much you are using it. Ensure you clean your humidifier regularly, especially during the winter months, as microorganisms can grow in the tank.

If the humidity isn't enough, another thing to consider when it comes to indoor lemon trees producing fruit in the wintertime is pollination. These trees usually get pollinated by insects, but when indoors, this probably won't happen. This means that you have to pollinate it yourself by using a soft paintbrush to move pollen from flower to flower, gently brushing the blossom as you do so. 

Taking these steps can increase the likelihood that your tree will produce fruit in the winter. And when it does, be patient while you wait until the right time to harvest lemons from your fruit tree. It takes around six to nine months for a lemon fruit to ripen, so it probably won't be this winter when you get to use them!