How to Grow Lemons? A Full Share of Planting and Cultivation Experience

1. Planting Plot. The lemon originated in the lower layers of tropical forests. It is a shrubby small tree with irregular branch growth and poor cold resistance, and it is a semi-shade plant. The selection of a planting site must take water and soil conditions into consideration. Choose a flat land, gentle slope land or high-bank paddy field with convenient transportation, a wind-sheltered sunny aspect, deep soil, fertile soil and drainage and irrigation conditions, at an altitude of 800-1200 m, with a slope below 30°, on second-terrace slope land.

2. Seedling Cultivation. Select wild sour citron, bitter orange, red tangerine, etc. as rootstock, sow before the Start of Spring, transplant the seedlings in the seedbed in early to mid-May to June, promptly strengthen water and fertilizer management and pest and disease control, and remove weeds to ensure grafting begins in late November. The rootstock stem thickness must reach more than 0.4 cm. The best grafting time is from late November to the end of February of the following year. Use chip budding, do a good job of removing buds and promoting shoots, and cultivate 1-2 main branches to reach the standards of strong seedlings and large seedlings, with a stem thickness of more than 0.8 cm and a seedling height of more than 40 cm. 3. Planting Time. The lemon is an evergreen fruit tree and could originally be planted in all four seasons, but the ancients said: "There is no fixed time for planting a tree; just do not let the tree know." This means that the planting time is not unchanging; the key is not to damage too many roots. Therefore, according to the growth pattern of lemons, the best planting time for lemons is to prepare the planting land before March 10, dig the planting holes before early April, backfill the ponds before early May, and finish field planting from early June to the end of June. 4. Planting Requirements. 1. Planting spacing and pond specifications. The lemon is a small tree, and its planting method and density differ from those of other tall fruit trees. Plant 64 trees per mu, with a spacing of 3.0 × 3.5 m. The pond specification is 80 × 70 × 60 cm. On slope land, terraces must be made. When digging ponds, pile topsoil and subsoil separately. When backfilling the pond, backfill only with mature soil, not subsoil. After backfilling 30 cm of mature soil, apply 30-50 kg of base fertilizer and mix it with the soil. Then cover with 10 cm of mature soil, add 0.5-1 kg of compound fertilizer or phosphate fertilizer, and then backfill with soil until it is 20-30 cm above the pond mouth to make a tree disc. The tree disc should be no smaller than 1 sq m. Generally, flat land and sandy land are planted in flat planting, while low land is planted on raised mounds. At planting, apply sufficient base fertilizer, select strong seedlings, and plant carefully. Farmyard manure is best for base fertilizer, 30-50 kg per pond, plus 0.25-0.5 kg of phosphate fertilizer or compound fertilizer, mixed and backfilled into the pond. When planting, do not let it come into direct contact with fine roots to avoid burning the roots. Before field planting, prune off the tender leaves and tender branches of the young tree, and thin out some overly dense old branches and old leaves. Even if planting on rainy days, water thoroughly for root establishment and keep the soil moist. Two to three months after the planted seedlings survive, promptly remove the film and loosen the binding on the young trees. 2. Precautions for the planting site. Do not plant citrus fruit trees within 500 m of a lemon orchard, to prevent cross-pollination, which would produce strange fruits and reduce lemon quality. Beekeeping in the orchard is encouraged to help increase the fruit-setting rate. It is strictly forbidden to interplant lemons in fields of tall-stalk crops, and it is even more forbidden to interplant tall-stalk crops in lemon planting fields. It is recommended to interplant some short-stalk crops in lemon planting fields (preferably soybeans and peanuts), but vine crops must not be interplanted, and interplanted crops must be rotated.