Caring For Citrus

You can grow wonderful lemons, limes, kumquats and oranges  inside! All you need is a sunny window. Year after year, you will enjoy successive crops of fragrant blossoms followed by delicious fruit. Your citrus will be happiest in a fertile and well-draining soil mixture: three parts potting soil mixed with one part sand. An unglazed clay pot gives the roots optimal air circulation. Keep your citrus beautiful during the winter with a pebble tray or by spray-misting to offset dry air. Feed once a month with Blossom Booster (follow instructions on package). Once every three months, give Miracid fertilizer (follow instructions on package). These fertilizers will help your citrus bloom and fruit. If your citrus summers outdoors, bees will pollinate the blossoms and initiate the formation of fruit. If your citrus never goes outside, then you may be the bee and use a cotton swab or small brush to pollinate the flowers. Tiny fruit will form and grow. The fruit will start off green and only very slowly color. The ripening phase takes several months. You'll know the fruit is ripe when it pulls off with a gently tug.
 

Plant Care

Light:

Place your citrus in a sunny window with a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight. Your plant will love to summer outdoors. Just choose a shaded spot so it doesn't sunburn. Then gradually acclimate the plant to more sun.

Water:

Keep soil evenly moist. Water so that the soil is not too wet and never dries out.

Temperature:

Indoors, average warmth is good. If your citrus summers outdoors, be sure to bring it indoors before the temperature drops below 50 degrees.