I was given this lemon tree by a friend who is too ill to take care of her plants. It's healthy, but the form is terrible. How and when do I prune this into a more functional shape? In our climate, this tree will remain in a pot and be indoors 8 months out of the year.
by KET_196
2 Comments
Even though it’s a tropical plant for you in your area, it is still a tree, so you never cut more than a third. And because this is still such a small plant, you should only do this once a year as I wouldn’t expect it to get incredibly large during the time it’s indoors. Unless you have a huge window that gets bright sun all day during the winter and away from drafts and the plant doubles in size, then you could do twice a year. If you cut too much off it can severely damage the rest of the plants system and shock it (since you’re going to be cutting off new growth) and leave it to be unable to grow back. You can do a trim this fall, it’ll be very little to cut back since it’s small. And then hope that it doubles in size so you can do one more trim before you put it back outside. Personally, I don’t think the shape is bad, but I understand needing to make more room inside and it’s very wide, they can be more upright with more training.
What’s not functional about the shape?