Contents
In Today’s post, let’s look into 10 secret tips on how to grow a lemon tree in a pot. You can successfully grow citrus trees like lemons, limes, or oranges in containers and get enormous flowering and fruiting in citrus plants.

Introduction
Citrus trees are fruit trees and include lemons, limes, oranges, and even grapefruit. These tips are common for those growing citrus either in containers or in the ground. Read all these garden tips till the end, especially the fertilizer requirement of citrus trees.
Choosing the Right Variety
This is the first step in growing citrus trees. You can grow citrus trees from seed, but you never know the outcome because seed-grown trees are not true to the parent tree and may not produce fruits or may produce fruits very late.
So, the best option is to purchase a grafted citrus tree from a nursery. The plant should start flowering and fruiting the same year, provided you follow all these tips discussed here.
Remember not to re-pot the newly purchased lemon tree as soon as you bring it home. Let it acclimatize for 7 to 10 days to its new environment and then re-pot it in a large container as discussed below.

Choosing the Container
The minimum size of the container for growing lemon trees should be 14 inches in diameter and 14 inches in depth and height. The larger, the better.
You can use a good-quality plastic pot, a cement pot, or even a clay pot if available. Read my article on Choosing the right container for gardening.
You can also grow lemon trees in barrels like whisky barrels or even plastic drums. Make sure there are a lot of drainage holes at the bottom.
Potting Soil Mix
A well-draining soil is very important for proper root growth. A stronger root system will produce stronger and healthier shoots and yield a good harvest in the end.
A simple potting mix formula should include:
- 40 percent garden soil,
- 40 percent coco-peat or peat moss,
- 20 percent compost like decomposed cow dung or vermicompost.
- You can optionally add other stuff like perlite, neem cake powder, etc.
- You can read my detailed post on various potting mix recipes.
Well, in addition to this to make the root system stronger and induce lots of flowering and fruiting, you can add one handful of steamed bone meal powder, which is very inexpensive and easily available. If you are a vegan, you can add organic rock phosphate powder to the potting mix. These two organic fertilizers are very important slow-release sources of phosphorus.
Sunlight
Whether you are growing citrus plants on your balcony or on the terrace, location is very important because citrus trees need full direct sunlight of at least 6 hours for best results.
A few important tips to remember here are – when you bring a plant from the nursery, do not immediately repot, just keep it in indirect bright light for 3 to 4 days and then repot so that the plant gets time to acclimatize to its new place.
After repotting, keep it in shade or indirect light for a week to prevent transplant shock. You can also water it once after repotting it with Epsom salt water – like 1 teaspoon of Epsom salt per liter of water. This helps fight repotting or transplant shock.
Watering
The watering frequency depends on the zone you live in or the season of the year. As a general rule in summer, you can water it daily or on alternate days.
The best practice is to use the finger dip method. Dip one inch of your finger to check for moisture and water only if it’s dry. Over-watering can result in root rot and death of the plant.
Whenever you are watering, make it a habit to water it deeply and thoroughly so that the entire root system is drenched with water and water comes out of the drainage holes.
Citrus Tree Fertilizers
This is the most important step if you want to have lots of flowering and fruiting in citrus trees.
Citrus trees are heavy feeders, especially during the flowering stage, and need a variety of nutrients for healthy fruiting.
During fruit formation, if you do not feed them with trace elements like iron, manganese, magnesium, and others, they can show signs of deficiency like pale leaves, and patchy leaf yellowing depending on the deficiency of the element. You can read a detailed post on various leaf patterns in nutrient deficiencies and how to rectify them.
First of all, a handful of compost like decomposed cow dung or vermicompost or both every month is the minimum requirement for citrus trees. You can double this frequency or amount during the flowering stage. A good quality compost supplies most of the essential macro and micronutrients. If you wish, you can add some micronutrient fertilizer containing all trace elements or you can make a cocktail organic fertilizer by mixing all available organic fertilizers and calculating its total NPK value, like how I have shown in one of my posts on the Universal fertilizer mix.
- If you’re struggling to start your garden and grow your own vegetables and flowers, this bag of composted cow manure has your back
- Made of composted cow manure: organic and has nutrients that are gradually released, ensuring it doesn’t burn tender roots
You supply a source of magnesium – that’s Epsom salt or magnesium sulfate – once every 15 days as a foliar spray. 1 teaspoon of Epsom salt per liter of water and spray thoroughly mainly on the underside of the leaves because the stomata or openings for absorption are located more on the underside of the leaves. You can also add banana peel fertilizer once every 15 days to supplement good potassium.
Pest Control
Citrus trees are occasionally affected by pests like aphids, mealybugs, and whiteflies. The best method is prevention by spraying neem oil once every 15 days. Use 5 to 10 ml of neem oil in one liter of water. If it’s already infested, you can spray weekly once or even twice until all pests are eradicated.
Soil pH
Citrus fruit is acidic, and many people assume that citrus trees need a very acidic soil pH. But it’s not true. It needs only a slightly acidic soil of around 6 to 6.5, which is the ideal soil pH required for most plants.
Pollinators
This is another important step to promote fruit formation after flowering and prevent flower or bud drop-off. Encourage beneficial insects like butterflies and honeybees in your garden, which pollinate flowers and encourage fruit formation. Do not spray pesticides, particularly chemicals, which can drive away these beneficial insects.
Pruning
You can regularly trim or prune unhealthy or dry branches to keep it looking good, and you can perform a hard pruning after harvesting or in the early spring season.
Well, That was all about how to grow a lemon tree in a pot! Please watch a detailed video on growing lemon tree in containers below:
Last update on 2025-02-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API