Thank you everyone for the questions and advice!! Both trees are in my backyard, not in containers but in this I would call a raised bed?! The previous owner loves gardening so I think the orange tree probably got quite a few years in it while the lemon looks pretty young to me. Since I took over a year or two ago, I fertilized about twice a year with those MiracleGrow sticks for citrus. The trees receive a lot of pine needles from several huge pine trees on a slope behind the orange tree, however, I have not tested the soil PH. I'm in zone 10 and my yard unfortunately is facing northwest which I believe resulted in less sunlight and colder temperature in the winter. Below I've posted some pics of the trees: Here is a link that might be useful: Meyer and Lemon Trees

Just a thought, Johnmerr, You might not be interested in that "sport", but others might be and if you don't want to work with it, maybe you could let someone else do the graft. How exciting it is that this has happened to your tree. Mark the branch so you'll know which one it is in case you decide to allow someone else to study this "sport." I've heard that Meyers make delicious lemonade and I've used them in seafood dishes and loved the lemon flavor of it better than regular lemons. I have a young Improved Meyer tree. Vivian

Patty, my interest is not in an argument, so I will make one further comment and then yield to your expertise. I agree with and enjoy most of your postings, I just do not agree with this one... You recommended that the original poster: quote: "Set the little ant bait traps in your pot, and on the ground around your pot. The ants will take the bait back to their nest (which is in your pot) and will die." The entire amount of the miniscule amount (that has the ability to wipe out a nest, so say you), if laying on the surface of the soil in the container, has the potential to enter the soil. I have never read anything written by Vince Lazaneo, and doing a brief search on the subject with his name and the issue of using ant bait in and around container citrus, I came up empty. Certainly not an exhaustive search, but I would be interested in reading it if you have the reference or a link to the article. Looking at the boron concentrations in fertilizers with minors and in liquid minor additives, I note that the rate of boron is miniscule before dilution. Miniscule before dilution is indeed extremely miniscule after proper dilution. I will end with saying that my caution still stands, and I would not recommend it. I would say especially with a young seedling, however that might imply that my recommendation would be lax for anything more mature, which is not the case. My assumption is that the original poster, who cares enough for this little seedling to seek advice from this forum, wants to save this little tree from ants. I am sure that he/she does not want to risk killing it with the cure. Barb

Looks to me like some kind of lichen. (Google 'red lichen'.) Is that stem carrying healthy growth higher up? Generally looks a strange colour as if it might be dying back. I guess a lichen or fungus would be more likely to colonize dead wood.