Hi--I have a Meyer Lemon in a container that is several years old. I take it indoor during the winter. Last winter I took it out too early and it suffered a freeze. I trimmed it back and it started growing--and growing. Thick tall branches, large thorns and very large leaves (8.5"x4.5") It has produced fruit in the past but hasn't yet produced blossoms. I tried cutting it back but it just grew as before. Please advise. Thanks Roy
All of the flowers are produced on new growth. So if you are trimming all the new growth you won't get any flowers.
Are you feeding the tree a citrus recommended fertilizer? Once you prune the growth cycle is affected... foliage development to root dev.....can take months to balance...if your foliage development is stopped during a vital growing cycle which will provide the blooms you will inevitably affect this productive cycle for fruit too!
Leave it for a few seasons to grow, do not prune anymore. As stated above, flowers are produced on new growth, so trimming reduced the flowering chances, and the fertilizer, as also mentioned, is very very important.
Hi Roy...mine is just starting to flower again now, those leaves sound pretty weird! Have a look and see if the shoots with thorns, etc. are coming from right near the base of the plant. My various citrus occasionally do throw a branch up from the rootstock...these are thorny like you describe and also very vigorous and straight growing if that makes any sense. If you do have rootstock growth, it should be cut away...assuming there is still some of the lemon plant growing that didn't get frozen totally dead. Then the "good" tree will resume growing and eventually flowering. I hear these are a pretty finicky variety, so good luck :-) Glen
Look at your leaves, are they different than the ones you remember from before the freeze? Based on the large thorns, the growth rate, the lack of blooms and the freeze, I suspect you may now be looking at the rootstock, and the Meyers is dead. Barbara
Bastrees, I believe has given the correct answer. Meyer lemons that are commercially sold are all grafted trees, and are thornless, or nearly thornless. From what your describe, (thorns, different leaf structure) it sounds like you have cut the tree back to far, or the freeze has killed the scion, and now you have, a more or less worthless, juvenile tree from the root stock, and no longer a Meyer scion. - Millet (1,419-).
