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Lemons
Growing & Harvesting
Lemons are grown in a very similar way to oranges – except that lemons must be grown in a warmer climate. The soil must contain lots of nutrients and it must be able to drain water away easily. So a sandy soil is perfect for lemon growing.
Lemon trees are usually grown from grafting. Grafting is when you take the bud of a lemon tree and attach it to the root, or stump, of another lemon tree. Then the two tree parts grow together as one.
It takes 3 to 6 years for a lemon tree to grow fruit after it is planted. But the tree can live as long as 150 years – wow!!
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The lemon tree grows fruit all through the year. One tree can produce as many as 3,000 lemons a year!
Most lemons ripen naturally in autumn and winter when people aren’t buying them as often. Because of this, the growers pick the fruit when they are still green and then store them until spring and summer.
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Metal rings are used to measure the fruit so the pickers know when the lemons are ready to be picked. When its time to harvest, they are hand picked from the trees and placed into bins that can hold up to 900 pounds of lemons. Then a truck hauls the bins to a packaging house for washing, ripening, and packaging.
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