I grew citrus in containers and in the ground in FL zone 9. They need a great deal of light in order to set and ripen fruit. Some of the fruits just hang on and don't ripen if they don't receive at least 8-10 hours of bright light from spring to early fall. In the middle of winter, they will tolerate a lower level of light. This is the time of the year that trees in my area would be in bloom and growing new foliage, so ripening of the old fruit would be out of the question. My container grown trees (lemon and key lime) enjoyed going outside in high light (not direct sun) protected from drying winds, with a shot of citrus fertilizer per directions. I always hand-polinated them just in case. I miss my trees and am going to try growing citrus here in zone 7.

Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking I should just pick 'em, juice 'em, and freeze them for cooking.

What do you think?

Probably not a zonal issue since you've had the tree for 1.5 years and have gotten lemons off of it before.
A question--how are you defining half-ripe? Size, color? Sometimes fruit size can vary significantly from the same tree depending on water availability, general health, heat, light, nutritional needs, and other growing conditions. Same for color, which can also be affected also by fluctuation in day vs. nite temps (California produces the most attractive table fruit due to its Mediterranean/desert climes). In addition, citrus is notorious for blooming, having mature fruit, and immature fruit on it at the same time.

They will probably ripen now that winter has passed (lol what winter? we Californians are spoiled--plus with you being in z11... :) and there is more light and heat available. Most lemons hang well on the tree and so you should be ok in leaving the lemons on the tree and seeing how they do as spring progresses. Just make sure the tree is in full sun if you've moved it for some reason.

If you choose to remove the fruit, the plant will then have a more energy to put into either new growth or new fruit formation. There are some schools of thought that say that to optimize growth, you should not allow your tree to fruit for the first few seasons. However, I feel that minimizing growth in a particular specimen is often a goal and allowing fruit to mature is one way to sort of slow it down. Plus I usually can't wait to try the fruit from my tree :)

HTH. Now I want some lemonade....

Some great info in there - thank you very much! What I meant by ripen is that the lemons are about 3/4 yellow and I've been waiting for them to turn all the way.

Maybe I should just let the tree have it's time to develope new fruit. It's only 5 or 6 lemons and I can just juice 'em and freeze 'em.

What do you think?

-steve-

I think it prolly doesnt really matter one way or another and is ultimately about what you want from your tree--if you're after lots of lemons in the future then maybe you will want to remove the current ones as well as remove soon-to-form fruit, and really let the tree grow vegetatively. If you want the ability to pick one when you need it here and there (I love doing that) or are after the ornamental look of the fruiting citrus tree, then by all means just leave them where they are.

You can always pick just one and juice it and see if it's juicy enough for your purposes--I often let my lemons hang for a long time and they get nice and heavy that way.

We have the same train of thought Rickames.
Good advice.

Hey Benny,
we're waiting on more pictures from you as inspiration :)