Any hope for this Lemon tree ????

[gssgarden]

Meyer Lemon, about three years old or so. I think my problem was too much sun and heat. It was put on my deck where there is no shade until late afternoon. Dried up alot but I couldn't help it. If it wasn't watered every day, it got dry.

It blooms this time of year. You might be able to see blooms but maybe not in the pic. Very sweet smelling by the way. Branches have died as you can see.

What do I do to help this thing? Trim dead off, right? How low do I go? Trim the live growth to even it out? How low?

Should I put it in a more shadier spot next year? Under the deck where it's a little more filtered?

Thanks,

Greg

[brokenbar]

I have one of these that is 15 years old (house plant except in summer.) I grow orchids and have nearly 200 and the funny thing about the lemon tree is that it takes more humidity than the orchids. I have to put a plastic bag over it the whole time it is indoors or the leaves yellow, slightly curl and fall off and I run two commercial humidifiers 24 hours a day and the orchids thrive.

My husband has tried to kill mine on several occasion when I was gone for extended periods of time but bagging it almost immediately brought new leaf growth and then bloom. When I put mine outside for the summer, I use a large black flat rubber grain feeder for horses (about 15 inches across and 5 inches deep. I put just a little layer of pebbles and I find that I have to water it every day. They are huge water users. I also found mine did better outside if I gave it a position that afforded some shade in the hottest part of the day and a spot that provided some relief from hot, dry summer winds. I also have to spray it with permectrin or the grasshoppers eat the heck out of it.

These are tough dudes and if you bag it up, it should come back rapidly with new leaves. I have also found that re-potting mine every other year in a bigger pot really improved the plant. They have quite the extensive root system (my husband jokes that soon we will need a forklift to move mine in it's overly large pot!) Hope this is helpful.

[gssgarden]

Thanks brokenbar! What do you bag it with? and for how long? Until new leaves emerge?

Greg

[brokenbar]

I use a large dry cleaning bag or a clear bag that comes around large items (My plant is about 3' tall.) I cut a half dollar sized hole in the very top or indoors, it get's too hot and there would be a risk of mold without some air circulation. When my husband caused mine to lose all it's leaves, I bagged it and within 2 weeks it had all new leaves coming out. I don't know why these need so much humidity...my orchid's do very well indoors but this darn Lemon Tree is one picky dude. I have a Dwarf Blood Orange and it does fine without a bag too...have no idea why the Meyer Lemon is so fussy.

[akgardengirl]

Do you have any problems with scale on the lemon tree? My tree gets them and I spray with a neem oil concoction which takes care of them for awhile and then they come back again. Any tricks for getting rid of the scale permanently? It is an indoor plant that goes out in the summer.
Sue

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

Do you have any problems with scale on the lemon tree? My tree gets them and I spray with a neem oil concoction which takes care of them for awhile and then they come back again. Any tricks for getting rid of the scale permanently? It is an indoor plant that goes out in the summer.
Sue

Sue, I have never had a problem with scale. Truthfully, as long as I can keep the humidity up high, the tree is easy care. As I said before, seems like I am constantly re-potting it...it just does not like it's roots crowded (unlike some plants, like orchids that prefer to be under-potted.)It does well outside as long as I keep in wet and keep the &$%^@#(@)$*grasshoppers off of it! I got 16 lemons last year and got 23 blood oranges from my tree. I will have to research the scale problem...not one I was aware of.

[karpes]

Greg
All citrus like direct sunlight and heat but the thing that they react badly to is quick changes in sunlight. You have to gradually acclimate them to less light intensity. Lemons grow fast so my guess is that it is root bound in that container. I would suggest that you repot with CHC instead of potting soil.

[veggie babe]

here comes another dumb question. what is CHC? i took my lemon tree out of the office (where i winter some on my plants, it's heated) and placed it in the the carport today. should i do something different? this is the second year i have had my tree, some of the leaves fell off during the winter but it has been blooming like crazy.
thanks for your help,
Neva

[karpes]

Sorry Neva.
CHC is Coconut husk chips. The coconut hulls are ground up into chips (1/4” to ½” chips for citrus) and used instead of potting soil. To this you add peat, micro nutrients and slow release fertilizer. The CHC last for years and it is nearly impossible to over water. The husk soak up water and release slowly but excess drains freely.
Lemons are the most finicky citrus to grow. My Meyer drops and renews leaves every year but it is planted in ground. When temps drop down below 27 degrees I can expect it to drop nearly all of its leaves with some stem die back if the temps drop below 25 degrees.
Greg’s tree looks like it may have a little bit of scab or leaf miner activity on the lower right side but that’s an easy fix. I would also add micro nutrients or fertilizer like citrus/avocado from Home depot that contains micros and the correct ratios 5-1-3 NPK for container citrus.

