its hungry!

my meyer from Gurneys (small cheap plant!) put out a bit of growth when I first got it months ago, and nothing since. It is slightly lighter colored than the other citrus I have. That long without food is SURE to adversely affect it, im suprized it hasnt started looking bad already. Houseplant fert is much better than nothing. It wont have the trace minerals, so any color imperfections will probably stay till you get a acid citrus with minerals.

I understand pyrethrins arent super toxic, but if youve got a plant indoors, and youve only got aphids, I would just put the plant in the shower and use your showerhead to blast it!

As to why its blooming so well, you got me! consider yourself lucky, and enjoy the scent. Its probably too hungry to actually set fruit, I wouldnt worry about pinching them off. most fruit self-abort anyway (esp on young plants)

My Nana pomegranate grew, finally flowered, but didnt set fruit until I had repotted it this summer (better draining), and fertilized it. It then proceded to not do so well when I brought it in to my low humidity home, so it gets the humidifier when the Citrus arent.
good luck!

Your citrus tree may be in a state of dormancy as you say the temps drop to 50. You might want to raise the temps a bit. Check out the link below for more information

Narcnh..Some people have problems w/Meyer's, some don't..I also feel every so often a plant has problems from the start, and will continue this way all its life.

Yellow leaves happen for several reasons from lack of nitrogen, to lack of minerals, to insects. I'd disconue using the insecticide and instead apply a light dose of plant food..since it's winter, and you're in NH, we do not get sun and natural heat like Fl. If you're going to feed this tree make sure it's getting as much light as possible.
BTW, if your tree arrived w/yellow leaves, you should have phoned 4winds..When plants arrive they should be in perfect health and bug free..I never had luck w/4 winds so I will not order from them. All citrus bought there have died..

If you feel the trees need repotting, do so in late Feb, early March. What size pots are your trees in now? I know they come bare root from 4winds, so I'm sure you chose whatever pots looked appropriate.
When you pot, use a well-draining soil. I use all purpose, sand, peat and Perlite.

Take your Meyer's to sink/shower and spray 3 times a wk. Try not to hit soil, but some water won't hurt. This is mainly to rid any stray bugs and help w/humidity..plus it cleans leaf pores. (unclogs)
I'm thinking the Meyer's problem is lack of nitrogen and after-affect from bugs. Plus insecticides. Toni

I think the cool temps are why your lemon is flowering so well. Citrus normally flower in midwinter, when it can be in the 50s at nighttime in areas where many citrus do fine. This year I have my pineapple orange in a room I've been keeping on the cool side (low 60s days/ 55-60 at night) and it is covered with blossoms, more than I've ever seen.

I think some plants (of all types) are plain stubborn..LOL. They may sit there doing nothing, then suddenly they'll take off..and the thing is, you won't know what you did or they did to suddenly grow.
This happened to me w/4 plants called Philodendrons..they sat in 4" pots doing nothing (2 yrs) I repotted them, even though they didn't need it..Perhaps it was the different soil, cuase it certainly wasn't root bound..one is now over 15' tall, the smallest is 3'. and I'm talking plants that were now larger than 7-8" when purchased.
I also notice sometimes plants do the opppoiste..they grow like gang busters then suddenly stop..I wonder why they do this..Toni

Thanks to everyone for all your help and useful info.

I hit all the plants with the dilute houseplant fertilizer I had on hand (19-6-12) as well as a foliar micronutrient spray a few days later. I have since purchased a time-release fertilizer (19-6-12) and Acid Plant Food (30-10-10) with trace minerals. At the next watering I'll use the 30-10-10 and then in February I'll apply the time-release fertilizer. Unless they show signs of problems, I won't fertilize again until they go back outside in the spring.

I didn't mean to imply that the Meyer lemon was at all sickly. The leaf color is just a little lighter than the other trees; nothing like the problems I've read about in other posts. It continues to bloom, while the other trees continue to leaf out (e.g. since coming indoors the Bearss has added almost 12 inches of growth, and you can see it arching over the Meyer in the photo below). All have roots that have grown to the edges of the pots and also just below the surface, so I will definitely be repotting come spring. Also, the nighttime temps probably don't get much below 60, since warm air rises and they are on the third floor. Didn't mean to make it sounds like they got chilled at night. I agree that some plants seem to just kick it in gear, while others under the same conditions don't. I see it with my herb plants, too. It's like the Meyer somehow switched on 'bloom' instead of 'grow.' Ah well, as long as doesn't appear to be having any problems. Below is a pic of all the trees. In order from the left they are: Trovita Orange, Bearss Seedless Lime, Improved Meyer Lemon, and Kaffir Lime. I reduced the pic way down to reduce load time, but if you look carefully, you can see some of the flowers on the Meyer.

