Lemon Tree Needing help

Discussion in 'Citrus' started by cooksons, Feb 16, 2008.

  1. cooksons

    cooksons Member

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    Location:
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    I have an outdoor minature lemon tree, it looks healthy and I fertilize every three months. It gets many flowers and the lemons start to grow then either just drop off or turn brown before dropping off. It gets plenty of water and sun, what is it missing?
     
  2. fernwood

    fernwood Member

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    lemon trees like to be slightly root bound in the pot and not over watered or over fed...i water mine once a week in the summer (in London )and feed with a week solution if you can.. PS check for red spider
     
  3. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    As your lemon tree is growing outside, I assume it is planted in the ground. You do not say if all of the fruitlets totally drop, therefore you do not get a crop, or is just a major amount of the small fruitlets fall from the tree. It is very normal for a lemon tree, in fact for all citrus varieties, to retain only 1-2 percent of the fruit that originally develop. 98-99 percent of the small fruitlets are commonly dropped from the tree, as a citrus tree will only retain the amount of fruit that it can mature. A mature citrus tree can produce upwards of 100,000 blooms. If all of the blooms produced fruit and were retained by the tree, the tree would be crushed under it own weight. - Millet
     
  4. cooksons

    cooksons Member

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    They start to grow and get about large pea size turn brown and drop off. I live in California so the weather should be ideal.
     
  5. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    You did not answer my question. Do 100 percent of the fruit drop, therefore the tree does not produce a crop at all, or does 1-3 percent of the fruit remain and become mature? - Millet
     
  6. fernwood

    fernwood Member

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    lemon trees like consistent watering (no swings between wet & dry) i have a lemon tree in a large pot in my courtyard for the past ten years ,last year it dropped all its fruit due to having the worst summer on record...maybe set aside a day in the week to water it ,and stick to that day...lots of lemonade ...fernwood
     
  7. cooksons

    cooksons Member

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    Sorry, all the fruit fall off, no lemons at all.
     
  8. Millet

    Millet Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    If all (100%) of the fruit fell from the tree, than there is a problem. The problem can probably be greatly relieved by foliar spraying the tree 4-6 weeks PRIOR to the expected date of the initiation of blooming with a Potassium Nitrate spray, or even a Urea foliar spray. - Millet
     

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