hi all, this is my first post here. i've checked the forum for other posts on dwarf meyer lemon trees, but it seems all the other questions apply to trees growing in containers. i bought my tree about 6 years ago. planted it in a big terracotta pot with my daughter's placenta in the soil (yes, you read that right...) the tree did wonderfully for about 2 years and then we moved out to the coast, where it is not a hot as where we lived before. we've been her for 4 years now, and the tree has not made a singel lemon here. the leaves looked good, nice and green with lots of new leaf growth and also flowers that turned into teensy yellow lemons that never got bigger, just eventually fell off the tree. we moved again 2 months ago, and we now have a large yard with a nice garden area. i decided to plant the tree in the ground, hoping this would improve it's problems. since i did that, the tree has been looking very sickly indeed. yellow leaves and some leaf drop-off. is this just the shock of being moved, or is something else wrong? the soil is very good, a mixture of 1/3 pulverized topsoil, 1/3 compost, 1/6 manure and 1/6 sand. i have NOT fertilized since planting it, should i? i also fear i overwatered it when i initially planted it, so haven't watered in about a week. i'll go out and get some photos and post them next.
The tree does need fertilizer. A cup of 8-8-8 with trace minerals once a month during Mar to Sept (you may need to make the last fertilization in Aug if you are in an area that gets frost before December). Skeet
thanks skeet. i can't seem to find 8-8-8 anywhere around here (just got back from my local garden center which has quite a selection of fertilizers). i do have an organic citrus fertilizer (whitney farms) i've used in the past with this tree, but it is 7-4-2. i also have a vermicomposter that's full of castings and tea, if those would help, along with a backyard composter that's got a lot of usable compost in it as well. or should i keep looking for 8-8-8?
First, you should never have amended the soil with anything before planting a citrus tree. That will cause your tree great difficulty. Second, if you dug a nice large hole to plant the tree into thinking you were doing your Meyer Lemon a favor, that also will cause your tree great difficulty. Third, it is VERY difficult for a tree that grew inside a container for that many years, to adjust and grow in the soil. Even if the tree is very lucky and seems too adjust, its life span is going to be greatly reduced. A root grows as a bullet goes. My guess, is that the root system of your Meyer Lemon was deformed into the shape of the container, and the roots were circling around and around against the inside of the container's wall. Once a root system is deformed, IT WILL ALWAYS BE DEFORMED. Getting back to the truism "A root grows as a bullet goes," means in your trees case, the roots will continue to grow in the same direction that they were in the container, around and around. In the commercial nursery business, it is well understood that a containerized tree that has reached one year in the container, MUST either be sold, planted into the landscape, transplanted into a larger container BEFORE the root system becomes root bound, or thrown away. Fertilized or not, especially an organic fertilizer, your tree is going to have a VERY difficult time, more than likely the tree will not make it. From reading your first posting, it is very easy to understand why your Meyer Lemon stopped producing lemons, but that is a whole different story. - Millet
