Put the spider on your tree, it will eat pests, but if later you bring your tree indoors for cold protection, make sure it doesn't have spiders or other insects on it. I see spiders on my trees outside very often :)

Good for you, and good for your tree. Leave the spider alone, but then I think you already knew that. We get spiders in our greenhouses, even Black Widow spiders. We never kill spiders, not even the Black Widow, their too valuable as predators., Over the last 20 years never a single problem with them.

Bearss is lime not lemon

That's not what is referred to as a banana spider, but a very common Argiope aurantia, the black and yellow garden spider. It's sometimes called the writing spider. She is an orb weaver.....and can't be moved to your tree. Is she using branches as one of her anchor points?

Please read up on this beautiful spider and you will be fascinated. I assure you that they aren't in the least bit protective of citrus or any other plant and will not stray outside of their large web in order to hunt or attack. Extremely non aggressive. Toss crickets or moths into the web.

The spider typically known as a banana spider is Nephila clavipes, the enormous golden silk spider. They aren't aggressive, either.

P.S. There is also Bearss Lemon, melikee.

Thanks for the correction

I love those spiders except when they are someplace they shouldn't, like attached to my car door. lol. I watched one the other night and saw it absorb it's own web when I touched it.

Rodney, your bearss looks fantastic! I bought one from Harris this spring and can’t wait for it to start producing lemons.

Thank you all for your responses. I have small children, so I have not been able to get back to the Forum. Thank God for schools as I have free time now! I'm reading all your wonderful responses about the writer spider. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of it at the request of my wife. She is deathly afraid of spiders and I had to relocate it in order to save my marriage LOL! I did enjoy (with my sons) watching it for 2 weeks. I fed it a grasshopper and the next day it had a dragonfly in it's web and it was indeed fascinating to watch nature at work. As for the tree it is thriving!!! It has at least 7 lemons growing and about seven more blooms that are becoming lemons. I'm so excited about this tree it probably borders lunacy! It does have some leaves that have discoloration and some that have been eaten into by bugs, but overall it looks in good health. I have a stick down the middle of it is that okay? Otherwise it seems to lean if the stick is not there I even wonder about putting a taller stick in because of the curve of the top of the tree. I do notice that leaves fall off every now and then so I wonder if I'm watering it too much or not enough I have a gauge that says that the soil is moist so going off of that gauge it seems to be perfect. It gets probably 8 to 9 hours of direct sunlight. Anyway I'm so excited about this tree and thank you for this forum to talk about it as I've never had a tree like this before but it's always been a dream to own one as a part of being a homeowner. My mixed drinks cannot wait to taste the lemons! Haha

I have started putting stakes just along the inside edges of pots if trees need support rather than the center. I worry about damaging feeder roots. I also use pantyhose to tie the plant to the stake. I only keep the stake in the pot just long enough for the tree to be able to support itself.

For some reason it's not allowing me to post pictures. I have tried twice from my phone now to no avail. Will keep trying.

Rodney, I had trouble posting pictures earlier today also. Keep trying as I would love to see your trees beautiful lemons. I love your tree, I have a Bearrs Lemon from Harris that has set fruit but drops them. I am anxiously awaiting for the day that they hold and ripen to maturity. I will live through your beautiful pictures for now. Lol

Jinny, I forgot - how long have you had your tree? I got mine back in April and it’s going to be enormous!

Kelley, I have had it for 2 years. So it is three years old. It had scale on it this past winter so I treated it a few times with neem oil and I scrubbed each branch down so it dropped it's fruit. It currently has a few fruit hanging on but they are not growing so they will probably fall off sooner or later. This tree does not like cold temperatures at all and is probably more sensitive to drops in temperature more than other types of lemon. I wish I would have known that before I bought it... lol

Pac, I click on the photo icon on gw to upload photos from my phone. I never had a problem until this morning .

Thanks, Jinny! What temps will it withstand? I’ve left my lemon trees out to the high 30’s before and they’ve done fine. Maybe I should treat this one like a lime: nothing below 40

Mine came in the 4” citrapot, but it looks older than a year. Hopefully I’ll get some fruit next year :)

@Kelley_GA8a...after seeing your tree I worry a bit about mine. Your's has gorgeous color? How often do you feed and water it?

Kelley, I just noticed that your tree is branching out just like my Eureka. Did you pinch it to encourage the branching? If not, the FE is doing a great job!

I have a bottle of Foliage Pro sitting on my shelf for about a year now and I wonder if it'll go bad if not used within a certain amount of time. I really like the results of the fish emulsion and organic granular fertilizer I have been using. I guess I better use the Foliage Pro too just to get it off the shelf. I just got a new mandarin tree last week. I think I will use Foliage Pro on it exclusively to see how the growth compares with the NZL because they both are entry level trees. Too bad the growing season is almost over so I would not get a true comparison. :(

Rodney, teach your children to love the natural world like you do, not be afraid of it like your wife. Kids often learn those kinds of fears from the parents.