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Why do Lemons fall Off after Bloom?:(

teengardener1888

9 years ago

I have had a Meyer lemon with fruit when I brought it. It dropped all its fruit,flowered, and dropped any fruit that formed after that. It looks otherwise decently healthy.It is outside where it is in part shade.Now it is forming a huge amount of blooms. So my question is, how do I keep the fruit on? I have a variegated lemon that fruits just fine, in fact I made lemon pie from it's fruit over winter. If a slower growing type forms fruit, I expect good lemons from the highly rated Meyer variety:(

This post was edited by teengardener1888 on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 19:10

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Comments (11)

nomen_nudum
9 years ago
It's quite normal for citrus to fall off prematurely during the maturation process. Some people may tell you that a low percentage ( 5% +/-)of the blooms will ever reach maturity..... during that time you may see many small fruit fall.
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
Meyer Lemon is notorious for setting more fruit than it can support, even to the detriment of the plant. Therefore, there must be something in the cultural conditions preventing it from holding fruit. A picture of the plant and the pot would help.

How often do you fertilize?

Josh
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teengardener1888
Original Author
9 years ago
I have yet to fertilize. It is very small, well here is a photo....
teengardener1888
Original Author
9 years ago
Oops triple post

This post was edited by teengardener1888 on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 20:52
teengardener1888
Original Author
9 years ago
Sorry triple post

This post was edited by teengardener1888 on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 20:55
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
The tree is very small, so I'd actually advise that you remove the fruit once they do set, until the tree is larger.

The second issue I see is the very heavy potting mix in which it is planted. The tree doesn't appear to be suffering now, but that mix will hold a lot of moisture during the Winter months...

Thirdly, Citrus are hungry plants, and Meyer especially so. I typically fertilize my Meyer at a higher dose than all my other Citrus. I fertilize once a week. Do you have an appropriate fertilizer?

Josh
teengardener1888
Original Author
9 years ago
The heavy soil is just a topping, its sterrilized garden soil and it is only the top inch. So i guess I will enjoy the flowers and remove all fruit then, thanks.
nomen_nudum
9 years ago
Any citrus is notorious at droping fruit, a younger, immature citrus usually does. Most young citrus wont even even take up the food you try to feed it becuse they can't. ( Shouldn't feed a human infant steak and eggs in a sence.)
Inside citurus and feeding can cause problems and cause more damage to them than you may have inteded to have. Skiping that fert meal now and then is actually better for it untill it has matured enough and grown into into more food.
.
teengardener1888
Original Author
9 years ago
Wait! I have a couple of fertilizer spikes in the soil.
nomen_nudum
9 years ago
Fruite falls for many reasons, maturity ( it's age) is more likley in your case, It's not just citrus trees it's any tree that bears fruite On avg. five years before a fruite tree is old enough to hold a resonable amount of harvestable eats time can be sooner but not as much to harvest.

Sligth pun but it's like apples and oranges, they both need to gain the experiance over time (age) while learning how to hold on to the eats

Winter feeding indoor growing citrus if you have a close to semi tropical climate in your home every day over winter then I imagine feeding is okay
Like many other peps I dont have a semi tropical house all winter long I let all my semi tropical plants get some rest just like them other arid and succulent things I have. How to rest a plant that wants to grow While holding what ever they already have using and low watering no feeding rewards are a more pest free habtable home for all that live here
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
Dig those fertilizer spikes out of the soil....they are awful.

Josh

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