Hi All, I need some Meyer lemon assistance. I received a dwarf tree in the spring from QVC thru mycitrustree(dot) com. I had some beautiful blossoms in the summer and now have 2 lemons about 3 inches and 3 1/2 long. It was kept outside and watered as needed in addition to Mother Nature. I live in NJ and it was about to dip into the 40's one night so I brought it into my basement two weeks ago. I watered it before I brought it in and it got a soaking rain too. It's in a pot with drain access and it still moist. It has also now begun to bud on all end branch A LOT. My original question is some random leaves are turning yellow. They are not dry or curling and have no pests. The leaf veins are also not turning white. I am a nervous first time fruit tree mother. I did not give any fertilizer since I received it in the spring. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much! Barbara-Ann

I would also vote for Cuban Shaddock. I have one in my yard where a grafted scion from Four Winds died and left the root stock alive. It's been growing for a long time and the fruit looks exactly like that. If you left it longer it would color up to yellow. It has pretty big thorns. I believe Cuban Shaddock is a pomelo-lemon cross and the fruit tastes much like a lemon. It's pretty good, and great for cooking. At least the fruit has a use unlike the trifoliate type of root stock. It's pretty cold hardy too, so you might as well keep it and enjoy the fruit. Pip gave you the link to the info on it. They also says Yuma Ponderosa may be identical so here's that page too. It talks about the seedlings and it's root stock uses; http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/yuma_ponderosa.html By the way, since you're interested in the various root stocks, I found this page with some good info on citrus root stocks. It's old, and some of root stocks aren't used anymore, but there is a lot of useful info there. Also apologies to rosgold65 for hijacking their thread. Hope they don't mind. http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/links/documents/Bitters.pdf

Hello..I doubt the issue of your leaves falling is the roots..They look very well built and even perfect from this vantage point! I would slip it right back into that container and instead wash each and every leaf off...I would treat for spider mites since it looks like it might have some sort of pest issue..Mites can cause leaf drop and leaves that look almost pale and soft, as if the tree is thirsty..That is what I see... Do you see those tiny white specs on those leaves? I would check underneath and even post some pics here to see if you have pest issues for sure..It's that time of the year almost everyone will get some sort of pest issue if not treated... I would only water when the pot feels light and I am thinking it dries out pretty rapidly with that many healthy roots in that pot, your protection from over watering until the late spring comes to do a completely right re pot into the 5.1.1 mix.. if you find that it takes time for the mix to dry out even though you have healthy full roots like that to fill that pot, then for sure you have mites preventing the roots from doing their job, bringing up moisture to your leaves.. P.S...You do have an IVY plant close by? Those usually are very susceptible to spider mites..I would treat all those local plants since even the tree to the left seems to be affected too..

Update, six weeks later. The tree doesn't want to go on the cart... Red arrows point to one sucker branch and one sucker bud(?). Purple dashed line is what I believe to be the graft scar. Green arrows point to what I hope are new growth above the graft. These appeared all within the last week; maybe due to the days getting longer, maybe due to a few degrees rise in temperature inside as some other inhabitants were running fevers. I have read on this forum that sucker branches are usually not desirable. Are they worth letting grow for a while, if they are the only source of active chloroplasts on the tree? My hunch is yes, but I admit knowing very little about the regrowth tendencies of Meyer lemons. My next question is whether the old branches are actually dead,or whether they have some hope of rejuvenation: Most of these branches used to be green, but are now brown or near black. Some show hints of green near the branch collar. Is it worthwhile to prune back branches which look brown, if that might encourage growth from the same collar? Or do brown branches ever return to green, and it's worthwhile to wait? Thanks, all!