Meyer lemon trees...??

Anyone growing meyer lemons? I brought my two meyer lemons in for the winter and they lost all their leaves. There appears to be some new blossoms trying to come out -- but goodness...these trees sure don't look very healthy.

I'm trying to find a source to buy some new meyer lemons trees. Being in Texas I can't order from nurseries in FL or CA. I've ordered a couple of meyer lemons from Acorn Springs -- a TX nursery -- as a gift for my brother but it appears they've gone out of business..??...

Any recommendations are appreciated.

Jann

I brought mine in for the big freeze in January with the exact same results. It lost all the leaves and it looks like tiny bloom buds on the branch tips. No leaves yet but the stems are all green. I have one in the ground that looks the same and so does my neighbor. They're obviously still alive so I hope to see leaf buds soon. I also brought in a satsuma and it didn't lose any leaves. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Yea... I know. Wierd. It wasn't what I was expecting to have all the leaves fall off.

Hopefully after it warms up a bit and I move them back outside they'll recover.

My Meyer lemon tree has been in the ground for eight years and has produced well in the past but looks very sad now. Ditto my orange and kumquat trees. They usually bloom in December and have forming fruits by now but there won't be any crops this season! The 12-year old orange is quite large and didn't lose all its leaves. Some branches are putting out tiny new leaves but some branches are dead. The trees have survived heavy frosts in the past - one year we had 3 nights in a row at 19 degrees - and then went on to produce. I think they came into this bloom period severely stressed by the drought last summer. I watered as much as I could but the restrictions were strict.

Surprisingly my fig trees are leafing out nicely all the way to the ends of the branches. In some past winters the branch ends have freeze-burned but still two crops were produced each season.

Editing to add:

I've not ordered from this source but it looks interesting:

http://www.citrustreesonline.com/

This message was edited Mar 24, 2010 1:30 PM

Hey Yuska....

Can you figure out HOW you order from that site ?? I've been clicking around and can't find how you place an order.

How odd! I hadn't looked for an order form....... I wonder if this URL may actually be a cluster of companies. I'll try contacting TAMU-Kingsville/Weslaco -

http://kcc-weslaco.tamu.edu/About_Us/Contact_Us.html

to try for better information.

All my citrus except for an orange look worst than pitiful. However, I think they will all recover, yours and mine. Give them a little more time. Having said it, I understand how hard is to look at that uglyness. usually by this time we're enjoying the delicious aroma of citrus blossoms....

Regarding that citrustreesonline site. it is a circuitous trip before you get to the order form. You eventually get to the order form, only to discover the don't ship to Texas.


This message was edited Mar 25, 2010 12:41 PM

OK -- I found a couple of Meyer Lemons at my local feed store. They're really more established than what mine were -- paid a lot for them but I really wanted to get some GOOD ones. I see on their tag that they're from the Bob Wells Nursery in Lindale, TX. http://www.bobwellsnursery.com/

You can get Meyers Lemon and the much more cold hardy Miho and Seto Satsumas at Lowes and Home Depot for about 20-30 bucks a tree.

Look for "improved" meyer lemons. They are now legal to import into AZ, and I assume TX because they don't carry the dreaded citrus diseases. You should be able to get one at HD. They will look pretty nasty sometimes in the winter, but don't fret. You planted at a bad time because they couldn't get established before winter, normally you'd be okay, but we had a wet winter this year, and citrus does not like wet roots.Be patient. Now that I'm getting into the high 70's mine has come to life and has huge, fat buds.

This message was edited Apr 17, 2010 2:41 PM

I cover my meyer lemon in Xmas lights and drape a tarp over the whole tree for cold spells. Im sure you get a good bit colder than me but its worth a try especially if you have small trees.

Hey Heavinscent....

I've heard about using Christmas lights....are they the small mini lights or the BIG ones....?... (ie; C5's ???)

These new [Improved] Myer Lemon trees that I bought are pretty big so I won't be able to bring them inside next winter. I'm planning on transplanting them to a larger container [like a redwood box] on wheels...keeping them on our backyard driveway...and then wheeling them into the garage for cold days. However, if the Christmas lights work.... I'll do that instead.

Where I live on the coast of SC Meyers lemons are common to find in big box stores and local nurseries. I don't know why they would be hard to find in TX.
I think SC growers can ship to TX. Here a few cold hardy citrus sites. Those sites will give you a good idea what's cold hardy.
http://www.plantfolks.com/index.html
http://www.mckenzie-farms.com/favorite.htm

I grow 5 different varieties of citrus in the ground and all have done well enough. I had many nights in a row in the mid 20's and a few in the lower 20's. Even had the first snow fall in the last 20 twenty years. LOL. Mine are on dwarf root stock and have been in the ground for 3 years now biggest one is about 8 ft by 6 ft. I did nothing to protect them this year at all since I figured they were big enough to live through the cold. I was right apparently.

Regardless of place of origin, no importation of citrus is allowed in Texas. We can only purchase from sellers in the state, but box stores carry the more common varieties. So an Improved Meyer Lemon shouldn't be all that difficult to buy.

I saw about 20 at Lowes in San Marcos two days ago.

I have my Meyer lemon (which I got from Lowe's year before last) planted in a big pot on my patio. I brought it in during the times the temperature got down to freezing. My crazy lemon had blooms on it in Jan and Feb. and has a couple of large lemons ripening from then. Then in the spring it got another flush of blooms and has about 20 small green lemons on it right now. It never lost a lot of leaves.

On the other hand I have an Owari satsuma which also bloomed in the spring and had several small fruit on it. Last month it just dropped all those fruit. It did the same thing last year. Does anyone know what could be wrong and why it is doing this?

All citrus drop some or all of the immature fruit. They will retain only as many as they can sustain. Last year I had about 80 set on and ended up with 6 mature lemons. As the tree ages it can support more fruit. Just don't let the roots stay wet.