Citrus Varieties to Try at Home
If you can’t visit the tropics, try growing your own citrus trees in containers! Dwarf citrus varieties will grow year-round if kept in the right conditions. They all bear edible fruit and have glossy, evergreen leaves and delicious-smelling flowers. (The scent is heavenly!) Learn how to care for your indoor citrus trees.
There are many kinds of citrus that work well as container plants. Even northern gardeners should consider giving them a shot. Here’s a look at a few of the most popular ones!
Varieties of Dwarf Citrus to Try
Meyer Lemon
Meyer lemon is a cross between a lemon and a tangerine and is one of the most popular citruses to grow in a pot. I have two of these little bushes, and they always have either fruit or blossoms on them—or sometimes both at the same time! The blossoms are extremely fragrant, and the lemons are good-sized, very juicy, have soft, heavenly-smelling skins, and taste better than store-bought lemons. Since we know these fruits were raised organically, we have made homemade limoncello from their zest. It takes 9 to 12 months for the fruits to develop and ripen, but they are worth the wait. The fruit turns an orange-yellow when ripe.
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Bearss Limes
Bearss limes (also called Persian limes or Tahitian limes) have larger fruit than Mexican or Key limes and are slightly more hardy, too. These medium-sized trees produce many branches and bear lots of juicy, seedless limes—perfect for pies, limeades, or margaritas.
Kaffir Lime
Kaffir lime is popular in Thai and Indonesian cooking, which uses the fragrant leaves as well as the fruit.
Calamondin
Calamondin is a cross between a kumquat and a mandarin orange. It has tiny 1- to 2-inch fruits that taste like a tangy orange. The fruit can hold onto the plant for a year, making it decorative as well as practical.
Kumquats
Kumquats are fairly tart and tiny but make a wonderful marmalade. Their skin is sweeter than their flesh. ‘Nagami’ is a sweet variety with 2-inch oval fruit. ‘Meiwa’ is even sweeter with round, seedless fruits. Kumquats are a symbol of prosperity and good luck in China and are often given as gifts for the Chinese New Year. Celebrate by giving one to yourself or a friend!
Kumquats are often crossed with other citrus to make limequats, orangequats, and mandarinquats.
Tips for Growing Dwarf Citrus in Containers
How exactly do you care for your main squeeze? Dwarf citrus are frost tender, so they need to spend part of the year indoors in cold climates where frosts occur. Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to care:
- Keeping your citrus outdoors during the spring and summer is a good way to get them plenty of light and foster healthy growth. When moving them outdoors in the spring, don’t put them into direct sunlight right away; they need time to adapt to the more intense light level. Put them in a shady spot for a few days, then move them to a spot with partial sun.
- If nighttime temperatures outside are starting to dip to about 45°F (7°C), bring citrus indoors when that’s a concern in your area. Check your average frost dates here.
- Citrus thrives in bright light. Indoors, this can be difficult, but a sunny southern window will keep them happy through winter. Consider using supplemental lighting (such as an LED bulb) to give your plants more light during the darkest winter days.
- Keep them out of cold drafts and away from drying heat sources. They prefer temperatures between 60° and 70°F (15° to 21°C).
- Citrus like high humidity, so mist around the plants often, place the pots on a tray of wet pebbles, or keep them near a humidifier.
- The flowers are self-fertile, but you can help pollinate indoors by shaking the branches or using a Q-tip or soft paintbrush to move pollen among the flowers.
- Water citrus when the top 3 inches are dry. They need good drainage and don’t like to sit in soggy soil. One thing to keep in mind if you bring them indoors for winter: Outdoors, in bright sunlight, the trees will require a lot more water than they do when brought indoors and put into a dimmer environment. Adjust your watering habits accordingly!
- I keep my lemons manageable by trimming the tops and roots an equal amount—about 25%—every 2 to 3 years when I repot them, almost like a bonsai.
Dwarf citrus trees are proof that good things come in small packages!
See the Almanac’s Growing Guide for Lemons, Oranges, and Other Citrus Fruit for more growing information.
Robin Sweetser
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I have an ornamental orange tree ( don't know the variety but the fruit is very tart but the skins are very sweet) that my late husband brought back from the airport in Florida when I was 17(it was a twig). I am now 68, you do the math. It has gone through three moves and done well over the years. It lives outside in the summer and is in a south facing window in the winter. A lot of the leaves fall off in the winter but it usually comes back with a vengeance in the summer. I have been battling mealy bugs for the past two or three years. This year is the worst. I'm not sure it will make it through the winter. I have used everything on it I can think of, alcohol, neem oil, dursban; it lessens the bugs for awhile but comes back double. If it makes it through the winter I will take it out of the pot, rinse the roots with neem oil and repot it with new soil. I hope it lives because it is very sentimental to me.
