I'm a novice to this site and gardening. I need some info on trimming my lemon tree, when, how much etc. The tree has NEVER produced fruit and was planted in my yard 3 years ago. The trunk is about 3 inches in diameter. It grows SOOOO much and all over that I may have been trimming away any possibility of fruit unknowingly. Today I happened to look at it and saw several blossoms and I'm so excited to have fruit, but concerned that it will grow out of control. The branches grow at right angles. I've tried to thin it because we get such terrible wind storms I don't want it to blow out of the ground. It will also sprout new branches anywhere so I have tried to maintain the growth at the ends of the branches by trimming the leaves that sprout along main branches. Can I do this better? What should I expect?
All citrus varieties bloom and fruit on new wood. Cutting off the ends of the branches, is removing the exact growth that would have produced fruit. As long as you keep pruning, your lemon tree will be unable to flower, therefore, it is impossible for the tree to fruit. Citrus trees, are almost never pruned, except for removing suckers. If you continue to prune the tree, you will receive little to NO fruit. - Millet
In general, it is not good to prune citrus. Your pruning is probably the reason it has not had fruit. Lemons are vigorous trees and if you have a standard tree (not on dwarf rootstock), it will get pretty big--over 20 ft. If you can't accept a tree that size in that location, maybe you should consider moving it and replacing it with a dwarf tree, however, eventually, even dwarf citrus can get pretty big with time. If you want to move the existing tree, we can provide some helpful hints you can use BEFORE the move.
