- 6 weeks ago
Grow Meyer lemons in pots and you can harvest sweet citrus even in the cold country, as long as you use the old trick of carrying the tree indoors before frost. The method here covers the whole process: choosing a healthy grafted young tree, planting it in a deep container, and giving it a gritty, fast-draining soil mix so the roots never sit in wet feet.
The guide also explains where potted citrus does best through the seasons. Meyer lemon trees need full sun outdoors in summer, then a bright south-facing window, sun porch, or cool indoor spot for winter. You’ll also learn simple pruning for an open shape, thinning fruit so the tree can size up better lemons, and the safest way to water by checking the soil instead of judging the leaves.
Created for container gardening, citrus growing, and fruit tree care, this is a practical lemon tree tutorial for patios, balconies, porches, and small spaces. It’s especially useful for anyone searching for Meyer lemon tree care, growing lemons in pots, winterizing citrus, pruning citrus trees, and avoiding root rot, yellow leaves, and fruit drop.
The guide also explains where potted citrus does best through the seasons. Meyer lemon trees need full sun outdoors in summer, then a bright south-facing window, sun porch, or cool indoor spot for winter. You’ll also learn simple pruning for an open shape, thinning fruit so the tree can size up better lemons, and the safest way to water by checking the soil instead of judging the leaves.
Created for container gardening, citrus growing, and fruit tree care, this is a practical lemon tree tutorial for patios, balconies, porches, and small spaces. It’s especially useful for anyone searching for Meyer lemon tree care, growing lemons in pots, winterizing citrus, pruning citrus trees, and avoiding root rot, yellow leaves, and fruit drop.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Here is a thing most folks in the cold country believe, that they can never grow their own lemons.
00:06That a lemon tree is only for the warm, sunny south and would freeze dead the first hard winter here.
00:13And they are half right, for a lemon tree left out in our winters would surely die.
00:18But here is what they do not know, that you can grow a lemon tree of your own even in
00:24the coldest country
00:25and pick your own lemons off it by one old simple trick, and that is to grow it in a
00:32pot.
00:32For a tree in a pot you can move, and a tree you can move you can carry indoors out
00:39of the killing cold and back out again come spring.
00:43Folks have kept tender potted trees alive through hard winters this way for hundreds of years,
00:49carrying their lemons and their oranges indoors for the cold months.
00:54Today I will show you the whole of it, how to plant and grow a lemon tree in a pot,
01:00how to tend and prune it, and above all, how to carry it through the winter so it lives for
01:06years and gives you your own lemons.
01:09I am Elias, and though we are blessed with good ground here in Lancaster County,
01:14some things simply will not grow in our cold, and the lemon is one, unless you grow it in a
01:21pot and shelter it.
01:22So this is a bit of the old potted tree wisdom, the way folk have long kept a tender tree
01:28alive far north of where it would grow on its own.
01:32Let me hand it to you.
01:34Quick word before I go further.
01:37The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:43I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:47The book is the long version.
01:50If you want it, it is there.
01:52I will not mention it again.
01:54I first saw this done at an old aunt's place when I was a boy, and it stuck with me
02:00all my life.
02:01She had a lemon tree in a great wooden tub by her south window all winter,
02:06and I remember the wonder of it, a real lemon tree with real lemons on it,
02:12indoors, with the snow piled up outside the glass.
02:15Come the warm weather, her boys would carry that heavy tub out to the yard for the summer,
02:21and come fall, carry it back in before the frost.
02:25A little trouble, she said, for a lemon in the snow country, but worth every bit of it.
02:31I never forgot that tree in the window, and it is the whole of what I am about to teach
02:36you.
02:37First, the tree itself.
02:39You want a young lemon tree, a grafted one from a good nursery,
02:43and if you can, choose one of the improved kinds,
02:47for the old lemon was prone to a certain citrus sickness
02:50that the newer, improved sorts have had bred out of them,
02:55so they are hardier and healthier.
02:57The Meyer sort is a favorite, a sweeter, finer lemon than the harsh ones from the store,
03:03prized by cooks and hard to buy, so all the better to grow your own.
03:08Get a healthy young tree, then, and let us pot it up right.
03:13Now the soil and the pot, and here is where folks go wrong and kill their tree before it starts.
03:19The one thing a lemon, and all citrus, cannot abide is wet feet,
03:25that is, sitting in soggy, waterlogged soil.
03:28It will rot its roots and die.
03:31So it wants a soil that drains fast and free,
03:35a gritty, sharp, open soil that lets water run right through and never stays soggy.
03:41A heavy, wet, potting soil will kill it.
03:45So you mix your soil gritty and sharp,
03:47the kind of loose, fast-draining mix you would give a cactus or a desert plant,
03:53lightened further with a bit of good potting soil,
03:56so it holds a little moisture, but drains quick.
03:59And into it, you work just a little food,
04:02some good compost and old-aged manure,
04:06a light feeding to start it, no more,
04:08for you do not want to force it hard.
04:11And the pot must drain as fast as the soil.
04:14It wants a pot deeper than it is wide,
04:16for a lemon is a tree and sends down a good root,
04:20so give it depth.
