It’s easy to plant a lemon tree in a cup from the comfort of your home. With a little help from this article and some easy, basic instructions, you’ll soon grow your lemon tree by saving the seeds you get from the lemons you eat. And you’ll gain the benefits of adding citrus fruit to your diet, too.
What Do You Need to Start Your Lemon Tree from Seeds?
One of the first steps in starting your citrus tree from seed remains to remove the seeds from an organic lemon. Non-organic fruit seeds frequently contain seeds that don’t sprout. Other materials besides lemon seeds that you’ll need to plant lemons in a cup include:
- A small amount of organic potting soil. Preferred potting soil contains an equal mixture of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite.
- Compost to feed the lemon tree as it grows.
- A cup or small container.
- A sunny place indoors.
- Water.
Steps to Planting Lemon in a Cup (in seven easy steps)
Here are the main steps you can take to start and plant lemons in your own home.
1. Place the soil in the chosen container.
Fill the cup or container to within one inch of the top rim of the vessel. Moisten the dirt, so it remains damp throughout all of the soil. If you get too much water, allow any excess water to drain out from the bottom of the pot through its drain hole.
2. Cut the chosen lemon open and remove five to ten seeds.
The easiest way to clean the seed remains to suck on it. If you’re going to plant several seeds, you might choose to wash them to clean them of debris.
3. You should plant the lemon seed while it remains moist.
A dry seed doesn’t germinate as well as a moist one. Also, ensure the soil remains moist even after the seed is placed in the dirt. The pointy end of the lemon seed should get placed downward.
4. Put the lemon tree seed in the middle of the pot to allow it room to grow and develop a healthy root system.
Place about ½ inch of dirt over the seed. Pat the earth above the seed to seal the soil. Then gently spray a light spray of water over the topsoil. Do not overwater.
5. Cover it up, nice and tight!
Once the lemon seed gets placed in the soil and patted in snugly, cover the top of the plant pot with transparent plastic film. Seal the edges of the wrap. Take a toothpick or other sharp, pointed tool and poke small holes in the transparent cover.
6. Place the pot with the seed and plastic wrap in a warm, sunny spot.
If the soil dries out, remove the plastic wrap and gently spray additional water to keep the top of the plant’s soil moist. But remain careful not to use too much water. The plastic wrap over the pot should keep the humidity high over the growing seed and moisten the soil.
7. About two weeks after you plant the seed, a seedling will sprout.
At that point, remove the plastic covering from the pot. Keep watering the soil to keep it damp, but not overly moist. Double-check to ensure the seedling gets at least eight hours of direct sunlight daily. Also, use an organic fertilizer to keep the seedling and emerging lemon tree well-fed as it grows.
More About How to Plant Lemons from Seed
As described above, you have a high chance of starting a lemon tree by placing the seed in soil and sun. A couple of lemon seed facts might catch you by surprise, however. Here are some of the primary points about starting your lemon tree from seed.
- Lemons planted from seed tend to grow a different variety of lemon trees than the parent plant. Many commercial lemon trees get grafted to reproduce, so the resulting baby trees remain the same as the parent tree. But seeds grown from a hybrid lemon tree don’t produce the same plant as the parent plant.
- Using a combination of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculate keeps the soil from becoming too condensed or too moist. Dirt that remains too moist causes fungus and might make the seeds rot.
- You should put the seedlings in a warm place (about 70 degrees F). If you’ve chosen a brightly sunny area, the area should remain warm, too.
- You will plant the seeds in a small cup or well-drained container. Once the baby lemon tree has several sets of leaves, you can transplant it to a larger container. Consider planting five to ten seeds to ensure successful lemon tree production.
- Use an organic, water-soluble fertilizer that is high in potassium about every other week. Eventually, the tiny tree becomes large enough to plant in the soil outside or a large pot for indoor growth.
- Lemons grow and produce best in USDA growing climates 8 to 11. If you live in a colder zone, you may put the planter outdoors in the summer and move it indoors in colder weather.
Don’t forget to remain patient when waiting for your lemon tree to produce fruit. It can take from three to fifteen years and decent pollination for your lemon tree to give you the desired tart fruit.
The Benefits of Adding Lemon to Your Diet
Not only do lemons smell great and taste even better, but they also contain a ton of health benefits.
Lemon’s health benefits include the following:
1 – Detoxing the liver and bloodstream.
Squeezing one fresh lemon into a cup of warm water and drinking it when you wake up in the morning cleans out your liver and takes the toxins out of your bloodstream. A glass of warm lemon water, with a touch of honey added, remains an excellent way to improve how you feel and look by removing toxins from your system.
2 – Add Vitamin C to Your Diet.
It provides a daily dose of Vitamin C to prevent and reduce the symptoms of many illnesses such as colds, sore throats, bronchial problems, and fevers. A simple way to ease a sore throat is to combine equal amounts of lemon juice and warm water. Take a bit of lemon juice into your mouth, rinse with the mixture, and then spit it out. Next, rinse your mouth out with plain water.
3 – Improve heart health.
Both lemon juice and the fiber gained from the fruit’s pulp have been shown to reduce getting heart disease or having a stroke. Combine drinking lemon-infused water with a daily walking routine, and you will reduce your blood pressure, according to research. Ultimately, this will profoundly impact your general wellness and heart health.
4 – Better oral health.
Drinking lemon juice can keep your gums healthier. That’s because a deficiency in Vitamin C can show up in your body as tender, swollen, or bleeding gums.
5 – Improves the appearance of your hair.
Make a lemon-based rinse to help heal any split ends and keep your hair from feeling frizzy and dry. Just two tablespoons of juice mixed with a cup of water can give your hair shine, reduce dandruff, and control an oily scalp.
6 – Better hydration helps eliminate kidney problems
Research reveals that drinking this citrus in your tea or water can help promote healthy kidneys for two reasons. First, the citric acid helps prevent the build-up of uric acid that causes the stones to form, to begin with. Second, the better-flavored water makes it more palatable. Thus, people tend to keep hydrated.
7 – Use lemon as a natural antibacterial cleanser.
Wounds heal easier when you eat or drink the right amount of lemon juice. If you have a cut or scrape, clean the area and put a bit of lemon juice on the injured area. Science suggests that this is so effective because both an antibacterial and an antioxidant stems from a compound called limonene.
8 – Lemon juice contains many of the same properties of aspirin.
You can combine green tea and lemon juice to stop headache pain. The juice of this citrus fruit also causes sweating and helps get rid of fevers, colds, and other symptoms of illness.
9 – A useful cure for unsightly pimples or acne scars.
One of the most straightforward, most natural cures for acne and pimples is lemon juice. The citrus fruit’s juice remains both antifungal and antibacterial. When you clean your skin, use lemon juice as a toner. It will shrink pores, tighten your skin, and fight the germs that cause acne. You should also use a sunscreen when you go outdoors, as lemon juice makes the skin more susceptible to sunburn.
10 – Applying lemon juice helps to lighten age spots and even the color of your skin.
How does our favorite yellow fruit achieve all this? Remember the antioxidants we mentioned earlier? (see #9). They help protect your skin from further damage. Meanwhile, the topical application helps to turn over dead skin cells for faster healing.
Final Thoughts on Growing Lemons and Enjoying Their Benefits
You’ve grown lovely lemon trees from the seeds you planted. You have plenty of fresh lemons for your personal use. The best way to gain this fruit’s health benefits remains to add them to your diet. Drinking lemon juice gets the vitamins into your system to detoxify it. Even better, eating the whole fruit adds fiber and even more healthful vitamins to your diet.
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