Citrus trees can be absolute treasures to grow at home. In addition to their delicious fruits, their blossoms and leaves are sublimely fragrant, and many citrus parts have medicinal and cleansing properties.
But what if you don’t live in USDA Zones 8-11 and can’t grow lemons, limes, or oranges outdoors? If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try growing citrus trees indoors instead.
Can You Grow Citrus Trees Indoors?
The simple answer here is “yes.” People have cultivated citrus trees indoors in their homes or greenhouses for centuries. In fact, the ancient Romans grew citrus trees in proto-greenhouses known as “solaria.”
They used thinly sliced selenite gypsum in lieu of glass for their solaria, where they grew melons, citrus, and other summer fruits year-round.
Like most other fruit trees, growing citrus trees indoors works well, provided they get enough light and consistently warm temperatures. The key is to get a suitable species that’ll thrive in your home environment and then nurture it lovingly as it matures.
Light and Temperature Needs
One of the main reasons citrus trees thrive in areas closer to the equator is the sheer amount of heat and sunshine they get daily.
To grow citrus trees indoors, you need a good 8-12 hours of sunlight daily, and consistent temperatures that don’t drop beneath 65-70°F (18-22°C) with few exceptions.
As such, you’ll need to grow your trees near the sunniest window you have and/or provide grow lights for supplemental UV exposure.
A south-facing window is ideal because it’ll grant your trees the most light and warmth possible. That said, if you’re in a cold climate, you’ll need to ensure that no drafts are coming in through the window.
Citrus trees indoors and out are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations, so if you’re in Zones 3-6 and you don’t have double-glazed windows, consider sealing them with plastic over the winter so your trees don’t catch cold.
During the summer months, you can consider moving your citrus trees outside so they can get full exposure to sunshine, rain, and native pollinators. Just note that you’re also exposing them to potential pathogens and insect infestations by doing so. More on that later.
These trees are also sensitive to humidity levels and don’t fare well in terribly dry environments. If you find that your home is quite dry during the winter months (especially common if you burn wood for heat), then it’s a good idea to invest in a humidifier.
Additionally, use a spray mister on your trees regularly so they can absorb moisture through their leaves.
Soil and Water
When it comes to the soil, you’ll need for your citrus trees, drainage is your best friend. Seriously, you need to make drainage a priority, or you’ll risk root rot and fungus gnats.
Choose large containers for your trees and fill them with well-draining potting soil. This should contain plenty of perlite or volanic rock for both aeration and drainage, as well as coconut coir and/or peat moss to retain moisture.
Citrus trees prefer neutral to slightly acidic soil, so look for one in the 6.0 to 7.5 pH level. Commercial soils that also contain worm castings or aged compost can help keep your trees well-nourished as well.
Something like FoxFarm’s Ocean Forest potting mix would be perfect. Grab some from Amazon in 12-quart bags.
Aim to fertilize your indoor trees every 4-6 weeks throughout the growing season, otherwise they’ll deplete nutrients from their soil quite quickly. They do well with a balanced N-P-K ratio fertilizer or with regular doses of homemade compost tea.
Never use fertilizer sticks, as they can “burn” the roots.
You can find fertilizers made specifically for potted citrus trees, like Bloom City’s Organic Citrus & Fruit Fertilizer, available at Amazon.
As far as watering goes, younger trees (under the age of four or so) need to be watered once a week during the growing season, while more mature trees can go as long as 10-14 days between waterings.
You don’t want to water them too often or else you risk root rot. Ideally, if you stick your finger down into the soil to the second knuckle, you should just be able to feel moist soil. It shouldn’t be wet enough to stick to you when you pull it back out again.
Consider using a soil moisture meter to keep things regulated, as either too much or too little water can kill your tree(s).
Your citrus trees don’t need to be watered as often during the winter months. They go dormant and won’t absorb much of the water you offer them.
Never hydrate your citrus trees with cold water. This can make them “shiver” and drop their leaves from shock. The water you use should always be at room temperature or even a little bit warmer so you don’t traumatize your trees.
Care and Maintenance
If you don’t want your citrus trees to grow up through your ceiling, you’ll likely need to prune them. Kumquats are small enough so you don’t have to worry about this issue, but for all the others, you’ll need to trim them back regularly.
