My experience with neem has been it did not kill any of the pests I sprayed it on, but I have only used it 4-5 times. Overall I am skeptical of many of the claims of neem oil spray for fruit trees, and the scientific literature supports this: neem has been shown to produce mildly positive benefits but no studies show any more than that. The one thing that it may be useful for is if sprayed often enough the positive benefits to tree health and negative impact to bugs and diseases could potentially add up to something worth doing; I have been meaning to try a more regular spray program some year. The fact that the stuff stinks up my orchard and is a pain to mix up always ends up curtailing my enthusiasm for a bigger experiment with it. There are many different product formulations from different parts of the neem tree; I don't think the stuff in the toothpaste is the same as the spray oil for trees. I also don't know much about the other purported benefits of neem for brushing teeth and other bodily health. The tree spray is a mild poison. I don't think there is any health concern, the active compounds are gone in a few days, the amount of residue on fruits is super small, and it is far less toxic than other insecticides. Scott

I'm posting on this OLD post because it still comes up at the top of google search for "citrus peels lower soil ph" ... I have been doing tests with Citrus Peels.... I have found that about 30 good size grapefruit peels blended up in a blender (lots of batches of blending) with half water/half citrus in the end, produces a good acid base. I did enough to fill 30% of a 5 gallon bucket, which I then diluted to a full 5 gallons of liquid. This was then diluted 5 fold to register a drop in pH of 1 for the water... This diluted citric acid can be used similarly to sulfuric acid dilute. There is a company here that sells Moon Juice which is a combination of sulfuric acid + iron and other trace minerals... It's used for temporarily lowering the ph so trees and shrubs and such can uptake iron and other minerals that lock out at alkaline pH Levels... Given that we're in the southwest we have an ABUNDAND supply of citrus and over time, this is the same effect the trees fruit would give to the soil if there were no humans to tend to and pick the fruit... the fruit would rot on the ground, the citric acid would leach out into the ground as it decomposes and maintain a more acidic soil balance for the trees long term support... So can you use citric acid to dilute, yes you can, though, just like with a sulfuric acid dilute, you're going to need to apply it regularly (monthly or so depending on ph plant/etc) until the bacteria that feed on the sulfur have had enough time to lower the soils actual ph levels ... Something that seems to be long forgotten as I read some of these posts is... all living things have a pH, you can burn things by dropping ph too fast, or by raising too fast, so obviously some of the responses regarding putting acid next to the roots are appropriate, they are also inappropriate because your obviously not going to dump straight acid on anything unless your intention is to utilize the full strength of the acid :P Good Luck! Would love to hear about what you've done and how it's developed since your original questions!

I have two Meyer's in containers (also one Eureka and one 5' Sambo), because I fell in love with the Meyer when a specialty supermarket in our area started carrying the fruit. I have always wanted lemon trees. I love other citrus too, but lemons...for me...was what I REALLY wanted. I suspect if I "branch" out, I will include limes at some point, even before oranges, tangerines or grapefruits. I'm new to it all also, but have learned citrus LOVE to be fed and shouldn't be neglected in that way. The love a well-drained soil. Some places, like the Home Depot in my area, carry soil specifically suited for citrus trees. You might look for that. As for fertilizer, one of the best recommended to me as Osmocote. This is a great forum for learning about citrus, and using the search function will help you learn more about your Meyer (which BTW is such an excellent gift to receive for Father's Day!). There is also another forum on the web (as I am sure there are many) that has extremely well-seasoned and long-time successful citrus growers on it as moderators who dispense invaluable advice: http://citrus.forumup.org/forum-1-citrus.html There is a special section just for container citrus, if you don't happen to live in a zone where you can leave your citrus in the ground year-round and it will need to be brought inside for the winter. I've learned a lot there. I HAVE learned from both forums that Meyer lemon trees can be somewhat touchy, but I think as long as you don't kill it with kindness (i.e. too much water or not enough, bad soil, low temps, not enough light, irregular feeding schedule), it will do fine for you. Just in my short experience, I have learned that my citrus also love the occasional feeding via the foliage, which is sometimes overlooked as most of the attention goes to adding nutrients to the soil (which is important). I use a deodorized fish emulsion fertilizer that's guaranteed not to burn the plant. So far, the trees have responded very well to it, but I've never overdone it. Happy growing and I hope your Meyer gives you lots and lots of fruit. Mine are still small (almost 2 feet), and I'm opting to pinch off a lot of the little fruitlets for now and let the tree put its energy into growing bigger and stronger, rather than supporting fruit, which wouldn't amount to much anyway while the tree is still small and young. It's was hard at first to pull those little fruitlets off, but I discovered it really was the best thing for my trees if I wanted them to grow up to be big and strong.

Hey Everyone! Thanks so much for all of your advice, and input. Apologies for my lack of activity recently. Shortly after I realized the fertilizer is what was killing the tree, I repotted it back to the container it came in, with fresh soil. I continued providing love (grow light, root booster, etc) for a couple more weeks until the entire fre tree was brown. Determined to have a lemon tree, I started 10 seedlings from an organic lemon. A couple weeks later I was at the nursery, and I mentioned my situation to an employee. She said I can bring the tree in and they'll exchange it for a new one. They get their next shipment of citrus trees in November, so I'll swap it then. I'm determined not to make the same mistakes with the new free as I did with the first one. I am going to keep a couple of the new lemon trees, and give the others away once they've matured a bit more. @Sunshine: Thanks for the advice regarding manure. I followed the advice of an employee at a local nursery. I should mention it was composted manure. The pot we chose was not only for decor, but also the size. Advice online suggests a white or light colour pot to keep the roots cool during summer. The pot has a 1" hole in the bottom (similar to terra cotta pots). The only reason I added styrofoam and gravel was to prevent the soil from sitting in water before any extra was able to drain. In hindsight, I realize it was unnecessary. I don't think the pot was a contributing factor to the issues the tree was suffering though. I definitely haven't given up. I'm not discouraged by my learning experience. In the end I'll have even more tree, because if not for this experience I wouldn't have started the seedlings.