Hi All, I need some Meyer lemon assistance. I received a dwarf tree in the spring from QVC thru mycitrustree(dot) com. I had some beautiful blossoms in the summer and now have 2 lemons about 3 inches and 3 1/2 long. It was kept outside and watered as needed in addition to Mother Nature. I live in NJ and it was about to dip into the 40's one night so I brought it into my basement two weeks ago. I watered it before I brought it in and it got a soaking rain too. It's in a pot with drain access and it still moist. It has also now begun to bud on all end branch A LOT. My original question is some random leaves are turning yellow. They are not dry or curling and have no pests. The leaf veins are also not turning white. I am a nervous first time fruit tree mother. I did not give any fertilizer since I received it in the spring. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much! Barbara-Ann

They are very easy to care for. I have a Eureka and a Meyer. Meyer's are also very easy to care for, a little more cold tolerant, and VERY prolific. Fruit holds well to a point (and then can be a little off-tasting to some). My Eureka will drop the fruit when it's ripe. My Meyer has a more rounded, lower growth habit, but is about 8 to 10' tall. My Eureka was resurrected from the dead, but they tend to be a bit more upright, and will send up these vigorous, upright water sprouts. They also bear just about all the time, and are also pretty prolific. Meyers don't so much tend to do that. The Meyer lemon is sweeter and about twice as juicy as a Eureka. Eurekas have a more classic lemon taste. I happen to love my Meyer lemons and make the most delicious lemonade from them. Patty S.

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

I may be wrong about this, but I was told the flowers have to be pollinated in order to set fruit. I had a Meyer indoors that kept dropping blooms, and when I moved it outdoors, it started setting fruit. And indoors it was in a bright room with a huge east-facing window, and it thrived other than no fruit. That was years ago- these days my Meyer (the same dwarf tree I got 8 or 9 years ago!) is in a very large pot (about 36" across and 30" tall) on a dolly in my yard. If it's going to freeze or frost I roll it into my garage until it warms back up. I got a sturdy furniture dolly from Tractor Supply for $15 and it is a lifesaver! This was in central Georgia; I recently moved to the Florida Panhandle and have no concrete on which to roll the dolly, so it's now living next to my well house, I drape a tarp over it and the well house when it's going to frost/freeze. So far the warmth from the well house, water tank, and heat lamp in the well house has kept it fine. I get literally 100+ lemons per crop off this tree now, and the tree itself is maybe 3 feet tall by around 4 feet across. It often has mature fruit (HUGE lemons often as big as a baseball!), green growing fruit, blooms, and buds at the same time. About every 3 years (it starts doing poorly when it needs it) I pull it out of its pot, shake all the soil out of its roots, repot in fresh citrus potting mix, and pray I didn't kill it! I do it when the tree has no fruit on it, because doing it while there are blooms or fruit causes it to drop the blooms and fruit. I also only prune as needed to control unwanted growth. I just nip a branch or bud occasionally, never a lot at once. I thin the lemons it sets. I wait till they are marble-sized, then remove any that are scarred or misshapen. Then I remove some if it has what I decide are too many in one spot, because leaving too many on the tree results in smaller fruit, and I like BIG lemons! I fertilize pretty haphazardly- usually I toss a handful of 10-10-10 on it when I'm fertilizing something else. I have used "citrus fertilizer" as well. Finally- I have accidentally left it out in the freezing cold, and the result was it dropped all the leaves the frost killed. It also dropped all the blooms it had and buds that were forming. However, I took better care of it the rest of the winter and in the spring everything grew back. Meyers can be tricky to get the hang of, but are totally worth it!! I have fresh lemons 9 months out of the year most of the time, thanks to its habit of setting successive crops of fruit throughout the year if it's happy.