I think mealybugs are soil-borne (actually, "born"), not necessarily that they come in contaminated soil, tho I guess they could, but that the *adults lay eggs in the soil* the plant is potted in, and they just crawl right up onto the plant.
BENEFICIAL NEMATODES could eliminate those eggs in the soil, before they have the chance to hatch, ending the cycle. The beneficial nematodes are microscopic, and are watered in, and immediately go searching for bad guys! They're delicate and must be applied right away, or can be kept refrigerated for a month or two. There are different types for different applications: termites, grub worms, gnats, Japanese beetles, etc. I forget the company I read about online but they aren't hard to find. I recommend giving them a try, and Good Luck with your lemon tree!
If you feel brave, i suggest releasing lady bugs they will destroy all of them and then treat the soil and that should help your problem. Just be careful because ladybugs when not eating bugs are looking for a way outside so theyll run away
Ok..here goes! My Meyer Lemon seemed to do well in the heated (and AC) greenhouse. NOPE! In summer aphids attacked leaves and flowers. In winter…it “just existed.” Last spring the tree lost ALL its leaves! I moved it outside in an area that would receive sun and late afternoon shade. THRIVED! Big, luscious green leaves! But I couldn’t leave it there this winter fearing snow and 20’s temperatures may kill it. Moved it to the front porch..south-facing. Still gets into 20’s and teens but row covering helps. It’s doing fine…no leaves lost, freezing temps didn’t destroy it! Think I will leave it there from now on..see what happens. These trees are hardier than you think!
I hope someone reads this post. What type of pot do you use for a dwarf Meyer Lemon? Second to that, will it survive outside if it's covered in burlap when the weather reaches the 30's?
I grew a grapefruit from seed many years ago, kept it in sunny common areas at work. Yes, it was bombarded with spider mites one year, a gardening friend brought in a chemical for me that worked (don't think it was neem, it was something scarier). Although it thrived, it did not bloom as this was not a natural environment for it.
It had vicious thorns, which I see one poster complained about on their Meyer, too. Are thorns common to all citrus? or are any of these mini citrus plants thornless?
I grew a Meyer Lemon tree. After three or four years, I found it such a hassle to rid it of the spider mites that seemed to come out of nowhere, that I decided to rehome it. It grew quite large (which was another deciding factor in giving it a new home) and had so many large thorns. One year, I even tried cutting it down so far, it looked like it was dead. That took care of the spider mites for that year!
We did purchase two dwarfs…Improved Meyer Lemon and Clementine Mandarin Orange. In spring they flowered and stsrted to produce fruit. Then attscked by spider mites and aphids. No fruit. Then almost all leaves dropped. By summer this year they both sprung new leaves and are beautiful. We will see what happens come spring 2022. Figured transplant shock but who knows. I stopped spritzing with water because it encouraged aphids and mites. Neem oil and food grade DE helped deter pests. Both are in my greenhouse so it gets very humid and warm in Spring, Summer and fall, and I heat the greenhouse in winter.
UPDATE: I wound up moving the Meyer Lemon outdoors from the greenhouse after every leaf dropped! The move was amazing! The tree burst out beautiful, luscious green leaves and new branch growth! No fruit or flowers but I don’t care at this point! Now it’s November 2022 and I moved it from north facing to south facing on our front porch. It’s doing beautifully! I use row cover to cover it at night because our temps drop into the 20’s and 30’s and we already had our 1st snowfall in October. The tree is happy! Will keep you posted!
I have a beautiful Dwarf Myer Lemon in a Oak half barrel. Have had it over 30 yrs. It is about 4 ft tall and girth of about the same. It does very well out on my deck at 2,500 ft in Northern CA. I had a nursery man tell me to put a string of small Christmas lights on the tree and in the winter when temps get low the warmth of the lights will keep it from freezing. We put a blanket over the top of it to protect it. We put it back under the roof line of an overhang of 8 ft. I pick in January up to over 100 beautiful lemons! We take it out of the container every 5 yrs and trim the roots and do a prune job as well. We have had a rough winter with low temps this year, but it is looking good. Love my Lemons!
