I received a Meyer Lemon Tree for Christmas. I think the tree is 2 or 3 years old. It is about 3 feet tall. I live in Coastal Georgia (mild winters) and I immediately planted my lemon tree out doors in a place that allows it at least 8 hours of sun. It lost some of its leaves (no new leaves have grown) but this Spring it flowered like crazy. I don't see any fruit developing. I have a few questions: I never noticed any bees or butterflies pollinating the tree - does this matter (I only have one lemon tree)? Will it ever grow more leaves? Will it produce fruit or is it too young? And if it does begin to fruit should I clip the fruit off (not allowing it to develop)? I've been told you should do this until the tree is more than three years old. Any other advice is welcome.
Citrus does not need pollinating. They also will drop most of the flowers and fruit and it will only keep what it can support. It is up to you whether to remove any fruit that stays on after June (that is when the tree has pretty much decided to keep it). Removing fruit will allow more of the tree's energy to go into growth.
Thanks for your reply. One other question, when will my tree begin to grow new leaves? Or what can I do to help it along?
Citrus trees grow in spurts, then the roots catch up with the top. When it is ready for a new growth spurt it will put on a new "flush". Just fertilize it according to it's size, for young trees, once a month from Feb to Aug or Sept depending on your climate. If your soil is really sandy with no minerals like ours, it would help to use a fertilizer with trace minerals or add them separately once a yr.
Hot summers and mild winters. Occassionally the temperature drops below 32 (or we have freeze warnings - drip your pipes weather) but the temp only stays below freezing for a brief period of time, meaning that by sunrise the temp is already on its way back up. Sometimes the news warns of light frost but honestly this past winter I don't remember having the bird bath frozen even once. My neighbor has two orange trees growing in his yard and this past year, for the first time, it was covered with fruit. He never covers his trees (even in the cold weather) and they seem to do fine.
My trees have completed their first flush of the year (except for the kumquat). They have not put out any additional new growth for about a month. I expect a new flush within a few weeks on most of the trees. I would think that you have already had one flush this yr since you are warmer than we are.
By new flush do you mean - new growth - leaves, height etc.? Because this has not happened except for the burst of flowers - which started I guess about a month or so ago and now all have bloomed and died off.
Yes, a flush is new growth. There is usually at least some new growth with flowering, but sometimes it does not result in much increase in height, as was the case with my Ponkan mandarin. There were about a 1000 new branches that all grew about 2-3 inches. It will probably have flushes (growth spurts) that put more growth into fewer limbs later in the season. In this case the tree was just filling out long limbs that grew 3 to 4 ft last summer.
Georgia, if you are still there, is your tree on a standard or dwarf rootstock? Dwarf rootstocks will prevent the tree from growing very fast. A lemon tree on standard stock will grow several feet a year, but the same variety on a flying dragon (dwarf rootstock) would probably grow less than a foot a yr.
Also remember that Eureka lemon is not compatible with trifoliata & will have problems in the future if grafted to that rootstock.
skeeterbug, I have no idea what the rootstock is - it was a gift (how can I find this out)! I've had it since 12/26 and I planted it out doors within one week of having received it. It has not grown one inch. It was covered in flowers this spring - possibly as many as 100 flowers. It was about 3 feet tall when it arrived and it hasn't grown an inch. I have it staked to help it grow up right. Right now it looks like it is beginning to develop a couple of lemons and there are still a few of the originally leaves hanging on. But it has no new stems/branches and no new leaves.
If the tree does not have a rootstock tag, you may have to wait and see if it ever sends up a rootstock sprout. Flying dragon is a trifoliate with down curving thorns and it tends to grow with lots of turns in the trunk. Regular trifoliate tends to grow straighter. FD makes the tree grow much slower.
