Once you get a taste of homegrown Lemons, you will want to add more of these cool, subtropical, broadleaved evergreens to your life! Plus, there are so many Lemon Trees that are ideal for container culture, balcony growing, and indoor houseplants!
Both northern and southern growers can enjoy these fruit trees as Patio Trees and as fruiting houseplants in front of a bright, sunny window. So don’t be surprised if you wind up with a lavish food forest on your balcony or a sun-drenched living room!
The ultimate ornamental edible, here are the top Lemon Trees to grow indoors! We are so pleased to offer these “commercial orchard-grade” plants for you to grow indoors!
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Top Lemon Trees To Grow Indoors
With glossy and aromatic foliage, plus delectable fruit, it is enjoyable to watch the developing fruit of your own homegrown Citrus! As a bonus, you will relish the waxy, white, tropical blossoms that heavily perfume your spaces!
Here are the best varieties for a successful harvest from container-grown Lemon Trees, not only for the landscape or orchard, but also in the greenhouse, sunroom, solarium, orangery, enclosed patio, or right in that big front window in your living room!
- Improved Dwarf Meyer Lemon Trees and Improved Dwarf Semi-Dwarf Lemon Trees feature bright orange-yellow fruit with a sweeter taste. They are a wonderful blend of a Lemon and a Mandarin Orange! The exceptionally rounded, thin-skinned, orange-yellow fruit is fabulous for cooking, baking, juicing, and spritzing into cocktails. The Meyer is one of the more dependable, productive container fruit trees you can grow. Plus, it is expertly grafted onto a semi-dwarfing rootstock that has displayed incredible resistance to the Tristeza virus! Considered the easiest to grow Lemon for indoors, in-ground, or container gardening!
- Eureka Lemon Trees have tart juice and a rind that adds a flavorful zest to desserts. Eurekas have a true lemon flavor with very few to no seeds, and the thick-skinned fruit is known primarily for its juice: delicious, bright, acidic, and tart. These pale yellow lemons can be preserved in olive oil for use to flavor chicken dishes. Or, add the juice to water for a healthy “pick-me-up” any time of day.
- Ponderosa Lemon Tree produces large, yellow fruit reminiscent of its Pomelo parentage, while the flavor is all Lemon. The fruit can be as large as a grapefruit and feature a pale yellow, thick, bumpy rind that offers bountiful zest! Indoor container-grown plants may have fruit a bit smaller, but will still be impressive, to say the least. Ponderosa flowers year-round, so you could potentially get fruit ripening all year long when grown outdoors in optimal conditions!
- Lisbon Lemon Tree is the go-to Lemon Tree! The Lisbon is a tart, honest-to-goodness kitchen lemon! When you want a simple, real lemon with the classic sour yellow lemon, this is it. The smooth skin isn't too thick, is easy to peel, and easy to zest. One of the juiciest of all lemons, Lisbon is great for cooking, juicing, and drinking. Easily kept smaller with pruning, container Lisbon Lemons are easy to grow, more columnar in shape!
- Variegated Pink Lemon Tree is as pretty as it is flavorful! Featuring fuchsia-colored new growth that becomes variegated cream, green, and yellowish leaves, plus pale yellow and green striped fruit! As if that isn't enough, the fruit is highlighted by bright pink flesh! These lemons have clear juice and a great acidic lemon flavor. You'll also enjoy the fragrant pinkish-white flowers! Prune them to any size needed. The fruit can be used in beverages, desserts, marmalade, and cooking to add that tart flavor to any dish!
Getting a Lemon Tree to Bear Fruit Faster
Want to enjoy fruit faster? Start by selecting high-quality, grafted Citrus Trees for healthy, great-tasting harvests. Next, you will want to choose the largest, deepest container size available on the website to get a head start. Citrus Trees may set fruit at a very young age if conditions are right.
Young plants will acclimate to your home conditions faster, and established young plants can add lots of nice new growth during the spring.
Today, commercial Lemon Trees are almost always grafted. Most are best grafted onto a rootstock that anchors the plant well and may offer disease resistance, and other kinds of rootstock add dwarfing to the plant so they will stay smaller, but still produce plenty of normal-sized fruit.
