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Pruning meyer lemon trees


7 Secrets for Tons of Fruit – FastGrowingTrees.com

When it comes to home-grown citrus trees, there's nothing like the Meyer Lemon. A cross between the tart lemon and the sweeter orange, Meyer Lemons are sweeter and juicier than their more common counterparts - making them sought-after in both grocery stores and home gardens alike.

The Meyer Lemon Tree is a fun tree that always seems to be blooming or fruiting. Many Meyer Lemon Trees are blooming now, bringing beautiful flowers and a wonderfully fresh citrus scent to homes. What’s a better way to prepare for spring cleaning than with an all-natural lemon scent?

The Secrets of Meyer Lemon Trees

Like with all citrus trees, Meyer Lemon blooms turn into fruit, so if you don’t have blooms, life won’t give you lemons. So, how exactly do you get these blooms? Make your tree comfortable. Under the proper care conditions, your citrus tree will have a ton of blossoms!

1. Light

Before fruiting, Meyer Lemon Trees need to see the light! They won’t flower without getting enough light. Make sure your trees get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. You can do this by placing your tree by a large, sunny window. If you can, try to place your tree near an area that faces South. Southern-facing areas tend to get more light.

Also, if your tree is potted in a container and kept indoors, rotate it every three weeks. This way, the entire tree gets time in the sunshine!

2. Watering

Next, make sure that your trees get the right amount of water. Overwatering or under-watering your tree can harm fruit production. Let your Meyer Lemon dry out a little in between waterings, but it should never be completely dry - they'll grow best when the soil stays moist.

Check on your soil once a week. If it feels dry to the touch 2 inches below the surface, it’s time for more water. Slowly pour water into the pot and count to 20, or wait until you see water running out of the bottom of the pot.

Generally, Meyer Lemon Trees need water every one to two weeks. Leaves can be an indicator as to how your tree feels. If the leaves are drooping like they’re too heavy for the branches, the tree is getting too much water. If the leaves are crispy and dry or curl upwards, this is a sign of under-watering.

Don’t immediately overcorrect under-watering. Gradually add more water to your tree over time. If you immediately saturate the roots with a ton of water, your tree may become stressed.

3. Nutrients

Another way to keep your tree healthy and productive? Make sure that it gets all of its vitamin and minerals. When potting or planting your tree, it’s beneficial to mix in some citrus planting mix with your natural soil.

Also, to give your tree an extra boost, give it some fertilizer designed for citrus trees! Give your tree two tablespoons of fertilizer three to four times per year. Fertilize once in the early spring, once in early summer, then again in the late summer and in the fall. Space out your fertilizing by about four to six weeks.

4. Temperature

Meyer Lemon Trees are very cold hardy and can withstand temperatures down to about 20 degrees. If your area gets colder than that, your tree will need to be planted in a container and brought inside when the temperature drops.

But when they’re inside, winter heat can dry them out. Be careful not to place them under a vent. If your leaves start to dry, you can mist them daily with a spray bottle for extra humidity.

Once it warms up, don’t just stick your tree out in the hot sun for hours! It will need time to adjust to the heat. Move your tree outside for a few hours each day, gradually increasing the amount of time it spends outdoors, before letting it live outside all summer.

5. Pollination

Once the blooms open on your tree, they’ll need to be pollinated. Good thing that these trees are self-pollinating! However, having two or more trees will greatly increase the amount of pollinated blooms.

Meyer Lemon Trees can bloom all year, but they have two main blooming times: fall and early spring. If they bloom while it’s too cold for them to be outside, simply keep your tree indoors. However, when placed indoors, they won’t have the wind and bees to carry their pollen from bloom to bloom for them. You could release a few bees inside of your home to help with pollination, but we wouldn’t recommend it!

However, you can pollinate your indoor trees by hand. Simply take a small, dry paintbrush, and run it over each bloom as if you’re painting them. Do this once daily, and don’t wash the paintbrush until after the blooms have been pollinated.

6. Pruning

Another way to keep your Meyer Lemon Tree happy is by pruning it. Meyer Lemon Trees don’t have to be tall to produce fruit – just healthy. Keep them wide and branched out. When you decide to prune your trees in the early fall or early spring, look for branches that are growing straight upwards. Generally, these aren’t fruit-producing branches. Also, remove any damaged or crossing branches. Make your cuts at 45-degree angles facing upwards to promote new growth.

Also, look for areas that block the sunlight from the center of the tree. Removing these branches will increase air circulation and the amount of sunlight that hits these branches, which will decrease your tree’s risk of mold and fungi.

Be sure to look at the number of lemons you have growing. In order to prevent fruit overbearing, when your tree starts to fruit, you’ll want to remove a few lemons in large clusters when they’re pea sized. This will promote the growth of larger lemons when they reach maturity.

7. Patience is a Virtue

Your Meyer Lemon Tree will need time to get adjusted to its new environment before it starts producing fruit. Once your lemons start to grow, give them time to mature. They can take around six months to mature. Don’t harvest them until their skin changes from green to dark yellow. When your sweet Meyer Lemons are ready, their skin will be a shade of yellow that’s similar to the color of an egg yolk.

