I tried searching but didn't find anything with this particular issue. If you know of something, let me know. Here's my problem: I have a Meyer Lemon and I've been noticing that my tree is rather anemic lately. I water it according to instructions I've found online making sure not to overwater. I've been using a fertilizer; however I've noticed that I may be a bit lacking in the nitrogen content so I've switched to something a little heavier on that front but I just started that today. I was getting real excited this spring when I noticed all of the buds and blooming flowers and figured I might actually get some fruit. I think the tree is only a couple of years old but here are some photos (http://gallery.me.com/iconoclasticism#100016) which you can hopefully infer from that. You can see that there aren't many leaves and the worst part is that all of the buds that bloomed and had the beginnings of fruit are just dropping the fruit buds! What am I doing wrong? Should I prune him back and let him start fresh? Do I need to water more/less? Is it a fertilizer issue? I'm at a complete loss... Thanks.
First, never prune a citrus tree *if* you want fruit. Second, only about 2-4 percent of the blooms that a citrus tree produces will develop fruit, the rest fall from the tree, then only about 2-3 percent of the little fruitlets that the tree originally set, will remain on the tree to reach maturity, the rest will be discarded. A citrus tree will only keep the amount of fruit, that it is capable of maturing. If every bloom on a citrus tree produced a fruit, and kept them, the tree would be crushed under its own weight. The best to you and your tree. Millet (1,396-).
Millet, thanks for replying. That's good to hear that it's normal that all of the falling fruitlets are normal. Did you have a chance to look at the photos and determine if the amount of leaves for this tree is adequate? I feel like they look a bit droopy towards the bottom. I've also noticed some yellowing at the bottom but from what I've read, that could be normal as they do this slightly. Cheers.
The tree lacks the density of foliage that it should have, but all in all the tree looks to be OK. I can't see what that is that is growing at the bottom of the trunk, but whatever it is you should remove it. Nitrogen is the element that promotes the growth of the foliage. Now that spring is here, you should fertilizer the tree at 300 PPM nitrogen (using your standard fertilizer) at a very minimum of once a month. I fertilize my trees (100+ trees) at 300 PPM with each watering. So does the Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP) at the University of California at Riverside. Always be sure that the trees growth medium (potting soil) is freely draining. - The best. Millet (1,396-)
