Making a lemon tree flower and fruit *Pics*

[rainbowgardener]

You may just need (continuing!) patience. I read various places that lemon trees can take 10 - 15 yrs to start producing and then I found this:

My lemon tree is blooming for the first time this year at 23 years old. Miracle Grow is the only fertilizer I have used. It winters in the house in an unheated room. (05/02/2007)
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf457596.tip.html

Also it looks like your tree is in the same little pot all these years? Have you repotted at all? Might be getting rootbound by now. Think about going one size up with some fresh soil.

[applestar]

It looks like your tree is multi-trunked. Maybe that's keeping the tree(s) from maturing as fast as it/they could? The whole thing looks very healthy though. I'm wondering if your plant gets sufficient light during the winter. You did say you put it outside during the summer right?

I have, oh, maybe 5 or 6 containers of citrus seedlings. Some of them are several years old, others just sprouted since this past winter. I haven't labeled them so I've no idea which is what, and they could be lemons, grapefruits, oranges, and/or kumquats. I up-potted them and set them out on the grass in full sun after acclimating them to the outside in late spring/early summer. They must have tripled in size this season. I've up-potted some of them again so they'll grow some good roots before cold weather hits and I'll have to bring them back inside. I don't want them to be root-bound during the winter months because it's harder to manage soil moisture levels.

It's a bit discouraging to hear that yours is taking so long to flower, but I'm enjoying them. When you prune yours, don't forget to use the leaves in soups, etc. I don't get many since I'm only pinching the tip growth right now, but I love the scent of crushed leaves and can think of quite a few culinary uses. When I have enough for a handful at a time, I'd love to put them in the bath -- wouldn't that be lovely?

[rmccauley78]

I grafted a tangelo branch to a lemon tree, once. I was young and read about grafting in a book, so I tried it on the two trees in my back yard to see if it would grow. It fell off and the branch died, but the lemon tree that had never flowered before, began flowering and fruited these ugly fruits that only had seeds in them. Maybe that is what it needs. I would try grafting a lemon branch though.

[mi dave]

I have the same problem, i live in MI i take it outside only in the summer and it grows like crazy .. but i started it from a seed that i got from a slice of lemon in my iced tea ..its about 15 years old now and never seen a flower on it. its about 5ft tall and in a pot about the size of a 5 gallon bucket, well drained. it has sharp thorns on it about 2 inches long ,i don't know if thats normal ?.. i know some plants are male or female and don't know if its the same for lemon trees???????

[RogueRose]

I would consider pruning....I have a lemon tree that I keep indoors during colder months and outdoors during warmer. I had that sticky disease (I think its some sort of bug) last year and when I brought it out I pretty much cut it down to nubs. Not kidding. This was around late April or maybe even May. This is how much it grew in a year and it is flowering like crazy and fruiting like crazy. It started to flower in January. Then it flowered again when I put it outside. I usually take it out of it's pot that it is in now (I don't want it in a bigger pot) and knock around the rootball and repot it back in the same pot with fresh soil and fertilizer every spring too (about to do this this weekend).

I don't have a pic of when I cut it to nubs, but here is a pic when it first started to grow back last year. You can tell which is new growth bc the leaves are lighter. The dark leaves are the only ones I left:


These lemons are from the first bloom in January and this pic was from February:


These are when it started to bloom AGAIN in March:


This is it still blooming from the bloom in March (pic from today):


And this is a lemon from the first bloom in January:


I can take a pic of the whole bush if you want. I like to keep mine pretty compact since I bring it indoors.

[applestar]

Nice! I do see the scale insects in the 2nd photo. I'm working on getting rid of them from a couple of my citruses now, though once they go outside, they do much better (I think the Garden Patrol gets to work on them) -- and I was thinking they could go outside this weekend as well.

[RogueRose]

Nice! I do see the scale insects in the 2nd photo. I'm working on getting rid of them from a couple of my citruses now, though once they go outside, they do much better (I think the Garden Patrol gets to work on them) -- and I was thinking they could go outside this weekend as well.

Yeah I had just sprayed it down or maybe that was before I sprayed it down. They always come around it seems when the plant is indoors and towards the end of it's indoor period. This time I didn't cut it to nubs since it had lemons and stuff growing on it and just throoughly sprayed it down. Now it's clear of them. I really hate having to spray my citrus but that's the only way I can get rid of them.