[tomatoaddict]

I'm so glad I found this thread. I have been researching getting a Meyer Lemon Tree and a Key Lime tree.

[Andrey_BY]

I'm growing several tiny lemon trees on my balcony and on windowsills at home. There are 2 lemon varieties from CIS (Pavlovskiy, Novogruzinskiy) + 1 Ponderosa lemon +1 Skierniewicka lemon (which is actually an improved Polish version of Ponderosa) + a new bought tiny Meyer lemon tree (1 y.o. I think).

Also I always like to experiment with growing citrus trees from seeds. I know that that would be very hard to wait until their first bloom and fruits, but I know some tips plus I'm gonna use grafting.

Unfortunately it is quite difficult to find plants or cuttings of foreign citrus vareities so I just buy citrus fruits (mainly lemons, tangerines, grapefruits, sheddocks, kumquats) and give their seeds a new life.

1.5 years ago I've got some Calamondin seeds from Lory's (felpec) heirloom a 60 year old Calamondin orange tree. My one and only survived seedling is still looking quite tiny, but I hope to get a really beautiful and fruitful tree from it in some years. Thanks, Lory!

Russians have been growing citrus trees indoor since early 1800s (even in Siberia)

My dream is to have a blood orange tree here, but this would be very exotic to find here

[b54red]

This is just the thread I was looking for. One of my sons came to visit this past weekend and brought me a Meyer lemon about 3 1/2 ft tall in about a 2 gallon pot and it has 3 lemons on it. He also brought me 2 small 1 ft tall Meyer lemons in what look to be about one pint containers along with a small lime. I was contemplating repotting all of them; but wasn't sure what to use. These are some of the things I have on hand right now: Miracle Grow potting soil, perlite, vermiculite, mushroom compost and some of my homemade compost. Any suggestions for mixing would be appreciated. I am also getting in some water holding crystals which helped with my tomatoes in containers. I live in an area with high humidity and high temps most of the year with winters rarely seeing any days below 25. Last year was an exception with over two weeks with nights dropping into the low 20's.
We have Home Depot, Lowes and several good nurseries around so I should be able to get anything else I need.

[husker nana]

I got both the Meyer Lemon and the Lime trees at the end of season and both of them lost quite a few leaves at first. My lemon has a couple of lemons on it now. It had more but they fell off. I don't know the reason and can't rule out kids, dog, or cat. My lime has some flowering going on. Something has been eating the leaves. I washed them and sprayed them with fish emulsion as they had some yellowing too. I will be repotting them soon and will have to study up on potting soils for these. I kept them alive over the winter so that is a plus. Do I keep them in the house in the summer or should they go outside? If I put them outside then am I just asking for bug invasions?

[Tom C zone 4/5]

Originally Posted by b54red

This is just the thread I was looking for. One of my sons came to visit this past weekend and brought me a Meyer lemon about 3 1/2 ft tall in about a 2 gallon pot and it has 3 lemons on it. He also brought me 2 small 1 ft tall Meyer lemons in what look to be about one pint containers along with a small lime. I was contemplating repotting all of them; but wasn't sure what to use. These are some of the things I have on hand right now: Miracle Grow potting soil, perlite, vermiculite, mushroom compost and some of my homemade compost. Any suggestions for mixing would be appreciated. I am also getting in some water holding crystals which helped with my tomatoes in containers. I live in an area with high humidity and high temps most of the year with winters rarely seeing any days below 25. Last year was an exception with over two weeks with nights dropping into the low 20's.
We have Home Depot, Lowes and several good nurseries around so I should be able to get anything else I need.

I'd visit the farm-feed store and buy some 'grani-grit' (your local brand name may vary) sifted crushed granite and mix it half and half with crushed bark mulch. I add one cup per wheelbarrow of crushed oyster shell to this mix for all my trees in pots.

Potting soil, or soiless mix holds much too much water.

[puttgirl]

husker-definitely put your citrus outside in the summer. Just keep it in part shade for the first couple of days. I have a 12 year old calamondin grown from seed and it has never had any pests at all inside or out. Also have a 1 1/2 year old key lime grown from seed-I've heard those two are the only two that always grow true to type. Also bought two orange (var.?), two mexican lime and two meyer lemons last summer marked down. Already lost one orange, and one lemon doesn't look that great-but all the others are doing fine.
BTW, I've always lost leaves on my older citrus' when I brought them in in the fall-probably just a little shock (and it's extremely dry in winter), but as soon as they go out when it's warm, they quickly recover. BTW, that 12 yo calamondin has been topped off at 6 ft. two or three times now.