04:22But above all, the pot must have good drainage holes in the bottom.
04:27I say this plain because folks will fall in love with some handsome pot
04:31that has no holes in it and plant their tree in that,
04:34and then the water sits in the bottom with nowhere to go and rots the roots.
04:39If your pot has no holes, bore some, good ones, before you plant,
04:44and set the pot up on a couple of little feet or stones so the water runs clear away beneath
04:50it.
04:50No drainage, no lemon tree.
04:53Do not skip this.
04:54Now to the planting.
04:57Take your young tree gently from its nursery pot
05:00and look at its roots before you set it in.
05:02You want to see healthy roots,
05:04and if they have begun to circle round and round the bottom,
05:08wound tight from the pot,
05:10you gently tease them loose and open with your fingers,
05:13spreading them free so they will grow outward into the new soil
05:17rather than keep circling.
05:19Folk are timid about touching a plant's roots,
05:22but there is no need.
05:23A gentle loosening does it good,
05:26the same as we prune the top without fear.
05:29Then set it in the pot
05:31so that the top of its root ball sits about an inch below the rim,
05:35at the same depth it grew before, not deeper.
05:38Settle a little fertilizer,
05:40a bit of compost and aged manure,
05:43in around the planting,
05:45backfill your gritty soil around the roots,
05:48firm it gentle, and water it in.
05:50And take care, even now, not to drown it.
05:54Just settle it in moist, not soggy.
05:58Now where to keep it?
05:59And here is the heart of growing a lemon in the cold country,
06:03the whole trick of it,
06:05the moving with the seasons.
06:07A lemon wants a great deal of sun,
06:10a full eight hours and more,
06:12to grow well and to fruit.
06:14So through the warm months,
06:16from after the last frost of spring,
06:18clear until the first frost threatens in fall,
06:21you keep your potted lemon outdoors
06:24in the sunniest spot you have,
06:26drinking up the summer sun,
06:28and there it will grow and bloom and set its fruit.
06:32But then, as fall comes on
06:34and the first frost nears,
06:36before ever the cold can bite it,
06:38you carry that pot indoors,
06:40into shelter for the winter.
06:42And indoors,
06:44you set it in the sunniest,
06:46brightest place you have,
06:47right up against a big south-facing window,
06:50where the winter sun pours in strongest,
06:53as close to the glass as you can get it,
06:56or in a bright, cool room,
06:58or a sun porch.
06:59It wants all the light it can get
07:01through the dark months,
07:03and a cool spot,
07:04rather than a hot, dry one, suits it.
07:07There it rests and waits out the winter,
07:10safe and alive,
07:11and come spring,
07:13when the frosts are surely past,
07:15you carry it back out into the sun again.
07:18In and out with the seasons,
07:20out for the summer sun,
07:22in for the winter shelter,
07:24that is the whole secret,
07:25and it is how a body grows a lemon
07:28a thousand miles north
07:29of where it has any business growing.
07:33One gentle word on the moving,
07:35that a tree feels a sudden change.
07:38So when you first set it out in spring,
07:40do it by degrees,
07:42a few days in a shadier sheltered spot,
07:45before the full blazing sun,
07:47so the leaves do not scorch
07:49from the shock of it,
07:50and the same coming in,
07:52bring it to its window,
07:53before the house heat is turned up high and dry.
07:57Ease it between the two worlds,
07:59and it takes the move without sulking
08:01or dropping its leaves.
08:03And keep it out of cold drafts,
08:05and away from the hot breath of a stove
08:08or a heat register indoors,
08:10for the dry heat is hard on it.
08:12A cool, bright spot suits it far better
08:15than a hot, dry one.
08:18Now the pruning,
08:19for a potted lemon wants shaping and tending
08:22to stay healthy and handsome
08:24and to fruit well.
08:26There are a few plain rules.
08:29First, cut out any branches
08:31that shoot straight up tall
08:33and bear no fruit,
08:34those water sprouts,
08:36for they take the tree's strength
08:38and give nothing back.
08:40Second, cut out any branches
08:43that cross through the middle of the tree
08:45or grow inward,
08:46for you want the center of the tree
08:48open and airy,
08:50not a crowded tangle,
08:51since crowded, damp inner growth
08:54breeds disease and rot,
08:56and an open, airy center stays healthy.
09:00Third, if you want it to grow
09:02as a proper little tree
09:04rather than a low bush,
09:06clip off the shoots
09:07that keep sprouting low down on the trunk,
09:10keeping a clean, single trunk
09:12with the head up top.
09:14Keep it pruned to a good, open shape
09:17and it stays healthy
09:19and gives you fine fruit.
09:21And here is one more pruning trick
09:23that seems cruel, but is wise,
09:26and it is the thinning of the fruit.
09:28When your young tree first sets its little lemons,
09:31it may set a whole cluster of them close together,
09:34and you will be so proud and eager
09:36you will not want to lose a one.
09:38But you should pinch off some,
09:40thinning each cluster down
09:41to just one or two lemons.
09:43It hurts to do,
09:45but here is why it is right,
09:47that a young tree has only so much strength,
09:49and if it must feed a great crowd of fruit,
09:52it feeds them all poorly,
09:54giving you many small, mean lemons.
