I have a potted meyer lemon tree and there's some small finger-nail sized lemons that turn yellow and fall off. There are some larger lemons on the tree - about golfball sized that are green and doing well. The plant is also flowering and getting new leaves. Overall I think it's very confused as it has different parts in various stages.
Anyway, is there a nutrient or something that it is lacking that makes some of the lemons die off before maturity?
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rainbowgardener
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I don't grow it, so hopefully some of the people that have them will come by. I know applestar has a potted meyer lemon tree.
But in the meantime, I think it is pretty common for them to drop not only a lot of the blossoms, but some of the immature fruit, especially when the tree is still young. They are still sending out new roots and will drop the developing lemons in order to build a strong root structure.
Also there is a condition known as "June drop", where a fruit tree will drop excess newly set fruit that it can't support. This is normal and healthy.
But in the meantime, I think it is pretty common for them to drop not only a lot of the blossoms, but some of the immature fruit, especially when the tree is still young. They are still sending out new roots and will drop the developing lemons in order to build a strong root structure.
Also there is a condition known as "June drop", where a fruit tree will drop excess newly set fruit that it can't support. This is normal and healthy.
Thanks! I dunno what constitutes as "young" - this tree is 7 or 8yrs old. I have had it 4yrs and I think it was 3 or 4 when I got it. The rest of the plant is pretty healthy so I am not TOO concerned and it's only dropped about 10 young fruits. I just hope that the new flowers that are coming in that will develop into fruit will still hold.
Actually if your plant was grown from seed it is still young since citrus trees from seed take around 5 years to mature before they bear fruit. Meyers are pretty prolific and will have up to three cycles in a year. They do produce flowers when the fruit is ripening on the tree. Since some of the flowers are male and some female and they need to be pollinated approximately 90% of the flowers will drop off, the remainder of the pollinated female flowers will form fruit.
If a tree has too much of a load or it gets stressed, it will drop some immature fruit.
Some of the small fruit are stung by pests. Most of the ones stung here are because of Mediterranean and Oriental fruit flies. They will cause the small fruit to prematurely ripen and drop. It is a common problem here and world wide especially in warm climates. Most of the mainland US do not have them but Florida and California have had outbreaks.
The oriental fruit fly does more damage to my fruit than the medfly.
You can tell if the fruit have been stung because you will see a small brown spot on the skin where it was stung.
We have four kinds of fruit flies, the melon fly, Oriental, solanaceous, and Mediterranean fruit fly. Most of the agricultural damage is caused by the melon and Oriental fruit flies.
Ripe fruit is preferred. Papaya, mango, sapote , lychee, and other fruits are best picked before they are fully ripe.
Melons, curcubits, squash, tomatoes, etc, young fruit are usually stung. Covering young fruit helps protect them. If they are stung when they are older, they usually survive and still edible if you cut out the places that have been stung before the larvae emerge.
I put out fruit fly lures for oriental fruit flies year round and use the protein bait only if there is a lot of damage to the fruit or their is a lot of ripening fruit. Most of the time, the damage is limited and getting rid of the stung fruit and bagging controls them along with the bait traps.
https://www.hungrypests.com/the-threat/m ... it-fly.php
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fac/forms/123CGMelon.pdf
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fac/forms/h ... 0pages.pdf
https://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/IP-4.pdf
If a tree has too much of a load or it gets stressed, it will drop some immature fruit.
Some of the small fruit are stung by pests. Most of the ones stung here are because of Mediterranean and Oriental fruit flies. They will cause the small fruit to prematurely ripen and drop. It is a common problem here and world wide especially in warm climates. Most of the mainland US do not have them but Florida and California have had outbreaks.
The oriental fruit fly does more damage to my fruit than the medfly.
You can tell if the fruit have been stung because you will see a small brown spot on the skin where it was stung.
We have four kinds of fruit flies, the melon fly, Oriental, solanaceous, and Mediterranean fruit fly. Most of the agricultural damage is caused by the melon and Oriental fruit flies.
Ripe fruit is preferred. Papaya, mango, sapote , lychee, and other fruits are best picked before they are fully ripe.
Melons, curcubits, squash, tomatoes, etc, young fruit are usually stung. Covering young fruit helps protect them. If they are stung when they are older, they usually survive and still edible if you cut out the places that have been stung before the larvae emerge.
I put out fruit fly lures for oriental fruit flies year round and use the protein bait only if there is a lot of damage to the fruit or their is a lot of ripening fruit. Most of the time, the damage is limited and getting rid of the stung fruit and bagging controls them along with the bait traps.
https://www.hungrypests.com/the-threat/m ... it-fly.php
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fac/forms/123CGMelon.pdf
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fac/forms/h ... 0pages.pdf
https://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/IP-4.pdf
Imafan, Thanks so much for all that information!! Very helpful. I will have to check to see if there's any fruit flies getting into them. I read about the bugs ruining crops in FL and I think that they devastated close to 80% of FL crop and they were dropping prematurely. That's awful! It affected all citrus. I am not a big orange eater/drinker but I LOVE lemons and limes.
