Dpol..you said, "other than some mites, the tree appears to be happy." Your ML looks great, but if you don't rid those mites, they'll kill your tree. I agree with NJ regarding scale. Scale are brown bumps that can be scraped off. They hide on upper and lower leaves and stems, in-between stems. The sticky residue is honeydew, secreted by scale, mealy or aphids. Honeydew attracts ants. Inspect your tree thoroughly to ID which insect might be on your ML. I make a home-made insectide to rid and kill mites. In a 16oz or so sprayer bottle, water, 2-4 drops dish soap, lemon ride or juice, garlic and hot pepper. Liquids can be replaced for garlic, citrus rind and hot pepper. There are different types of insecticides and oils. My favorite is Fish Emulsion, although many people like Neem Oil. Both are organic. One reason I prefer FE to Neem is, it's an organic fertilizer. When leaves are sprayed, it not only rids/kills scale, but works as a foliar feeding, too. Keep an eye on your Meyer's, see how it does. Good luck, Toni

If sourced in Europe it would be probably a Meyer lemon as there seems to not have been the same improved variety here in the same way, it may be, but I have been told that it wasnt sold here to the same extent due to home grown cuttings. Many nurseries across many areas of Europe just take cuttings of there own trees that they have used for years, some may be the improved Meyer, but not all will be as I dont think there was as much of a problem here. New growth on lemons are not always green, flowers not always purple tinted either, 2 out of 4 Meyer lemons I have are green new growth and the other 2 purple new growth, no idea why, maybe a tree was just incorrectly marked at some time and people took cuttings from it. I have other some lemon trees with green new growth and purple flowers, Some with purple new growth and purple flowers, Some with green new growth and very large bright white orange tree style flowers, Many of them from the same they supplier, sold as ornamental lemon tree, made in Italy, no variety on them I asked the supplier and I was told they were supplied as ornamentals and not a fixed variety, the white flower green growth one would be a `oranage flowered lemon` and always had green new growth and white flowers I think many plants in Europe seem to be marked like this, just as ornamental

I have had a Meyer lemon for about two years- I’m guessing it was 2-3 years when I got it. It is grafted into an unknown rootstock. I bought it from my tree guy at the farmers market. Right now it is very healthy. It is about five foot tall and has about 40 grape sized lemons on it. It is still trying to bloom again and has a few babies as well. It dropped at least half of its baby fruits on its own. It is in a large terra-cotta pot. My question is this.... if I don’t want my tree to grow any more, should I forego thinning and just let all of the lemons mature? Does a tree drop larger than grape sized fruit? It is outdoors and gets lots of sun here in 7b. Also- I seem to have some tiny white flies in the dirt around the base and some spiders spinning webs to catch some random bugs that are on it. I’m not a huge fan of insecticidal soap. Any other suggestions for me. My first two summers with this tree were disappointing. One year I had about 5 good sized lemons and huge storm blew the tree over and knocked odd most of them, and last year I ended up with one lemon that refused to ripped for a year. It was not tasty.

There is no amount anyone can offer because container, soil mix etc. Rule of thumb, water until it is running completely through the holes in the container. Completely saturate every inch of soil. This forces out the used air and as it dries it 'inhales' fresh air flow. It's important to water this way because oxygen is the the best 'medicine' for the roots. It kills most pathogens and prevents root rot and a number of other common root diseases. By contrast improper watering sets up container bound trees for failure and future diseases. Far as your solvable fertilizers here is what I use. I have a container that I measured and marked gallon levels.... I mix it in that then just pour from the container. But I would strongly encourage to err on the side of caution esp as your new to this. You can't use too little but you can (and I've seen far too many people) kill their plants using too strong and/or applying too frequently. If you have small newly establishing trees a tiny amnt of fertilizer is all they can use.... if you over apply it can build up toxicity in the soil and quickly overwhelm, burn and kill the tree. I've lost count of new plant owners who accidentally killed their tree (or plants) by 'kindness'. Hope that helps :)