Meyer Lemon FAQs

What is an improved Meyer Lemon Tree?

An "improved" Meyer Lemon Tree is a specific cultivar that was bred to be more resistant to disease than traditional Meyer Lemons. That means they are easier to grow, with less maintenance required - particularly for home gardeners.

Do you need two Meyer lemon trees to produce fruit?

You don't need two Meyer Lemons to produce fruit - since they are self-fertile, a single tree will produce lemons. However, having multiple trees can increase pollination and lead to larger harvests.

What is the best potting soil for Meyer Lemon Trees?

Meyer Lemon Trees will grow best in soil that is nutrient-rich and well-draining. All-purpose potting soil typically works well, or you can add in a potting mix designed for citrus trees, which will help with drainage.

How long does it take for Meyer Lemon Trees to produce fruit?

It all depends on the age of your Meyer Lemon Tree. If you purchase a more mature tree, you could get fruit as soon as the very first growing season. If you buy a younger, less mature tree, you can expect it to bear fruit within a few years.

Blair Brown

Blair is the Content Marketing Manager at FastGrowingTrees.com, and though she's not your traditional gardener, the planting world is definitely growing on her (pun intended!). She's enjoyed digging into plant care and maintenance and growing her plant collection, especially with exotic indoor varieties.

Meyer Lemon – Pruning | Walter Reeves: The Georgia Gardener

Q: How do I prune my Meyer lemon?

A: This articles from the Meyer Lemon Tree website explains it all.

Meyer Lemon Tree Pruning

Suckers

In your gardening experience, you’ve likely heard references to “suckers”. Suckers are shoots that arise from below the soil surface or below a graft union. They are usually undesirable, because they rob valuable resources from the main plant. In the case of grafted citrus trees, suckers are actually rootstock and not the budded portion of the plant (notice the rootstock sucker emerging from the Improved Meyer Lemon in the photo). If left to grow, suckers will surpass the main plant in height within a few months. Ultimately, suckers reduce fruit yield and adversely affect the shape and overall health of the tree. The good news is that suckers are easily identified and removed. A newly emerged sucker is bright green in color and it will usually appear several inches below the graft union. Additionally, sucker leaves are double-lobed (unlike most citrus varieties). In most cases suckers can be removed by gently breaking them from the trunk. Suckers that have developed woody tissues can be removed with pruners, grape shears or household scissors, by cutting flush with the trunk.

General Pruning

You cannot really go wrong with any type of pruning on a lemon tree. In the southern California groves, they prune lemons right down to stumps and large branches. This is because they want strong branches to hold the fruit up and control the size of the trees. The way that you prune your Meyer Lemon Tree depends on what you want; a nice hedge or a fruit-producing tree. Or both…

Wait until the tree is 3-4 feet tall before pruning.

Meyers will usually set and ripen the most fruit in winter. So wait until most of the lemons have ripened before you prune your Meyer Lemon Tree. Then when you are ready to prune your tree, pick all (or most) the remaining ripe fruit off. Then prune any dead, damaged or diseased stems right to the base. Then start the longer task of pruning back the long wispy stems. Weak stems do not hold fruit well. Cut any that are smaller than a pencil. Once that is done, cut any remaining smaller/medium size stems that are intercrossing the plant. You want to open the plant up to improve airflow, reduce disease, and make it easier to pick future setting fruit.

Now when that is done, step back from the plant and look at the balance and shape. Is it the shape that you want it? If it is too high, cut all the branches and stems that are above the height that you want it. Remember that it will grow a lot on the top, so cut it shorter than you want it to be. If the plant is growing all to one side, remove stems and branches to balance it out. If you want a more open look, remove more branches and stems growing in the middle of the plant and clear the lower few feet of branches of side stems. If you want a more compact tree from a larger open one, cut the stems and branches back pretty hard. You can also prune to shape it round or square or oval or whatever. You can even use hedge trimmers to do that.

Traditionally a single citrus tree should be pruned so that it is smaller at the top, and bigger at the bottom. You could do this with a hedger so that you get an even shape. This allows for more surface area to receive sunlight. It may also be a good idea to skirt the tree (take off about the bottom foot of foliage) just to keep it tidy looking and make it easier to maintain.

Meyer Lemon Trees are encouraged to bear lots of large fruits, pruning trees to develop a strong branch system capable of withstanding the annual load of ripe fruit is also critical. Prune Lemon trees to allow ample sunlight to reach into the middle of the tree, otherwise fruits will not ripen properly and will lack good color. That can mean removing many more lateral branches and stems than might make the most pleasing-looking, bushy plant. Such pruning also allows for good air circulation through the crown, and that prevents disease. A citrus tree allowed to bear all the fruit it sets in the spring will produce scads of poor quality fruit, or it will produce well only every other year. For consistently good crops you must thin clusters of young fruit to a single fruit. Do this when the fruit is still small (marble to golf-ball size). Each fruit should be six inches or more from its neighbor. Such thorough fruit thinning is time consuming, but you will appreciate the effort when Harvest arrives.

Article and top photo courtesy of Adam J. Holland

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