Thanks for your answer! Ugli (or tangelo) is getting close, especially by look, my fruit ins question's skin is thicker and even more gnarled though. The flesh is clearly lemon flavored(a milder watered down version), without tangerine or pomelo flavors, and deffinitely not sweet....Just got done picking- that one little tree gave over 200 lbs. this year.I do have pictures, just didn't know how to post...I can email- TX!

rhizo is correct in his thinking that the present container is more than big enough. When you first planted the tree in the whiskey barrel I assume that the potting soil you used filled the barrel to the top. Looking at the pictures, the soil has now compacted down four or five inches. As container soil degrades it compacts, and as it compacts the soil greatly loses porosity, thus the available soil oxygen becomes drastically reduced, and then many problem will begin to show. Miracle Grow potting soil is famous for compaction. Presently your tree looks healthy enough, but you need to keep an eye on it in the coming year. As far as the blooms and young fruitlets falling from the tree that is completely normal. A small tree the size of your lemon, usually only retain very few fruits. Only 2 - 5 percent of the blooms a citrus tree produces will ever become fruit, and then only 2-3 percent of the new fruit will ever remain on the tree to become mature. I don't think there is anything presently wrong with your tree.

You're welcome Tracy. LOL, yes it is information overload but you can try using the search box and include pot or potted in your search. Sometimes I have better luck using a Google search and including "Gardenweb" in the search. Your tree in the photo does not look overwatered. The main sign of overwatering is yellowing leaves that drop. Our lemon lives outside on a deck where it gets automatically sprinkled each morning and it does not develop yellow leaves out there. Of course I am in an extremely dry climate. My overwatering problems have all been when the tree is inside for the winter. I hope I have finally learned not to water it too much in the house. My tree is in a much too large self watering pot. That's another thing I learned from reading on the net. I should have left it in the two gallon nursery pot for probably the first two years before increasing the pot size. Another major tip that I got , I think from dcarch, was to use a daylight corrected LARGE CFL bulb for additional light in the house. This is a much cheaper solution than a grow light. I got mine on Amazon and have it in an ordinary clamp light fixture without the reflector. Even though it is covered by shades, it is pretty bright from the outside of our house at night and Max feels it is offensive from the street. I don't think I could get another one for the other side of the tree without a major argument so I rotate the tree, which is on a wheeled stand, every couple of days. Mine is in an East facing window and doesn't get enough natural light. I'll take a couple of photos later in the day of the tree and the food I have been the most successful with. Lee

Im curious on how to get this to produce more branches ==>> with trees we talk in tree time .. which is counted in decades ... how about you relax.. and see if you can grow it indoors for a year or two... before you worry about more branches ... get the roots established.. learn how to water a tree properly .. indoors.. and give it a year or two to start branching .... trees are pretty good about taking care of themselves.. if we dont love them too much.. or kill them with too much love .... why are you interested in the graft??? ... im also wondering about that 45 degree bend.. and the wound or bud just below such in the last pic ... that is where the graft would be.. if it isnt rooted ... but if it was rooted.. why the bend??? ken btw: did you repot it.. what did you use for media... did you adjust it to tree needs.. or do you have a heavy water perennial/houseplant mix???