09:57But thin it to a few,
09:58and all that strength pours into those few,
10:01giving you big, fine,
10:03full-flavored lemons instead.
10:05Fewer fruit, better fruit,
10:07the same wisdom as we found in the potatoes,
10:10and so much else.
10:11So thin the clusters,
10:13and be glad you did come picking time.
10:16Now the watering,
10:18which is where most potted lemons are lost,
10:20and it comes right back to the wet feet we spoke of.
10:23The great danger is over-watering,
10:26drowning the roots,
10:27and here is the cruel trick of it,
10:29that an over-watered lemon
10:31and an under-watered one
10:32look near the same,
10:34both go yellow and wilting and sickly,
10:37so folks see the sickly leaves,
10:39think it thirsty,
10:40and water it more,
10:41and drown it dead.
10:43The reason they look alike
10:45is that over-watering suffocates
10:47and rots the roots,
10:48so they can no longer drink,
10:50so the poor tree is parched
10:52even while it drowns.
10:54So do not water by the look of the leaves,
10:56water by the soil.
10:58Push your finger down into the soil
11:00a good few inches,
11:01three or four inches down,
11:03and only if it is dry down there
11:05do you water,
11:06and then water it well,
11:08and let it drain right through,
11:10and then leave it be
11:11until it dries down again.
11:13In a pot,
11:14and above all a pot in the winter indoors,
11:17it wants watering far less often
11:19than folk think.
11:20When in doubt,
11:21wait,
11:22for a lemon forgives a little dryness
11:24far more readily
11:25than it forgives soggy feet.
11:27Water deep,
11:29let it dry down,
11:30water again.
11:31That is the way
11:32to keep it alive for years.
11:34Now let me say
11:35a small plain word,
11:37not a who-profits sermon,
11:39for the lemon is no one's scheme.
11:41But notice,
11:43once you have your little tree,
11:44the growing of it
11:45costs you almost nothing,
11:47a gritty soil,
11:48a bit of compost,
11:50a pot with holes,
11:51and the carrying in and out
11:53with the seasons.
11:54And it gives you,
11:56year on year,
11:57your own lemons
11:58off your own tree,
11:59a thing folk in the cold country
12:01are told they can never have
12:02and must always buy.
12:04There is a whole notion
12:06that certain good things
12:07are simply beyond you,
12:08that you must always buy your lemons
12:10because you cannot grow them.
12:12And it is not so.
12:13For a pot,
12:14and a sunny window,
12:15and a little old knowing,
12:17put your own lemon tree
12:18right in your kitchen.
12:19The old folk knew
12:21you could carry a tender tree
12:23through a hard winter
12:24and eat its fruit,
12:25and it is a fine,
12:26independent thing to do,
12:28and mostly forgotten.
12:30So there is the whole
12:31of growing your own lemon tree
12:32in a pot,
12:33even in the cold country.
12:35Get a healthy,
12:36young,
12:36improved tree.
12:38Plant it in a gritty,
12:39fast-draining soil
12:40in a deep pot
12:41with good drainage holes,
12:43teasing its roots loose.
12:45Set it in the full
12:46summer sun outdoors
12:48and carry it indoors
12:49to a bright south window
12:50before the first frost,
12:52out and in with the seasons.
12:55Prune it open and airy
12:56and thin its fruit
12:58to a few fine lemons.
13:00And water it careful
13:01by the dry soil
13:02and never the sickly leaf,
13:04guarding always
13:05against the wet feet
13:06that kill it.
13:07Do these,
13:09and you will pick
13:09your own sweet lemons
13:11off your own little tree
13:12for years
13:12in a land where folks
13:14swear it cannot be done.
13:16Now I want to hear from you.
13:18Tell me down below
13:19whether you have tried
13:20growing a lemon
13:21or any citrus in a pot
13:22and how it fared
13:24through your winter,
13:24for I know some of you
13:26in the cold country
13:27have fine potted trees
13:28you carry in and out
13:29and I would learn your tricks.
13:32And tell me your county
13:33and how hard your winters come,
13:35for the harder the winter,
13:36the more this carrying
13:38indoors matters.
13:39I read every one.
13:41Next time,
13:42I want to show you
13:43the growing of a fig tree
13:44in a pot the same way,
13:46another fine fruit
13:47you can keep in a tub
13:49and carry through the winter,
13:50for the fig takes
13:51wonderfully to a pot
13:53and will give you
13:54sweet fresh figs
13:55even where the winters
13:56would kill it
13:57in the ground.
13:59The old people knew
14:01that a tender tree
14:02need not be surrendered
14:03to the cold,
14:04that with a pot
14:05and a sunny window
14:06and a little care,
14:08you could carry it
14:09through the hardest winter
14:10and eat its fruit besides,
14:13growing what your neighbors
14:14swore could not be grown.
14:17There is a quiet triumph in that,
14:19in picking your own lemons
14:21in the snow country
14:22by nothing but old knowing
14:24and a bit of trouble taken.
14:26The people who built this country
14:28with their hands knew that
14:30and we are only just starting
14:32to remember it.