I could use some advice about a lemon tree (I don't know what kind) in my back yard. It was here when I bought the house 4 1/2 years ago. It was about 3 to 4 feet tall back then and didn't fruit the first 2 years. I basically ignored it because Florida had a citrus eradication program back then and I kept getting notices that the state was going to take the tree because canker was within 1800 feet.

Well, I guess my little tree got lost in the paperwork because they never got around to cutting it down. Then the state eradicated it's citrus canker program.

I didn't prune the tree or fertilize because I thought it was marked for death. Well, 2 years ago there were some medium sized sour lemons on it so I fertilized it after that. The next year 2005, I got a bumper crop of fat juicy, tasty lemons the size of grapefruit.

There's another crop almost ripening now and some of the branches are scraping the ground. It is 7 feet tall at its highest point and branching wildly in different directions.

It needs a serious pruning (I've never pruned the thing). Two weeks ago I started slicing some of the green stems and putting toothpicks in to air layer cuttings. I also took 2 cuttings that I dipped in Rootone and are now getting bottom heat in clear plastic containers in my garage. I also dug a little trench and shoved a few of the low-lying branches into them and covered with a roof tile (dislodged last year during Hurricane Wilma).

Now, what do I prune off next month when I take the ripe lemons? As you can see from the photos, there are now 2 trunks. One side of the tree (the heaviest) leans toward the ground. Do I take that whole section off? Do I just prune enough to get it off the ground and looking presentable again? Will those clippings I'm attempting bear fruit? I read somewhere that you had to take clipping from last year's growth, but I don't know where last year's growth ends and this year's begins. Last year's growth would be hard wood by now.

I fertilized it last week with Vigoro citrus fertilizer pellets. I want it to keep fruiting because those big juicy lemons are great!

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Note: part of the reason it leans to the left as it does in the above photo may be because there is a big oak tree (in the neighbor's yard) that casts shade on the back yard. The lemon tree is stretching to get the direct sunlight. Some of those oak tree branches were trimmed recently so that should help.

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