Lemonade fruit (photo courtesy Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery - daleysfruit.com.au)
Lemonade
Citrus meyeri x limon
Rutaceae family
Grafted
The Lemonade is a cross between a Lemon and a Mandarin.
It produces a round fruit that turns from green to yellow as it ripens and can be peeled and eaten in segments fresh from the tree. They are refreshing and tangy and sweet, and when juiced the Lemonade fruit make a wonderful summer drink. Add to your favourite cocktail, or to tonic or soda water for a sweeter twist than the traditional lemon or lime.
The tree is vigorous and produces large volumes of fruit, sometimes fruiting several times a year.
Tree Maintenance (Citrus)
Pruning
Citrus meyeri x limon
Rutaceae family
Grafted
The Lemonade is a cross between a Lemon and a Mandarin.
It produces a round fruit that turns from green to yellow as it ripens and can be peeled and eaten in segments fresh from the tree. They are refreshing and tangy and sweet, and when juiced the Lemonade fruit make a wonderful summer drink. Add to your favourite cocktail, or to tonic or soda water for a sweeter twist than the traditional lemon or lime.
The tree is vigorous and produces large volumes of fruit, sometimes fruiting several times a year.
Tree Maintenance (Citrus)
Pruning
- When mature, prune half the tree after harvest to keep it healthy and shaped.
- Remove dead, inward facing or crossing branches. Remove any suckers from the rootstock below the graft.
- During establishment, water slow and deep each fortnight, more often if very dry or hot. As it matures, the tree will become more drought tolerant.
- Watering may be needed when young fruit is forming.
- Spring: liquid seaweed, compost around drip line.
- Summer: Compost around drip line, poultry manure, worm wee (10:1).
- Autumn: liquid seaweed, compost around drip line, sulphate of potash, poultry manure.
- Avoid applying fertiliser while trees are preparing to flower, flowering and up until fruit are larger than marbles.
- Keep soil well mulched, leaving a gap around the trunk to avoid collar rot.
- Spray with horticultural oil if sap-sucking insects or scale occur (avoid spraying on days where temperatures may reach above 30°C, or foliage can become burnt). Black sooty mould on the leaves is a symptom of these pests; ants are also an indicator that there is a problem, as ants will farm and protect the insects in order to consume their sweet secretions.
Lemonade at LCG January 2025 (photo credit: Jacqui Lachmann)
Lemonade Tree at LCG October 2023 (photo credit: Graham Bond)
