Topic: Will I ever get a little lemon of my own?

[GardnerJ]

Hi all ::)
Just wondering (whilst sitting at my desk wishing i was anywhere else but work)...
how my Myer lemon tree was meant to be looking? It keeps flowering but never seems to keep any buds? they all fall off! will i ever get a lemon? Even a little lemon!
The books and gardening catalogues make it all sound so easy! ???

[Mrs Ava]

Have a feeling feed feed feed and humid.  Maybe barking up the wrong citrus tree, but I am sure I read somewhere that they should only be watered with rain water and they should be fed every watering!  :o

[Jesse]

I used to have a lemon tree in my conservatory and it did rather well for a few years until it got diseased and eventually died on me. I used to pollinate the flowers with a soft paintbrush as there were no insects indoors to do that for me. The smell from the blossoms was wonderful. I fed it with a citrus feed bought from the nusery. It was potted in well draining soil (a mix of sand and potting soil) and watered well about every fortnight during the summer. I got little lemons from it, just the right size to pop into a gin and tonic!  :D

[aquilegia]

I heard that you should wait until the lemon tree looks a bit dry, then leave it another week before watering.

I bought a lemon so I'd be able to try growing trees from the pips. Only it was the only lemon I've ever had that had no pips in it! ::)

[GardnerJ]

 ;D
thanks for your replys guys!
Pollinating hhhmmm.... i have many many little insects that fly and get stuck in my greenhouse so i was hoping they would do it for me? I will have a little go myself with a paintbrush though!?
I must admit i haven't fed it every week and i have left it i the pot it came in, do you think maybe i should pot it on into a bigger pot?
Jemma x :D

[Jesse]

If it's still in the original pot and has not been fed then that could mean it is starved and flowering due to stress but doesn't have the energy to turn the flowers into fruit. I would re-pot it into a fairly large sized pot with free draining soil and feed it lots and lots a little bit of pollinating with a paint brush wouldn't do any harm, it's worth a try. Like Aqui says, make sure the soil does not stay too damp. My MIL stayed with me for a while during one winter and "kindly" watered all my house plants for me everyday (she really was trying to help out whilst I was at work), needless to say it started looking very ill and eventually died.

[GardnerJ]

ooohhhh there is hope yet!
thank you all so much! i will of course let you all know if i get a lemon on my tree in the future!
P.s. do i have to put him inside over winter and if yes then what month should i do it?
Jemma x ;)

[aquilegia]

definitely inside over winter or the frost'll kill him. Where in the country are you? You need to take him in before the first frosts hit your area.

[GardnerJ]

live in windsor, Berkshire. When do you think i need to bring him in?
Jemma  :-[

[Jesse]

I live in West Sussex, not too far from Berkshire so assume weather conditions are fairly similar. I would bring it in by mid October but watch the weather forecasts incase there's an early frost. Although if it's in a greenhouse you might be okay to survive a couple of mild frosts.

[GardnerJ]

have to be honest here...it is a plastic zip up greenhouse! it is quite big though! :-[
i will still bring the little beggar in the house after i have potted it up and all that jazz! one last thing...do you need a special type of compost and how big do you reckon the pot needs to be?
jemma x :o

[Jesse]

My lemon tree was planted in a mixture of sand (to aid drainage) and bog standard potting soil, don't know if that is "correct" but it seemed happy enough and produced fruit. I think the most important thing is potting it in a medium that will prevent consistent dampness, heat and light in summer, and lots of food, and not to forget that the flowers need pollination either by bees or you! Now you've got me wanting to buy anothe lemon tree, my husband is not going to be happy, the first one cost us a fortune! Perhaps I'll try Aqui's approach and grow from seed, hopefully I'll get some seeds in my lemons!

Forgot to say, the pot I used was roughly 35cm diameter and 35cm height.