Since I just posted photos of my parents great grapefruit tree, I thought I'd photograph my own little lemon tree. Its a Myers lemon. It is about 8 years old now. Here in Massachusetts, I have it in a pot and bring it inside every winter and outside every spring. Two years ago it produced 3 beautiful lemons, but none last year. This year I am being very nice to it. I re-potted it this summer, and am trying hard to remember to water it now. I have one blossom now that seems to be setting fruit. Meyers lemons are awesome in martinis!
Here's a link to a photo of my tree and a lemon from it two years ago.
The Meyer lemon (Citrus × meyeri) is a citrus fruit, native to China, thought to be a cross between a true lemon and a mandarin orange or sweet orange. The Meyer lemon was introduced to the United States in 1908 as S.P.I. #23028, by the agricultural explorer Frank Meyer, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture who collected a sample of the plant on a trip to China. It is commonly grown in China potted as an ornamental plant. It became popular as a food item in the United States after being rediscovered by chefs. They’re sometimes smaller than a regular lemon, rounder in shape, with a thin, soft, and smooth rind which ranges from greenish when slightly immature to a rich yellow-orange when fully ripe. The rind lacks the typical lemon peel oil aroma and the pulp is darker yellow and less acidic than a regular lemon. The complex flavor and aroma hints of sweet lime, lemon and mandarin.(from Wikipedia and SplendidTable)
Topic: martini!
I've tried with lemons, they do fine in the Summer, but don't seem to do well indoors in Winter - always look sickly and leaves drop off. All I want is one lemon for my G&T on Christmas Day!
ReplyDeleteMy lemon tree has looked OK until last winter, when it lost most of its leaves. I had it in the same pot for many years and often clipped it back because I wanted it to stay small. This summer I gave in and repotted it. It took off very fast and grew all new leaves and is now beautiful. I never have ripe fruit at Christmas though. Usually mine blooms in the winter and fruit is ripe in the summer.
ReplyDeleteThe meyor lemon tree needs only watering sparingly in winter let it dry out before you add water.
ReplyDelete...through the year maintain it with citrus feed and keep moist not wet...keep in greenhouse or conservatory only put outside when warm and sunny this should keep it fruiting and healthy....this info mainly applies to Englands gardeners as we are not fortunate to have as much sun in our climate as our neighbours in some areas of the USA...well not for any sustained length of time !!
We get very good sun in the summer months here. I put the tree in a part sun area, but maybe I should try giving it a bit more sun. I have a nice lawn sprinkler system, so it gets regular watering. It usually likes the summer outside. I give it 5-10-5 fertilizer a few times in the summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that drying out is good in the winter. My tree certainly gets watered sparingly when inside. Its not one of those things I remember very often.