This particular lemon has produces before - I didn't get any off it last year and the previous years I would get 2 or 3 lemons off it. They seem kind of bigger than meyers so I wonder if it was mislabeled. I never have gotten A LOT off this tree...always just 2 or 3. I have a few golf-ball sized lemons on it right now so I hope I get a good crop.
I think a reason why I never got good crop before though was it did not like my house for winter. It would drop A LOT of leaves (but not fruit) and go through shock. Then it'd recover. It'd get a lot of scale and all around - not well in the house. So I would have to cut it down in the spring. This year my friend who has a better house took it for the winter and this is the most lemons I've ever seen on it.
I'm thinking of repotting it - taking it out and just repotting it in the same pot it's in now as it is already quite big and I won't be able to lift any other pot. But I would like to give it some air and fresh soil.
Here are fruits from previous years:
This is a store lemon on the left and mine still on tree on right. Which is why I don't think its a meyer. It's so big
This particular lemon has produces before - I didn't get any off it last year and the previous years I would get 2 or 3 lemons off it. They seem kind of bigger than meyers so I wonder if it was mislabeled. I never have gotten A LOT off this tree...always just 2 or 3. I have a few golf-ball sized lemons on it right now so I hope I get a good crop.
I think a reason why I never got good crop before though was it did not like my house for winter. It would drop A LOT of leaves (but not fruit) and go through shock. Then it'd recover. It'd get a lot of scale and all around - not well in the house. So I would have to cut it down in the spring. This year my friend who has a better house took it for the winter and this is the most lemons I've ever seen on it.
I'm thinking of repotting it - taking it out and just repotting it in the same pot it's in now as it is already quite big and I won't be able to lift any other pot. But I would like to give it some air and fresh soil.
Here are fruits from previous years:
This is a store lemon on the left and mine still on tree on right. Which is why I don't think its a meyer. It's so big
Meyers are big. Mine are quite big, but they are more like a giant orange. They are thin skinned compared to the store lemon have more fruit. The inside of the fruit does look like mine, it is a pale yellow. Mine rarely has a pointy end. Some of the smaller ones get a little point but the larger ones are round. Eureka's are larger than the store lemon and have pointy ends. Their rind is thicker than a Meyer lemon.
Citrus trees need to be fed regularly and if you prune them too much you will reduce your fruit count or not get any fruit at all. I feed my all my citrus and most of my other potted plants citrus food 6-4-6 (the numbers are low but it contains micro nutrients). Citrus should be fed based on the diameter of the trunk. The package has instructions. I feed mine when the leaves flush, then when the blossoms appear. Sometimes I will give them another feeding when the fruit is half grown. Meyers ripen quickly over 4-5 months. My Bears lime only produces one crop a year and takes 9 months to mature. The kaffir lime, I grow for its leaves so I take most of the fruit off and feed it the citrus food plus side dress with sulfate of ammonia to promote the leaf growth instead.
Citrus trees need to be fed regularly and if you prune them too much you will reduce your fruit count or not get any fruit at all. I feed my all my citrus and most of my other potted plants citrus food 6-4-6 (the numbers are low but it contains micro nutrients). Citrus should be fed based on the diameter of the trunk. The package has instructions. I feed mine when the leaves flush, then when the blossoms appear. Sometimes I will give them another feeding when the fruit is half grown. Meyers ripen quickly over 4-5 months. My Bears lime only produces one crop a year and takes 9 months to mature. The kaffir lime, I grow for its leaves so I take most of the fruit off and feed it the citrus food plus side dress with sulfate of ammonia to promote the leaf growth instead.
In the store I always see Meyers in small bags...I always thought they were small. Good to know mine isn't a freak. The green lemons on there now also has a pointy end...they've always had a pointy end. So maybe It's a Eureka.imafan26 wrote:Meyers are big. Mine are quite big, but they are more like a giant orange. They are thin skinned compared to the store lemon have more fruit. The inside of the fruit does look like mine, it is a pale yellow. Mine rarely has a pointy end. Some of the smaller ones get a little point but the larger ones are round. Eureka's are larger than the store lemon and have pointy ends. Their rind is thicker than a Meyer lemon.
Citrus trees need to be fed regularly and if you prune them too much you will reduce your fruit count or not get any fruit at all. I feed my all my citrus and most of my other potted plants citrus food 6-4-6 (the numbers are low but it contains micro nutrients). Citrus should be fed based on the diameter of the trunk. The package has instructions. I feed mine when the leaves flush, then when the blossoms appear. Sometimes I will give them another feeding when the fruit is half grown. Meyers ripen quickly over 4-5 months. My Bears lime only produces one crop a year and takes 9 months to mature. The kaffir lime, I grow for its leaves so I take most of the fruit off and feed it the citrus food plus side dress with sulfate of ammonia to promote the leaf growth instead.
I do feed mine towards the end of fall/beginning of spring. Usually that's when flowers are forming. Now that the fruit are on and it's flowering I guess I'll feed it again. I do have a citrus fertilizer like that that I use. I'll give it another feed. I was worried if I fed it more I'd be feeding it too much