Lemon is a widely popular citrus fruit crop. The fruit is consumed due to its rich pulp and tangy yet medical juice. Do you know, in India, Citrus cultivation is practised in about 923 thousand hectares with 8608 thousand metric tons of production annually. Punjab alone produces citrus fruits over 39.20 hectares of land.

Moreover, do you know you can start cultivating lemons over an acre by investing a sum of approx. INR 50,000 or upward, depending on the method and variety you are adopting.

Interested in cultivating this flavorful yet incentivizing fruit? Before you start enquiring about the Preet tractor price, know what technical aspects to keep in mind for growing good quality lemons.

Technical Factors to Grow Lemons of Absolute Quality

• Weather Conditions

Ensure a temperature between 20°C – 25°C to grow high-yielding lemon fruits, followed by annual rainfall between 75-200 cm. Make sure the sowing temperature is between 20°C – 25°C and during harvesting season, the temperature is between 25°C – 30°C.

• Soil Requirements

Lemons are compatible with various soils with a ph ranging between 5.5-7.5. Mostly, these fruits show the best results when cultivated on light soils with good drainage and fertility. These fruits can as well manage in slightly acidic and alkaline soils. In addition, light loam that is fertile and well-drained is also preferred for lemon cultivation.

• Land Preparation for lemon cultivation

Before sowing, the land requires thorough ploughing and levelling with the best ploughing and levelling equipment. You can use disc harrows until the land reaches the fine tilth. You can sow the crop on terraces against slopes in hilly areas for better results. Doing cultivation in such areas will also help you achieve high-density planting for more yield. Choose an optimum horsepower tractor to enter the narrow field and work finesse without compressing the soil. The kubota tractor price is worth the quality and productivity they offer for the land preparation tasks.

• Seed sowing for lemons

Lemons are easy to cultivate through propagation, either through budding or air layering. Moreover, you can choose July-August month for sowing lemon seeds. Maintain a spacing of 4.5×4.5 between plants. And the size of the pit should be 60×60×60cm. Add 10 kg of farmyard manure and 500 g of superphosphate during planting to yield more.

You can mix crop lemon with cowpeas, french beans, and vegetables for an initial 2-3 years max. The ideal seed rate for lemon is 208 seeds per acre of land.

• Pruning & Training for lemons

For effective growth of the trunk plant, remove the hoots up to 50-60 cm from near the ground. Keep the centre of the plant-wide open. During the early stages of the growth, remove the water suckers.

• Watering & irrigation 

Lemon requires good irrigation at regular intervals. Give good watering to crops during summers and winters. To get high-yielding flowering, proper plant and fruit development, ensure irrigating the field enough.

However, avoid over-irrigation as this can cause root rot and collar rot. Avoid saline water, as it can deter plant growth. The best thing is that even if there is partial drying in the spring season, the plants won’t get affected.

• Harvesting of lemons

Depending upon the variety you are growing, the harvesting time generally ranges between Mid January to Mid February. They are ready to harvest, once their colour of the skin changes from green to dark yellow. Harvesting too early or too late should be avoided, as this can disrupt yield and efficiency.

• Post Harvesting for lemons

Post harvesting, dip the fruits in 2.3 ml per litre of chlorinated water and allow them to dry. To enhance its appearance, provide Citrashine wax coating. Dry these fruits throughout under shade before packing them in the box for further transit.

How to Control Weeds in Lemon Plants?

You can use hand-held tools to control weeds. But that will be a tall order. Other than that, you can go use 1.6 litres of glyphosate by diluting it per litre of water. Moreover, you can also use glyphosate to get rid of unwanted weeds.

These were some handful tips you can use to sow, grow & harvest high quality lemon crops in your preferred state.