Last edited by shiny on November 11, 2026. View history
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For lemon, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 12°C and a shortest growing cycle of 210 days at its best temperature, about 1995 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your lemon will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shiny,
Found this old book in a back country second hand store. It was published in 1960, it was part of a series of "know how" books.
inside is every kind of wine. I think the author was in the UK, and many of the plants are the same ones introduced here and thrive in our New Zealand climate…
by shiny,
Chicken simmered in broth and white wine,with lemon, crispy sage leaves, polenta chips with parmesan, and a salad of arugula , pear and candied walnuts.
sage
arugula
pears
walnuts
by Skud,
So we have this new feature where if you mention a crop like tomato or lemon or dill using the Markdown syntax (like: [dill](crop)), your post will show up on the crop page. Click through to any of those crops, scroll down, and take a look!
by SporkyRat,
What the everliving what. My lemon tree is blooming in November. Is this common in lemon trees?
by Skud,
So, I am in my new house in Ballarat (zoom in!), a reasonable sized city of 88,000ish people an hour or so west of Melbourne. The move was gruelling, not least because of the garden, but it's all done now and the keys to the ol…
apples
lemons
Common Figs
loquats
by Skud,
I've recently seen a couple of interesting ideas for using lemon peel and I thought I'd post them here and see if anyone has others.
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 210 to 365 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Sapindales Rutaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -2 °C, rest: -6 °C |
| Life form | tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Lemon
lemongrass
Photos
Bridge4 harvested 1, weighing 0.3 kg.