The Meyer, 6-8 fruit. The navel will self thin, it's still very small, if it holds onto any fruit I'd remove them and let it grow another season before letting it try to bear fruit. Just my .02

Evan

Oh no Laura will you be able to sacrifice that many lemons??? I am completely unable to do the smart thing and sacrifice fruit to let my trees grow :).

Great looking tree! And kid!

Most of the time the choice is made for me by Mother Nature. I hate pulling fruit as well, but once my temps hit about 100-105, which will be in the next few weeks, my smaller trees start shedding fruit like its the thing to do in order to survive my vicious desert heat.

Evan

Yes that would be brutal to see everything drop but at least you get a decent amount that makes it. The highlight of my citrus growing last year was 3 limes!

Getting the plants to maximize their potential would include growing them in a choice spot in the ground in 100% Sunlight, having consistently moist soil mix, and fertilizing systematically with "good" fuel. And....letting them spend all their time growing up instead of using much of their growing-up potential to grow fruit......rather than to develop size. Do you want a BIG tree SOONER that can make lots of full size fruit? It's similar to helping a precious daughter to reach their potential through wise planning. Do you want to provide the optimal meals, rest, exercise, training, etc., etc. needed for the daughter to reach their maximum potential SOONER....or because you want to benefit from the youngster's productivity NOW as a youngster skip some of the necessary upbringing necessities and instead send them out to earn money working wherever they can to earn small $ for you to enjoy ? For me, I prefer postponing fruiting on young trees for several years to give them a chance to get bigger sooner. I can always buy some fruit to enjoy while waiting. In my case, I removed all the tiny navel oranges from 2 trees here for several years because I wanted them to get bigger/thicker/more cold hardy SOONER. I did not want them to grow slow by letting them use up too much energy trying to make any fruit at all for me to indulge in. Some pleasures are best postponed to a better time in the future. These 2 trees both had their first 2 crops of wonderful oranges this Winter, and the deferred enjoyment was VERY much worth it. They are big enough to make fruit every year from now on. N-33 navel oranges. Perfect fruit. Great place there. And great youngster.

Thanks guys (and gals ;-). I thought the navel was too small and don't mind taking the fruits off. My Meyer, however, I thought was pretty robust...although perhaps not. About 1.5 years ago, it yielded about 3 dozen huge juicy lemons. They were wonderful. This year, it appears on track to produce even more. I do water and fertilize it well. It is also in a very sunny location for about 8-9 months of the year. When indoors, it does get lots of light, though not as much as outdoors. It started with probably 100 lemons and has self thinned down to those 30 or so. It's just that now I saw all the blooms and it looks ready to explode! I guess I will thin those out some, but I'm not sure I can leave only 7....;-). Hobby, I know what you mean, those lemons are the highlight of my winter. I have made the most delicious lemon bars with them! I made some recently with Meyers from the store and it was not the same. I think I could taste the wax from the zest...still good, but not even close!!!

Copingwithclay....your analogy hit home. Thanks about the youngster. She gives the lemon trees regular hugs :-)