Meg, it's true that a certain percentage of immature fruit drop from a tree, but I think it happens moreso changing environments. Just like many flowering plants drop flowers once they come home w/us. Also, a NE exposure may not be enough light for citrus,...a tree that devours sun. Is it possible to set outdoors in summer? If not, do you have a brighter window? South or west? Otherwise, your doing everything right. Good luck, Toni

Meyers in California have their primary bloom in January or February; the secondary bloom, which occurs in September or October typically results in very few fruits, especially if the tree is young or has fruits on it. The "problem" with Meyers is they are such prolific producers that if you don't take off most of the fruit during the first few years, the tree won't grow. You can find yourself with a 5 year old tree still producing 50 fruits per year and the tree the same size as when it was 2 years. If your tree is strong and growing well, you might leave 6 to 10 fruits from the early spring bloom; but not more than that; as the tree grows, you can leave more each year. All of this advice assumes, because you bought the tree at Costco, that it is on dwarfing rootstock, which means the tree will likely not get bigger than maybe 6 to 8 feet, but it should ultimately produce a cupla hundred fruits per year with good care.

Sorry I could not get sooner to thank you all for posting so far, but I had some internet connection problems. All seems ok though now! Thanks for sharing all of your opinions and even pictures!!!! Thank you Mike for the congrats! This year is my first pretty good year getting fruit on most of my trees, some for the first time. I had given them a plant light last year, along with a new fertilizer I found this spring, and that seemed to help. I still need to get a better light for them now that they are inside. I started a post a month of so ago, and got a lot of helpful info from you all (thanks!). I am just deciding whether I am going to keep them upstairs in the living area where they have always been when I bring them in every winter, or transport them down to the basement. If I do basement, I would go HID, but if I stay upstairs, the HID would be too much, so I would just need something to supplement. Even the cheapy GE plant spot light I got last year helped well compared to just window light, so I am sure if I moved up to something a little better, I will be able to keep my leaves, flowers, and fruit attached for the whole winter season. ANyway, so I am finally getting good fruit to grow after all these years of waiting and learning how to keep them happy while indoors for the winter. (oh, and another MAJOR thing I learned from here that helped was how to make good REAL container mixes for citrus). Although I did not think of this before until mksmth said so and mksmth is right, that the flowers are all white so far. I will check again over the next few days as they get bigger. A few should open up soon. I guess the last test will be tasting it. But I feel so happy that the tree got fruit for the first time, that I am waiting till the last possible moment to pick them because I am enjoying just seeing them on the tree finally! I am also wondering what would be the correct thing to make with the first lemons. I would like to make something special with them just because they are special. Any suggestions? LOL! I will keep this updated as the blooms get bigger. THanks again for all of the help! Christy

back on topic, could very well be the hard freezes we had this past winter. here around the Houston area we had several nights of mid 20's. my two young navel oranges planted in ground suffered frost damage, and lost tips to most of their branches, and this year did not produce any blooms. my potted meyer was safe inside the house with grow lights, flowered early spring and allowed produced 7 nice lemons, still have 2 on the tree right now. it flowered again about 4-5 weeks ago and have set quite a few small fruit(which i've already thinned out). i watered regularly during our drought this summer and fertilized weakly about once a month. you could construct a cheap pvc structure around your tree and cover with clear 6mil plastic sheeting. we got two nights of freezing temps already this winter. more freezes are predicted. over on the tropical fruits forum, some of the florida people growing mangos wrap christmas lights around their trees, or place a halogen lamp near the base of their trees and cover with a pvc structure. also seen a few using sprinklers all night, to create a thermal ice cover on their entire trees. i've also got potted mangos, papayas, and pineapples, some cacti and succulents, all must be protected one way or another, either bring them in, cover them, wrap them, etc.