Meyer lemon – Xtremehorticulture

Citrus Seldom Needs Fruit Thinning

Q. We have a two-foot tall, two-year old Meyer’s lemon with 40-50 young blossoms. Shouldn’t some clusters be thinned and if so how? Lemon tree planted with mulch. Keep the mulch away from the trunk for the first couple of years. A. Don’t thin them. In most cases citrus does not need to be thinned. The plant will drop the fruit it cannot support. It is not like a peach, apple, plum where small fruit must be removed to make way for larger fruit. Just let it be and see how well is sets this year. My guess is that it will drop most of the blossoms or fruit that it cannot support. It may drop all of them if the tree is too young to support fruit growth and branch growth at the same time. Lemon with a good fruit set That being said, sometimes citrus does have too much fruit on a limb. Leaving too much fruit on a limb can break the limb. If the fruit is closer than the diameter of a large fruit, start removing some when they are the size of a quarter.

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Repairing Lemon Trees From Winter Cold Damage

Leave a Comment / citrus, cold damage, desert, freeze damage, Las Vegas, Meyer lemon, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, nevada / xtremehorticulture

Q. Our lemon tree shows damage after our recent very cold spell. Some of the leaves are dry and dropping. Is there anything we can do to assist the tree? A. The damage can take several different stages. The degree of damage depends on the lowest temperature reached, the amount of time at this temperature and the source and condition of the plant. The first stage is slightly below its tolerant range and results in leaf damage and other soft tissue death while the stems remain relatively undamaged. The second stage is at temperatures slightly lower or held for a longer period of time. This results in leaf damage or leaf drop and death of smaller stems. The third stage is complete death of the limbs and trunk back to the rootstock. The rootstock is normally a very hardy citrus grafted on to the more tender citrus. In this third stage the more valued lemon portion of the tree completely dies but leaves behind the more cold-tolerant rootstock. When temperatures warm, the rootstock will sucker into a totally new, but different, citrus tree. You can get some idea now by bending some branches and see if they are supple and bend or if they snap off. But you will not really know the extent of the damage until you see new growth in a month or so. Once you see where the new growth is coming from you can make a decision to keep the tree or remove it and start all over. If you have suckering from the limbs then you might want to prune it back and let it regrow. If suckers just come from the roots then it would be wise to remove it.

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Potted Meyer Lemon Flower Drop

1 Comment / container trees, desert, fertilizer, flower drop, freeze damage, fruit drop, irrigation, Las Vegas, Meyer lemon, Mohave Desert, Mojave Desert, nevada / xtremehorticulture

Q. You helped me before with my Meyer Lemon, so I hope you have an answer for this one. My tree is in a huge pot. It is about 4 years old. Last Spring, it had massive flowers (yum) and a lot of little green buds followed. Then every single one of those buds turned black and dropped off. Not one remained. I want to figure out why and change what I am doing so this never happens again. The plant is fertilized with granular fertilizer 2x a year — early spring and late summer. It gets moisture and hasn’t dried out. However the leaves could look more beautifully green. Sometimes, some of them curl and are not quite bright green. I do not know if the two issues are related, but I sure hope you have a suggestion. A. Sounds like you had post bloom fruit drop. Fruit drop can also occur during summer months and just before harvest. The usual reasons for post bloom fruit drop is usually some sort of stress. Four years is getting up there for being in the same pot without repotting. You might consider repotting and adding some new soil to the mix. Meyer lemon flowers I know you said it had adequate water but if it went through just a few hours of drought during or just after pollination, fruit drop may occur. If we have some freezing weather during or just after flowering, that can cause the fruit to abort too.We had some on January 6 and 8 in parts of the valley. When watering, make sure about 20% of the water that you apply runs out the bottom of the container each time you water. This is important for flushing salts from the soil. Another possibility in containers is overheating them. If in direct sunlight and the outside of the container gets too hot and transmits this heat to the soil, this can cause stress and cause fruit drop. Proper fertilization is important. Over fertilizing fruit trees, excess nitrogen, can cause fruit drop. And finally less commonly some insects such as scale or mealybug infestations can cause fruit drop as well. What to do? Make sure your container, the soil volume, is big enough to handle wide swings in temperature and water. Monitor both closely. You might find a houseplant moisture meter to be helpful. Keep the outside of a plant container out of the hot sun. Double potting a container is helpful to keep the soil temperature down. Watch for freezing temperatures at bloom time and cover the plant. Water the soil just before the heat of the day. Wet soil heats up more slowly than dry soil. If we have any frost during bloom it will affect fruit production.

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