Hello, 

This is a reply to my last post about my lemon tree seedling. For some reason I wasn't able to reply on my post.

Thanks for the congrats Pankaj1369!

I am exited to see what kind lemons I end up with. Do you think it will take 10 years for the tree to produce fruit?

I was wondering, if it is not a dwarf variety, how big will it get in a pot? Will it be over 5 feet tall, or under 5 feet? Also, I don't think I will have enough room for a pot bigger then 12 gallons. So, if I just keep pruning the roots, will it continue to grow?

One more question, should I slowly increase the pot size as it grows? Or, should I move it from the tiny pot it is in right now to the biggest pot I can.


Here is a picture of a pot I am considering planting it in. Is it a good choice? I don't have room for a pot bigger than this:

This is a bonsai forum. We do not grow trees to full mature size. We prune to keep them small. We create miniatures of mature trees in nature. If you want to know how to grow lemon trees to maximum size I would sugest to go to a gardening forum. There are a lot of people knowledgable about growing lemon trees.

40 or 50 liter pots for a seedling is just ridicolous. Go to your closest garden center and check what size pots the lemon trees in stock have. The smallest trees for sale is 10-15 years old and are in pots around 2-4 liters.

This is my lemon tree from seed 4 years old. It has been uppotted every year and now sits in an aproximately 1-1,5 liter pot. It was trunk shoped 2 years ago and I plan to do the next shop come spring. Currently the tree is around 60 cm tall.

I live in Sweden and have quite short growing season. You may be able to double or trippel growth if you are in a more favorable climate.

 

Hello Tropfrog ,

I know this is a bonsai forum, that is why I came here. Every time I search on the internet or ask people questions they all say the same thing: "a 10 gallon pot will only be good for a few years, and then I will have to re-pot to a bigger size". I kept saying I don't have enough room for a pot that big, and I don't want a tree that big, and I got the same re-ply: YOU WILL NEED A BIGGER POT! Then I said: "can I prune the roots and branches and keep it in a normal sized pot"? Answer: YOU WILL NEED A BIGGER POT!

So, I came to a bonsai forum (because bonsais are small trees), and asked my question here. You'll never guess what they replied with:

"As for the pot size, a 10-gallon pot is good for now but may eventually become too small, especially if it's not a dwarf variety. Lemon trees that aren’t dwarf can grow quite large (up to 20 feet in the ground), but they can still thrive in a pot for several years if you manage the root size and prune regularly. Eventually, you may want to upgrade to a larger pot, like a 15- or 20-gallon container, to give it more space".

So, I found a massive pot (that I don't have room for) and asked if that would be big enough for the lemon tree, and then you replied. Finally, somebody in the world answered my question. Thank you. I am glad I am not the only one who thinks that a 10 gallon pot is ridiculous.

Now that I am talking to somebody who can actually help me, please answer my question: if I up-pot my lemon tree as it grows, can I stop increasing the pot size at a 3 gallon pot, and then prune the branches and roots when needed?

The answer is yes.

www.bonsaiempire.com/tree-species/citrus-bonsai

A 40 liter pot is ridicolous even for a seedling that is intended to be grown to a full size tree. If uppotted yearly it will take at least 20 years before there is any reason to use such a big pot. But it can also stay in that big pot for all its life.

Thank you so much for your help!😊

I have a lime tree outside in a pot probably less than half a gallon. It will probably stay in that pot for years. I may find a pot I like more, but it won't be much different. Three gallons is pretty large, I think. 

Leave the lemon in that pot for a while. Read up on design and on basic techniques to keep it alive, like water and fertilizer, then on repotting, trimming, etc. There is a lot of good information here on the website.

If you can find a local bonsai club, go to some meetings and listen to how they keep trees. Citrus is not real common in bonsai so you may have to do some work researching. This may take a couple of years, but the tree should be just fine waiting.

The tree should be outside most of the year. You should bring it inside when temperatures are below 10C/50F.

Thanks for the info! I am so glad this website exists, Startpage and DuckDuckGo don't have the answers I am looking for. I am a complete beginner on trees. I am probably an intermediate gardener. I love growing pumpkins, they were my favorite plant to grow until I came across bonsai. Now pumpkins are second.

When I bring the lemon tree outside for the warm weather, will the soil it is in get infested with bugs and eggs?

Photosynthesis wrote: When I bring the lemon tree outside for the warm weather, will the soil it is in get infested with bugs and eggs?

I tend to avoid bringing any plants except for South african succulents into livingroom conditions. My experience is that most plants are more prone to infestions indoors. That may sound contraintuitive to people as indoors naturally would have less bugs normally. But there is one more factor to it. That is plant health. Livingroom conditions is not a good environment for most plants. A plant that is in a bad environment will get weaker. A weak plant will be more subsebticle to pests.

All my citrus trees are kept outdoors all time possible and in a frost free overwintering room in winter. I have never seen any pests on them. My winters is long, cold and dark. In Sweden citrus trees are sold by milions every spring. The recomendation from the sellers is to bring them indoors in winter. But if that was a good strategy, would there really be a big demand for trees in spring? Why would 10% or more of our population want to buy new trees in spring? I see more maples in the gardens around me than citrus. But still more citrus than maples in the garden centers. Everything suggests that most citrus trees dies in winter and that indoor "protection" simply just do not have a very high successrate.

What about tropical trees, like a Delonix Regia? I read that they should be kept out of the wind and never below 50°F. So, would a living room environment be better for it?

Living room environment isn't good for trees, even worse for Deciduous trees (Yes, Delonix is a deciduous species).

Keep it outside, and if your winter is too cold, just protect it on a shack or porch, but not on living room conditions, that's comfortable for humans, not trees.