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Planting Lemon Trees

Lemons (Citrus limonia) are the mostpopular acid citrus for cooling drinks andcookery. Although the tree is less attractivethan most other citrus species, the value of thefruit goes far to alleviating this deficiency.

Lemon varieties are fewer in number than formost popular citrus fruits, and among the treelemons there is little difference in fruit character-istics.

`Eureka' is of typical "lemon" shape—ellip-tical, with a nipple at the blossom end and amore or less necked stem end. The tree is thesmallest of the Lemon varieties, more open,spreading, and with nearly thornless shoots. InCalif. 'Eureka' is preferred in the cool coastaldistricts because more of its fruit ripen in thelate spring and early summer.

`Lisbon' is the variety preferred in the Calif.lemon districts having higher summer temper-atures, again because under these conditions ahigher percentage of the fruit ripens at afavorable time. The tree is substantially larger,more upright, denser and more vigorous thanother Lemon varieties, and with thorny shoots.

`Villafrartea' is a variety quite similar to`Eureka' in fruit, but more like 'Lisbon' in treecharacters. In Calif. this variety tends to pro-duce a higher percentage of its fruit in the falland winter, an undesirable characteristic whichhas limited its use. However, it is the bestadapted of the true lemons to the warm, humidSoutheast.

`Meyer' (Meyer Lemon) is an anomalouskind, possibly a hybrid bearing acid fruits oflemon character. The fruit is nearly round, witha short nipple. It has a light orange color ratherthan yellow, with very juicy light orange-yellowflesh rather than the pale greenish-yellow of thetrue lemons. The tree is dwarf, and much morecold-resistant than the true lemons, which makesit a garden favorite.

`Ponderosa' (American Wonder) is mentionedprimarily for its very large fruit; both tree andfruit have ornamental value, but the fruit is ofpoor quality for food use.

In regions where lemons are not well adaptedthe Rough Lemon and the Calamondin (C.mitis) are sometimes used as substitutes, as bothyield fruit with acid, plentiful juice. RoughLemon, as its name implies, bears a roughishorange-yellow fruit of small orange size.Calamondin fruit is quite small, round andyellow; this species is sometimes used as anornamental garden plant.

`Millsweet' and 'Dorshapo' are 2 sweetlemons (low acid); both are believed by someto be hybrid sorts, although their fruits arequite lemonish in appearance. `Millsweet' is

nearly round in shape, while 'Dorshar.:resembles 'Eureka' in fruit. Both have the 17-4Lemon flavor. They are generally conside7e:be novelty fruits, but may have value for

who object to the highly acid citrus.

The true lemons are less cold-hardyoranges, but slightly hardier than limes. S-z•tree damage will occur when temperaturesbelow 24° or 25° F., and defoliation will re_.-atat somewhat higher temperatures. The it._are also slightly more tender by about one

than are orange fruits. The 'Meyer', onother hand, is fully as hardy as is the Orangewill be recognized that protection againstwill be more difficult for lemons at any ezsite, but see ORANGE for protective measa:

Lemons perform much better in ....... -marked by relatively cool, dry summers; 'Ca:grow and mature their fruit with excelquality under these conditions. Both the tr.:-andfruit are adversely affected by extremes dheat, and especially hot dry winds, which =..!cause defoliation and fruit drop. Lemons havealso proved poorly adapted to warm,regions, as the southeastern United States 1.-71.fHawaii. Under these conditions the trees s_fferseverely from fungal diseases, and the

tend to be large and gross. Of the varieties

the sweet lemons, 'Meyer' and `Villafranu."..appear to do best.

The true lemons may flower year-rouehence have fruit in all stages of development 2 _maturity each month of the year. The heavies.bloom normally occurs with the spring grow&flush, but one or two lesser flushes norma=follow through the summer. This results i= acharacteristic main-harvest period, but wishminor crops at other seasons. 'Meyer' tends ashave but a single spring bloom in the Southwest,but may bear off-season bloom in more humid.higher-average-temperature locales, as theSoutheast.

Lemons are propagated by the same methodsas given for Orange. Rootstocks commonlyused are the same as for Orange, except thatLemon tends to overgrow Sour Orange stocks,and to be relatively weak on them. SweetOrange, Citrange and Trifoliate are possibly atibetter, although the susceptibility of SWIMOrange stock to root rots should be recalloiRough Lemon may be used with less detrirressto the fruit than for oranges. Lemons may betopworked on other citrus species using themethods described under Orange.

Size differences among Lemon varieties andkinds result in a variety of recommendedplanting distances, which also can be varied bythe training given. The vigorous true lemons, as`Lisbon' and `Villafranca', make large trees ongood rootstocks if allowed to grow freely. Trela

require 24 to 3o ft. spacing; with heavy pruningthey may be kept somewhat smaller. 'Eureka'is often kept low by heavy pruning, and can bemaintained easily at i8 to zo ft. spacing. 'Meyer',being semi-dwarf naturally, needs but 8 to 12 ft.spacing. Rough Lemon and the sweet lemonswould need the same spacing as for `Lisbon';the Calamondin is oftcn kept small by treatingit as a small ornamental shrub; its naturaltendency is to make a rather tall but narrow,cylindrical tree. The effects of closer plantingand shaping arc the same as described forOrange; also by using dwarfing Trifoliate stock,space requirements may be materially reduced.

Lemons are pruned more heavily than anyother citrus species; rather than a requirementthis is probably dictated by the need to keeptrees small for the continual harvest. Neverthe-less, it is true that lemons fruit much better thanother citrus under such heavy pruning, whichmay therefore be used to control tree size.Lemons tend to throw strong, upright water-sprouts which, if not removed, soon make animpenetrable thicket of the center of the tree,and tend to shade out the productive portionsof the tree. Some of these watersprouts may beconverted to fruiting wood by pulling them tothe outside of the tree, in a nearly horizontalattitude, but generally they are removed.`Eureka' can be kept quite low and spreading;`Lisbon' and `Villafranca' somewhat more up-right. 'Meyer' needs practically no pruningexcept the removal of interfering branches.Cultural needs and practices arc otherwise verysimilar to those for the Orange.

Commercial lemons arc harvested accordingto size, without regard to color development.Green fruit may be ripened artificially withethylene (see ORANGE) or be stored, where itdevelops its full color. The gardener can profitby this experience, for it is not necessary toawait color development to use the fruit; whenit is of typical size and is juicy it is ready for use.However, for appearance most fruit will prob-ably be picked as it reaches full yellow color;large fruits on vigorous trees may actually bepast their prime by that time. Lemons should beclipped from the tree, and when properlyhandled they have a very long storage life,although this is less important to the gardenerconsidering the everbearing habit of the species.For storage the fruit should be washed, wellcured, and held at refrigerator temperatures.Under close commercial control lemons aresometimes stored for 6 months or more. Theskin becomes thinner and may even appear andfeel dry but the fruit retains its juicy condition.

The 'Meyer' does not have as long a storagelife, but holds its fruit on the tree over a ratherextended period. Like the true lemons they may

be used from the time they are juicy to the endof their on-tree life. Rough Lemon and Cala-mondin will be used from the tree.

The pests and diseases of the lemons arc thesame as for Orange. Lemons are more suscept-ible to scab and other fungus diseases than mostcitrus in the warm, humid Southeast. Underadverse conditions lemons also tend to defoliaterather readily; the tree is, therefore, often lessattractive than are other citrus.