It’s best to prune citrus trees during their early growing season, typically in spring or early summer, or after they’ve fruited. Use sterilized garden snips to cut back the branches and to trim them during the growing season if things start to bush out too much.
Additionally, it’s important to note that many citrus trees have spiky thorns on their branches. These grow to protect the trees from predators and can be less than delightful if and when you back into them while vacuuming.
They can also be quite dangerous if you have small children or rambunctious pets around. It’s a good idea to use those sterile snips to cut off the thorns so nobody gets hurt.
As an aside, remember that you can always espalier your citrus tree indoors if you want to save space. This requires you to train their branches horizontally against a sunny wall, rather than allowing them to bush out. It’s a great option for smaller spaces, provided they get enough sunshine on a daily basis.
Potential Issues
If you’re cultivating these trees for fruit, it’s important to note that although most citrus trees are self-fertile, many of them are wind-pollinated in the wild.
As such, you may need to put on some sweet tunes and pollinate your citrus flowers with a soft paintbrush to get the pollen from anthers to styles.
Additionally, although citrus trees indoors are less likely to be plagued by the same health issues that outdoor trees may suffer, there are a few problems that they can still suffer from:
On the off chance that your other houseplants get infected with spider mites, those can mosey on over to your citrus trees as well.
Earlier in this article, we discussed how you can move your trees outside in summertime to let them play in the sunshine and rain for a while. This makes them very happy but also makes them a target for predators and pathogens.
It’s up to you whether you’d like to risk them getting rust, canker, or other diseases from being exposed to the elements.
Additionally, citrus trees need sufficient nitrogen or they’ll start dropping their leaves. If your tree’s leaves are looking yellow or drooping and falling off, give them a dose of high-nitrogen fertilizer. This is especially important during their foliar phase in spring and early summer before they flower in earnest.
The Best Citrus Trees for Indoor Spaces
Unless your home has seriously tall ceilings, you’ll either want to look into dwarf cultivars or keep your pruning shears handy. Standard citrus trees can grow between ten and 22 feet in height, whereas dwarf varieties average between six and 11 feet.
1. Clementine
These pretty citrus trees (Citrus × clementina) produce some of the tastiest fruits around, and are unlikely to grow taller than 8 feet when grown in a pot indoors.
Since the average ceiling in North America is 8-10′, you can get away with growing clementines in just about any room in your house, provided that it gets enough sunlight. If you find that it’s getting too tall, with leaves brushing the ceiling, prune it back to around 7 feet.
2. Cara-Cara
If you love berries as much as you love citrus, then consider growing a cara-cara (C. × sinensis ‘Cara Cara’). These citrus trees produce fruits that taste like a mix of orange, red grapefruit, raspberry, and cranberry.
Seriously, if you haven’t tried them before, see if you can get your hands on some of these fruits at your local South American grocery store. They’re originally from Venezuela but have naturalized in tropical regions.
3. Trovita Orange
Not only are the blossoms from Trovita orange (C. × sinensis ‘Trovita’) trees scented exquisitely, but they also produce some of the sweetest orange fruits around.
They’re exceptionally low-maintenance and won’t grow too large if they’re planted in smaller containers, around nine feet at full maturity. Although these citrus trees need less heat than other cultivars, their fruit will be sweeter and juicier if their surroundings are quite hot.
4. Tangerine
Unlike the other citrus trees on this list, tangerines (C. x tangerina) are only partially self-fertile. As such, although they will produce fruit if you pollinate them from their own blossoms, you’ll get a more abundant harvest if you grow at least two trees for cross-pollination.
Dancy tangerines, in particular, are treasured by indoor growers because they only grow about nine feet tall in pots and are far more drought-tolerant than other cultivars.
5. Kumquat
Kumquat citrus trees (Citrus spp.) are some of the most adorable plants you’ll ever see. Seriously, they’re ridiculously cute, fragrant, and produce super-tasty fruits as well. You cannot go wrong with having at least one of these at home.
Dwarf varieties only grow about six feet tall, and produce quail egg-sized fruits that are absolutely delicious. You can stunt their growth by keeping them in smaller containers, and some people even cultivate their kumquats as bonsai trees!
If you go this route, you can plop yours onto any sunny countertop in your home and grow your citrus trees indoors right where you can enjoy them.