Here's the whole "tree" today:


Another lemon shot:


Lemons from two years ago:

[RogueRose]

I found a pic that shows how much I cut the lemon tree last year. 99% on it in this pic is new growth. It's on the far right. But you can see compared to above how much it grew! I'm telling you these things liked to be pruned - and aggressively!

[Greenhand]

Sounds like you have a lemon, or maybe not..I kid, I kid, just a little humor to lighten your day : )

[gregorz]

I got our 15 year old tree ,grown from a pip ,to flower using phostrogen fertilizer applied once a month. The point being that it has trace elements included. I also added a sprinkle of Sulphate of Potash or Potassium Sulphate and Ferrous Sulphate every few months sprinlked around base. The point of the iron is to keep the leaves green as they have a tendency to go yellow. Providing the tree is kept in a conservatory over the winter it should start producing white flowers, then little green fruits. [/url]

[imafan26]

If this was grown from a seed citrus may take five to seven years to fruit. You may just have to be patient. Some cultivars can set fruit earlier.

You won't know until it does fruit if it is good or not.

To get fruit faster. Have the tree grafted using a scion from a tree with known good fruit.

You could even do multiple grafts and have lemon, limes, and oranges on the same tree.

Don't prune citrus too much. There require only light pruning. Over pruning a bearing citrus can stop fruit production for a couple of years. Pruning should be done at the right time or you will be cutting off the flowering branches and the tree will switch to vegetative growth at the expense of fruit.

Right now my lemons, tangerines, calamondins and limes are all blooming and setting fruit. Bears limes and Satsumas only set fruit once a year, but the meyer, lisbon, kaffir, and calamondins will have flowers and fruit on the tree at the same time and set fruit up to three times a year.

They are also heavy feeders. Most of mine are in pots, so feeding is mandatory. The trees in the ground, I feed twice a year. I did that last month, just before I pruned the Satsumas. I will feed them again around September. In between they will get some compost spread under the trees.

The potted trees get fed when I start seeing new leaves growing, and again after fruit set. Usually 2-3 times a year depending on how many times the trees set fruit. I use citrus fertilizer. Dosage depends on the diameter of the trunk.

http://www.examiner.com/article/florida ... trus-trees


Now the Satsumas are resprouting growth and I still have flowers because I only prune to control height and air circulation. I left the mid branches alone.

My tree will not live much longer since it is nearing twenty years old and it is typical for dying trees to actually give abundant fruit. Nearly all citrus here have trestiza virus. Grafted trees live between 25-30 years. Fertilizing and good aphid control can keep a tree going longer.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/pati ... iners.html

[Green Mantis]

Can anybody give me an idea "what" I should do with my meyer lemon tree?

It finished fruiting just after Christmas, picked the last lemon in January.

Then I wanted to Transplant it ( still do) BUT....I gave it water this morning

and be darned, it's got flower buds on the end of one branch...

Can I still transplant it into a bigger pot "now". Like asap.

"Help".......

[gregorz]

I got our 15 year old tree ,grown from a pip ,to flower using phostrogen fertilizer , that has trace elements included. I also added a sprinkle of Sulphate of Potash or Potassium Sulphate and Ferrous Sulphate every few months sprinlked around base. The point of the iron is to keep the leaves green as they have a tendency to go yellow. Providing the tree is kept in a conservatory over the winter it should start producing white flowers, then little green fruits
It needs to be sprayed with insecticide to remove scale insect infestation, i use 'rose clear'.
I also changed the compost in the pot to John Innes no.2- which is a mixture of loam and sieved compost.
I think this makes a big difference for growing Lemons in London where temperature in winter varies. In 2013/2014 winter we kept pot outside and lemon stayed on tree without frost damage [/url]

[imafan26]

It takes at least five years for most citrus to flower from seed. Grafts and cuttings are faster.
Most of my citrus has either flowered or is flowering now.

Remember, that with citrus 90% of flowers will drop without producing any fruit and the the plant will cull fruit if it is in distress.

[PunkRotten]

My Lemon and Lime trees put flowers out almost year round. But the timing on fruiting and the maturity of the fruit seems delayed in my Lemon tree. Like The Limes become ripe a lot sooner than the Lemon. I still got a bunch of Lemons hanging on my tree and some are big and green, some a little smaller, and a few almost ripe. Meanwhile, the Lime is pretty much done. I think it is due to one year the Lemon had a bunch of fruit and during the summer dropped everything even its new blossoms. A little while after it put more flowers out and eventually fruit. I did do a light prune to both last winter and they put out more fruit this year.