Again, thanks, everyone.

{{gwi:611656}}

Narcnh, your trees really look nice. What size pots are they in?
Is that snow outside the window, or frost?
60 degrees is fine, much better than either bringing citrus in from the outdoors in summer, or shipped from a tropical area, to a hot, dry, stuffy house.
Sometimes a certain citrus might lose a bit of it's vibrant green, but I wonder if that has to do w/less light in winter.
One thing, you've bought quite a bit of fertilizer, please don't overdo it. You don't want to overfeed your nice trees. Read dossage on packages.
Unless there's a lot of sun there, I would hold off on the feeding until sunnier days. I withhold feeding in winter which doesn't mean I'm doing the right thing, but I've read this info in plant books. (Not only about citrus but other plants, too)
If they were my trees, I'd start w/a light dose of food..since you're worried about yellow leaves and lack of growth, use the food higher in nitrogen. But at 1/2 strength. Or even 1/4. Artificial light at night will help too.
Anyway, your citrus all look good and healthy..Toni

Hi Toni,

Thanks for the evaluation. They are in 10-inch pots. That is both snow and frost. The window is 'fuzzy' because of frost on the storm window, and the white band at the bottom of the window is snow on the ground below. You are looking down from a third-floor window in an old, 1770, farmhouse in New Hampshire in January.

I appreciate the advice about the fertilizer. The first dose I gave them was from dilute houseplant fertilizer that is meant to be used with every watering, so it was pretty low level. Maybe, what I'll do is give them a shot of the acid plant food the next time we hit a stretch of sunny days and then not give then anything else, leaving the time-release fertilizer until the spring. Since they are actively growing (well, except for the Meyers), and since the ground must have been pretty depleted (because I never fertilized before), I thought it would be a good idea to 'recharge' the soil in the pots. Do you think that is a bad idea? Would you recommend the time-release over the acid plant food for a slower release?

Regarding sunny days, usually in the winter the days are bright and sunny around here. But, this has been a very unusual winter, so far. We have had temps in the 40's the past few days, when we normally don't get above freezing from Christmas until early February. It is raining right now and supposed to hit 50 today. Very bizarre. Anyway, given the dreary conditions, I can see where holding off on the fertilizer would be a good idea, especially since it requires watering, and the soil stays damp longer in weather like this.

narcnh

Thought I'd post an update, since I got such helpful advice for my trees this past winter.

All survived the winter indoors, even though, thanks to a lot of travel, I managed to dry them out pretty badly a couple of times, enough that the Trovita and the Bearss lost some leaves. Still, the Bearss actually bloomed and even set fruit. The Meyer bloomed off and on all winter, but never sent out any leaves and, when I set the four trees out about a month ago, still had not sent out a single leaf, since I received it. It had lost a couple of original leaves, but pretty much looked like it did when I received it last summer.

Left two weeks ago for a long business trip and, while away the temps topped out in the mid-90's, unusual for New Hampshire, with heavy rains on a couple of days - basically hot and humid weather.

Came back on Friday to find that all four trees are covered in new growth, YES, EVEN THE MEYER! There looks to be new growth from pretty much every leaf junction on the tree. And, it is blooming, again. The largest fruit on the Bearss is about an inch and a half long, so I'm hoping to have my first harvest this fall or winter. Maybe, I'll even have some other fruit, too? All-in-all, the trees look great, and I have to admit that they have not been babied in any way. My next two decisions are 1) should I prune to shape them (rather leggy), and 2) should I repot into larger pots? For #1 I am undecided. For #2 I am thinking maybe mid-July, once they flush out the new growth. I think I will check if they are root-bound and use that as my guide. We are headed into several days of rain. When we get a break I will fertilize them.

So, in conclusion, for those who have cranky or 'balky' Dwarf Meyer Lemon trees in pots - don't despair. It took a year, but mine finally has sprung to life. Just give it lots of sun, water as needed and let the tree move at it's own pace. And, thanks to everyone on this forum, who gave me advice and support. I probably would have killed my trees without your help. If anyone is interested, I can take some digital pics and post them.

narcnh

I'm glad to hear that your Meyer finally had a growth spurt. I wish mine would. I've had it for a few years and it's tiny, healthy looking but vertically challenged. It's constantly in bloom and setting fruit. Surprisingly it won't drop the fruit. Last year I lost a ton of branches from the weight of the lemons. That made the tree even smaller. It's under 2' and had 35 lemons that I finally had to take off because the branches started bending again. If I lose any more branches I won't have anything left but the trunk. It really is a pathetic looking tree but the smell of the flowers makes up for it's appearance.lol