Lemon tree pruning advice

[anonymousbird]

We have a lovely potted lemon tree. It's nearly doubled in size over the summer whilst being outside - clearly the hot conditions have suited it. It still has new growth coming. However, we will need to bring it back in in a few weeks' time as we do every winter. Due to its size, we will need to prune it back quite a lot before we do.

Any advice please - do I prune now, whilst it's still got some time outside and clearly doing some growing or prune just before we bring in? It's so healthy and lovely that I don't want to "upset" it any more than I have to with the pruning.

TIA.

[anonymousbird]

Bump!

[ppeatfruit]

Are you in England? We're in mid Fr. and only managed to keep ours alive for about 4 years. They need to be cooler and lighter in the winter than the average centrally heated house is!

They don't mind being pruned but mine seemed to perk up when I decided to repot it and loosened it's roots, it did die 2 years later though!

[anonymousbird]

Yes, England.

We repotted two years ago and it has just ballooned! Where it sits in the winter is quite a cool spot mostly.

[ppeatfruit]

The light is important too. You're lucky if you've got enough light in the winter, an unheated (not too cold though) greenhouse on a shelf is ideal. Have you get lemons?

I miss mine, the smell of the blossoms was so lovely.

[anonymousbird]

This lemon tree is six foot tall and about 3-4 foot wide (hence needing to prune!) so just is in very large pot at ground level. Loads of lemons, some huge! It gets plenty of light, even in winter. It is in the glass part of the house, so natural heat and light through glass, but it's not really a heated room so cool overnight.

[ppeatfruit]

Yes you are lucky! I remember one of the experts on Gardeners' Question Time saying how difficult they are to grow, sounds like you've got a cracker!

Pruning is fine , mine needed it too. Just to keep the shape pretty.