Divisi
How to grow Lemon
Citrus limon · Rutaceae
Photo: André Karwath aka Aka · CC BY-SA 2.5
The lemon (Citrus limon) is a citrus tree, not a yearly crop — you plant it once and it can crop for decades, flowering and fruiting almost all year round. A good tree is grafted: your chosen fruiting lemon top is joined onto a tougher, chosen root system (the rootstock), so it fruits sooner and stands up to your soil and local diseases. Lemon likes deep, well-drained soil and plenty of water, and it is the most cold-tender of the common citrus — a hard frost kills it, and even a light frost burns the leaves and young fruit. Its big enemies are citrus greening (an incurable disease spread by a tiny insect, the psyllid), fruit flies and false codling moth on the fruit, and above all citrus black spot on the rind. Keep the tree open, fed, watered and watched, and it rewards you year after year.
Ivar Leidus · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Xosema · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Row spacing
- 650 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 650 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will lemon actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Lemon
suurlemoen · lemon · citron · limão · limau · ndimu
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing lemon, stage by stage
Plant one grafted lemon tree well on well-drained ground, then keep it open, fed and watered all year and guard its fruit from greening, fruit flies and black spot — do that and it crops for many years.
- Pick the right tree and plant it well
- Grow a strong young tree (the first few years)
- Keep the bearing tree open and fed
- Protect the flowers and set the fruit
- Fill the fruit and keep it clean
- Pick your lemons
- Handle, colour and store
17 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for lemon — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack lemon
3 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your lemon right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
What spacing should I use for lemon?
Space lemon rows about 650 cm apart, with roughly 650 cm between plants within the row.
What pests and diseases attack lemon?
The ones covered in this guide are Citrus black spot, Citrus leafminer, Citrus mites. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow lemon with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first