Pick up a three- to five-inch live plant at Amazon.
6. Limequat
If you guessed that this is a hybrid between a kumquat and a lime, you’d be correct. Well done! Limequats (C. × floridana) are usually hybrids between key limes and kumquats, and the fruits have sweet-tart flesh and thin, edible skins.
I prefer not to eat the skins, but they’re wonderful in homemade marmalade. These trees are between six and ten feet tall at full maturity, so they’ll fit into most home environments with a bit of gentle pruning.
7. Lemon
When life gives you lemons… grow more lemon trees from them!
No, seriously: I have two lemon trees (C. × limon) that I’ve grown from seed (harvested from an organic, store-bought lemon), and I absolutely love them.
They’re over 12 feet tall now, and although they’re still too young to bear fruit, the fragrance from the leaves is beyond exquisite. A standard potted lemon tree will grow 10-15 feet tall at maturity, so unless you have ridiculously high ceilings, you’ll have to prune yours down.
Here’s a tip: long before your lemony citrus trees bear fruit, you can use the leaves a number of different ways. Crush them slightly in your hands and tuck them between sheets in your linen closet to impart a gorgeous scent.
Dry them and crumble them into sachets to deodorize shoes and boots, or infuse vinegar and water with them for an eco-friendly room spray deodorizer.
Bet you didn’t know that growing citrus trees indoors would help you clean your house!
8. Dwarf Meyer Lemon
Meyer lemons (C. x meyeri) are some of my favorite citrus fruits. They’re sweeter and less acidic than standard lemons, and their blossoms fill the air around them with an incredible fragrance.
You can buy dwarf Meyer lemon citrus trees at nurseries — either local or online — or simply buy some organic Meyer fruits and sprout the seeds yourself if you don’t mind waiting a few extra years for your trees to bear fruit.
If you’re in Florida, grab a live Meyer lemon plant in gallon pots at Amazon. Outside of Florida, you can find a six- to- ten-inch live plant at Amazon.
9. Lime
If you really like the flavor of lime, then you can’t go wrong with a luscious lime tree growing in your kitchen or living room. Their flowers and leaves smell incredible, and their fruits are gorgeous in various international dishes, as well as in refreshing drinks and tonics.
An average lime tree will grow up to ten feet when mature but will likely be shorter than when grown indoors in a pot.
Additionally, limes (Citrus spp.) can be invaluable around the homestead for medicinal and cleaning purposes. Lime has significant antimicrobial properties, and the extract (tincture) and essential oil (EO) can be used to treat infected wounds.
Furthermore, lime EO is excellent for disinfecting surfaces like kitchen and bathroom countertops, as it’s an effective antibacterial and antifungal as well.
‘Bearss’ is an excellent lime for indoors because it stays small. It’s also extremely tolerant of low temperatures, even just below freezing.
Kaffir limes can also be nice, though you’ll need to prune them regularly as they can grow large. If you’d like a kaffir lime for growing indoors, head to Amazon for a three to five-inch tall live plant.
10. Finger Lime
Australian finger lime trees (C. australasica) are ideal for smaller spaces, as they only grow six to eight feet tall at full maturity. Their fruits can grow three to five inches long, with granular, pearl-like flesh that tastes (and feels) rather like lime-flavored caviar.
These are absolutely ideal citrus trees to grow indoors, as they’re just as low maintenance as they are beautiful. And delicious.
A Few Things to Remember
It’s important to note here that although you may be interested in growing citrus trees indoors, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to provide you with delicious, juicy fruit.
A lot of conditions need to be met in order for citrus trees to flower and fruit, and if those aren’t met, then you’ll have lovely decorative trees with beautifully fragrant leaves, but a dearth of fruits to enjoy.
Your best bet for a fruiting tree is to purchase a young one from a garden center that’s at least two to three years old. These may start to bear fruit from the three-year mark onwards but may take even longer. Many citrus trees won’t flower or fruit until they’re seven to ten years old!
Keep this in mind when planning your citrus trees indoors. If you’re okay with having no expectations of your trees, then you can enjoy them whether they end up fruiting or not.
If you’re eager for their fruits, however, ensure that you research their care thoroughly before purchasing them or growing them from seed. This way, you can try to offer them the best growing environment possible so they can grow big and strong enough to provide you with luscious, zesty fruits.