Our two best lemon plants – one split early but both stems are growing straight and tall (and thorny!) while the other is short and compact. If I hadn’t grown them from the seeds of the same fruit, I’d think they were unrelated to each other!

The lemon plants grown from seeds are doing surprisingly well. We have three in total, and because I’m not sure what growing conditions they’ll prefer, I’ve split them in terms of location and types of growing media. So far, I can see that they prefer getting a good dose of indirect light throughout the day as the two best-growing plants are in such a location.

The caterpillar eggs look pretty obvious in these photos because they’re blown up and cropped close. However if you look at the first photo of the lemon plants, the eggs are actually there in the photo on the right – they’re just really, really tiny!

These two plants are doing so well that they’ve begun to attract attention. I recently found a caterpillar on the biggest plant, followed by a smaller pair of siblings a few days later. Thanks to that, I’ve begun to inspect the leaves more frequently for caterpillar eggs. Needless to say, I’ve found several, which I prudently removed. However, it’s an ongoing battle, with new eggs appearing every few days. They’re small – about 1mm in diameter – and usually yellow, or white or brown.

And here is the culprit that nipped away the growing tip of the plant and caused it to grow new branches.

I have to mention that the best side effect of having to inspect the lemon plant for caterpillar eggs is the lovely scent I get on my fingers after handling the leaves. It’s the lightest, sweetest lemon citrus smell I’ve ever encountered!

And here’s the perpetrator again, resting after gorging itself on several young leaves on the lemon plant.

The first caterpillar damaged the main stem of the plant, but in retrospect, I should be grateful, because the plant has grown three new shoots, and will be more bushy when it grows bigger. Always look for the positive in things!

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