Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Re: Indoor Citrus

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Re: Indoor Citrus
  • Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 21:38:27 -0500

I also have a Meyers Lemon that moves with the seasons. I put it outdoors when the oaks leaf out, and bring it indoors when the oaks drop their leaves, or when we start getting frosts. It was labeled cold hardy to 20F, and has survived several light frosts outdoors. I've had it more than seven years and it hasn't grown very much. New branches grow, but old ones die back.

The fruits are more sour and less sweet than the Meyers lemons I ate from a large tree in in SanFran area. Nonetheless, it is delicious, with a flavor somewhere between tangerine and lemon. I use it to make lemon pie, and to flavor lentils. It doesn't like being moved, and often drops all its leaves when I move it (especially when I move it indoors, no doubt removing some root while potting it) but then it always grows new ones. When it is happy it has a normal number of leaves for a tree its size (about 4' tall.)

If I wasn't clear, I put it in a pot indoors, but in the ground when it is outdoors. I found it needed to be watered more often than I could keep up with it (and lost all its leaves) in a pot in the sun. Indoors, I water it once a week or a little less. It does appreciate full sun, and gets the best spot in the window. It generally flowers indoors (where it smells wonderful) and I pollinate it with a Q-Tip. I have had lemons most years - this year I got six in the fall, usually I get about three in the spring.

Homegrown lemons in New England are a great conversation piece, and they taste terrific.

Ginda Fisher
eastern Mass., zone 6

On Dec 1, 2004, at 7:48 PM, Ruth Dykstra wrote:

I have a Meyer Lemon tree that is around 5 years old. It is outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter. It is not the healthiest looking tree, it has relatively few leaves for its size, but it has 4-5 good -sized fruits each year. When it blooms in the house I hand pollinate with a little paint brush and then make sure I only leave one fruit per branch to develop. It smells fantastic and there's nothing like giving people bread you made with homegrown lemons in Northern Illinois.

Ruth





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page