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Should I remove the small lemons shown below??

16 years ago

Hi all,

I have a very young about 16 inch tall Pondersosa lemon tree that has set fruit and what I think I should do is remove them because the tree is so young as you can see in the photos below. Do you agree or disagree with me?

Thanks in advance.

Lou NE., PA

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Comments (8)

gene_washdc
16 years ago
Great figs you got there, Lou!

I'd let your little lemon go to see what it does. Usually a lemon tree will naturally drop a lot of the little ones as the season progresses. It knows instinctively what it can bear. If you see signs of stress on the plant, you might pinch them off then.
birdsnblooms
16 years ago
Many on this forum remove the first cluster, but I leave them on..Like Gene says, several will drop naturally anyway.
I believe the reason people remove them is they say the following cluster will come in fuller, but I never experienced this..then again, my trees were bought at nurseries so who knows how many clusters they had previously..Toni
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CA Kate z9
16 years ago
The poor little girl won't be able to support the lemons; give her a break and remove the fruitlets..... so she has the chance to put all her energies into becoming bigger.
bencelest
16 years ago
I agree with West.
I used to have a foot long pomello with 2 fruits.
I was so proud that it could carry that big fruit for so little tree.
It died a little later after the fruit ripen. It could not recover from the stress.
wfspath
16 years ago
You can go either way (remove or leave on). However, its very unlikely any of those fruitlets will become edible. If you don't remove them, they'll eventually fall off on their own. If you remove them, the tree will be able to put all of its energy into growing. I've done quite a bit of experimenting with this and on trees as small as yours, they grow much more quickly and achieve bearing size earlier, when I remove the buds and fruitlets.
birdsnblooms
16 years ago
I agree that any fruit left on the tree will NOT become edible, therefore, leaving them on will be more for decoration. A good percentage of fruit drops naturally anyway, so I really don't think it'll matter..Toni
silica
16 years ago
The reason that all fruit are removed from such small trees, is so all the energy the young tree produces goes into the health and vigor of the tree by producing additional vegetative growth. It is much more important to young trees to develop a strong root system, and a strong branch system, than to produce early fruit. Fruit produced on a small tree such as yours will rob the tree of the needed energy required for strong growth. Any fruit such a tree would produce would be of inferior quality. It is your tree, you can do what you wish, but encouraging fruit production for the first 3 years will certainly prove negative in the long run
pezzuti9
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks guys,
I made my decision early yesterday morning and pinched off all of the very small lemons that where on the tree. I am of the belief also that the tree being that young needs it's energy devoted more to root growth and new foliage production.

I will just have to wait a year or two to let it set a few lemons.

Lou NE., PA

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