I have a wierd situation with my Meyer lemon tree. I bought it in a pot last spring, it was loaded with lemons and flowers. It's a 5 gallon pot and the tree is about a foot and a half tall and two to three feet wide. I put it outside on a sheltered hot bricked patio with direct sun and no wind. All summer the lemons grew slowly larger until about mid august they stopped growing and are now about the size of key limes, maybe a little larger. It grew very few new leaves and the blooms eventually fell off, none turning into new lemons. It got direct sun and for our area very hot conditions (as high as 80f at times) all summer. It's not dropped many leaves all summer and seems perfectly happy but stalled. I brought it indoors at the end of August when the weather started to turn and have it under dual t5 flourescent grow lights indoors in a warm room. Again it's not dropped leaves and seems perfectly happy, however in all this time not one lemon has ripened. They just sit there looking happy but not growing or ripening. How long should it take for the lemons to ripen and how big should they get? Is there anything that can give it a boot in the butt and get it to kick into gear or is it normal to take over 8 months to produce an edible lemon?
Check the condition of the potting mix and the roots. Is it too potbound? What are your watering habits like? Have you fertilized it? A pic would be good. I think I have read somewhere that it can take up to 9 months for fruits to ripen, but 8 months with so little growth, in fruit and foliage, seems a bit odd! Citrus are greedy - is it getting food alright? Post a pic if you can :) My meyer is still recovering from being repotted. It had a right fit and dropped most of its leaves, but it will get better :)
What fertilizer formula do you fertilize your Meyer Lemon with, and how often and at what rate, did you fertilize your tree over the spring and summer months? - Millet
I don't fertilize it at all, I started out with a balanced slow release pellet type good for indoor plants and fed it once at the start of summer. I was afraid of overdoing it. I tend to feed my indoor plants under lights with an organic 4-2-3 fertilizer, should I use that or get some of those spikes instead? (I tried to find citrus spikes a while ago but citrus trees are extremely rare in these parts and no one had any).
Citrus are greedy greedy greedy! You really do need to give it some fertilizer, possibly less than normal with winter now approaching however. A 5-1-3 ratio is best, with added trace minerals. Feed it how the label recommends and you will be fine. If you see a salt buildup, reduce the dose and flush the container. Flush the container 3 or 4 times a year if you can, totally get rid of any salt build-up. But do invest in a fertilizer, citrus do need it, and this could be a major issue with why it won't fruit and flower. Buy special citrus fertilizer if you can find it. If not, I think someone said use any fert. for acid loving, lime hating plants but I don't know, I only use citrus. Its hard to come by here in north England too. Its very easy to get online though :)
Ahh..that might explain things. I've become both paranoid about over fertilizing and also come to realize how little most of my plants actually need fertilizing. In this case though I'll try and track down some online source. It just seems so healthy looking I didn't think of the fertilizer. I always associate underfertilization with sickly looking plants.
Lol i see where you're coming from. I used to be the same way with watering - I was so worried about OVER watering that I sometimes under watered, which caused a couple of problems. My fertilizer said to use once weekly. I did that, and got salt buildup and a couple of the leaf tips went a bit brown. So I flushed the pots, didn't fertilize for a few weeks, then cut the dose in half. They seem to do fine. With them being in containers, I have read it is best to fertilize, whereas some people when planting in the ground don't bother. I use the citrus fertilizer with every watering to every other watering depending on the time of the year. I have a winter fertilizer I am going to use at half strength as forom the end of the week. Definitely track one down online, your citrus will appreciate it :)
As for when your fruits will ripen, they should start turning in a month or 2--most people find Meyers best when they are turning from green to yellow. I have Lisbon lemons and I have been picking mine since August--green as limes--but the still make lemonade and lemonade is best in the summer. They will get more lemony when they turn yellow --that is when I will make lemon pie!
As aesir22 writes, citrus are heavy feeders, requiring a high level of nutrition. By not fertilizing your Meyer Lemon, the tree has lost out on an entire year of growth. Just as you enjoy eating healthy nutritious meals, so does your lemon tree. From April to September, I would fertilize the tree once ever two weeks at 300 PPM Nitrogen, using a complete fertilizer that also contains trace minerals. If you plan on growing the tree in a warm well lit area throughout the winter months, I would fertilize the tree at least once a month at 200 PPM Nitrogen, using a complete fertilizer w/trace minerals. The tree does not need a "boot in the butt", the tree needs its owner to feed the poor thing on a REGULAR basis. If you treat your tree well, it will repay you a hundred fold for years to come. The very best of luck to you and to this Meyer Lemon tree. - Millet
To JCARDINA. What colour is the pot you are housing the lemon in. It may have been too hot and cooked the roots. I have had some trouble with my apples in pots. I was watering regularly and feeding, but they still seemed to not do well. Dying and drying leaves. I moved one into part shade and it seemed to bounce back.
Dark green, something to keep in mind for next summer, I'll stick a thermometer down in it next summer and make sure it's not getting too hot. What's a safe temperature? Our apples that are in ground, in fact all our fruit and nut trees, had an absolutely abysmal season this year with the crazy cold spring. Coldest on record here on the island from what I read. The summer growing season started so late for them that it was almost a write off entirely. We got a very few cherries and about 5 tiny apples, no hazelnuts, no plums, tomatoes only really started ripening heavily in September, even the Early Girl variety. I thought the lemon dodged all that since it only came out from indoors when it really started getting properly hot and it was in the absolute most sheltered and sunniest, warmest spot around, but I doubt it got over 30 even there.
I would not be able to give you a safe temperature for this was just an observation. All the apples, pears and peaches in the ground are fine. They were all watered together with the black pots and root cooking was the only variable I could think of. My lemons are in the ground under an open face cold frame. When the temperature gets below-2C, I wrap them with the old style large Christmas lights and the white frost blanket to keep them warm.
That's my plan as well for long term, but they are so scarce and hard to get around here that I've taken a number of cuttings and am raising them up to experiment with so I don't lose the "mother" plant.
Good planning. I had also talked to a fellow BCFTA member and she said she had problems with her lemon and she,at the time, thought it was from cooking the roots as well. So there seems to be some merit.