Tips for the Best Fruit Set
A Lemon Tree's fruit set is very dependent on the climate indoors. You'll want to find a good spot with bright sunlight, moderate, steady temperatures, higher air humidity, and proper watering, which all play a big role in a successful crop.
The flowers of Citrus are "perfect" and have both male and female parts. Pollination can occur indoors without your assistance, but you might want to give your indoor trees a helping hand. When in bloom, lightly shake the blooming branches. This will replicate the movement of outdoor breezes, so use a very gentle touch. Or dab at the flowers with a paintbrush or swab, spreading pollen as a bee would.
After the blooms pass, clusters of lemons will develop and begin to ripen. But for the first season, thin the excessive fruit set, which can interfere with the tree's vegetative growth and even cause stress to young trees and their ability to establish. Just leave a few fruits to enjoy now, and look forward to the larger crops in the future as the plants grow larger!
Generally, spring flowers will produce a winter crop of fruit. It takes a long time for the fruit to mature and ripen indoors. But you'll know when your lemons are ripe when the rind is bright yellow! Some Lemons do flower and fruit year-round, but will still only have a single large crop per year, with some smaller, infrequent fruit at other times.
Caring For Container Lemon Trees
The best way to get your Lemon Tree to fruit sooner is to give it the right conditions from the start, and maintain its environment the right way, so it grows stress-free!
Keep your Lemon Tree producing fruit consistently for you by following a few rules for container Citrus tree growing success.
- Do not plant your Citrus plants any deeper than they are currently growing in their pots. You especially will want the graft union to be situated well above the soil line.
- Plant in a slightly acidic, very well-drained soil.
- Ensure your container has very good drainage holes, with a tray to collect the shed water. Remove this excess water once it has finished draining.
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Place your tree in a full sun location, or the window with the most light. If you don’t have a full sun window, you can use grow lights to supplement your lighting needs.
- Water once the soil has had a chance to slightly dry out. Citrus prefer things on the drier side, so this is why fast-draining soil and excellent drainage holes in their pots. Check every week, and use the "Finger Test" to see if the soil is moist or not below the surface.
- Container Citrus should be fertilized using an acid-based fertilizer like Dr. Earth Acid Lovers Organic and Natural Premium Fertilizer.
- For best fruiting, prune out any crossing branches and non-fruiting branches that grow straight upwards. You can also prune off the lower side limbs to keep a single-trunked tree form, or you can keep your Lemon Tree in more of a bushy shrub form, too!
- Lemon and Citrus Trees prefer good air circulation to keep their foliage healthy.
Protecting Citrus
If you're growing these container tropical/subtropical trees outdoors for the summer, they need to be slowly acclimated to a sunny location. Each spring, you will want to gradually acclimate your tree back outdoors, and each fall, move to a more shaded location before bringing it back inside. This acclimation process allows the tree to adapt to outdoor and indoor conditions gradually.
Move your tree inside to a bright, sunny spot for the winter if the temperatures in your area ever dip below 40°F. For indoor winter care, be sure to transition your tree indoors and then back outside again. This reduces stress and leaf drop.
Watch our video on how to successfully bring Lemon Trees indoors for the winter.
While indoors during the winter, protect your Lemon Tree by keeping it away from drafts, away from heat sources, avoiding placing it too close to cold windows where frost tends to form, and keeping it away from exterior doors that will frequently be opened and closed, exposing them to blasts of cold air.
The right temperature is between 50-80°F outside and on the cooler side indoors. Use a humidifier if your indoor air is dry, or another way to raise the relative air humidity around your tree.
Get Growing Indoor Lemons Today!
Start with one Lemon and add to your collection over time. Or, get started with several to spread your harvest to ripen throughout the year!
Versatile and ornamental, Lemon Trees look great in the ground and in containers in the sun! Pick up your Lemon Tree at NatureHills.com and enjoy your own lemonade, lemon meringue pies, and tangy drinks in the near future!
Happy Planting!
