Overpruned Meyer Lemon Tree Not Fruiting for over 1 Year

13 years ago

Hello All! This is my first post, and I want to thank you ahead of time for sharing your hard earned knowledge and expertise. I live in San Francisco, and have a meyer lemon tree in the back yard. I have lived here for 8 years and the tree was here when I moved in. It produced dozens of small lemons almost year round, was very happy and productive. Then I got too productive, and ignorantly over pruned the poor thing. In the winter. Double bad, I know now. The tree was in shock, then came back and has many new leaves. Even a few blossoms as of a couple months ago. It has been over a year since the overpruning, and there is still not a single lemon on the tree. We gave it a strong fertilizer on the advice of someone in the plant store a few months after I pruned it, since it was in shock. Then we read that we shouldn't feed it so that it grows leaves quickly, so we waited and it did indeed grow many green leaves quickly in the spring and summer. Over 6 months later (about a month ago), I gave it a natural fertilizer but have not noticed any more growth in leaves and no blossoms. The rose bush next to it is blooming away, which may be bc of the lemon tree or may be because the neighbors recently redid their garden just on the other side of the fence and are using chemicals fertilizers which is making everything grow and look great. Everything except the lemon tree.

I really appreciate your help. We love that tree and I feel so terrible for harming it.

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Comments (6)

cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
13 years ago
Apply tincture of time.
johnmerr
13 years ago
Food, water, patience; you will get lemons again. If you want to be organic, look for Citrus Tone fertilizer; it is a bit pricey, but very good for Meyers. I would give it more than the label recommends and be sure to put it at the dripline of the tree.
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LemonSu
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the encouragement. Since I am a newbie, I didn't know this amount of time was normal for this situation. Johnmerr, thanks for the tip on Citrus Tone fertilizer. I will look for that. Would you give a higher dose and/or fertilize it more often? Any guess to the time frame before it makes lemons again? More than wanting the fruit, I want the tree to be healthy and happy. Also, I am a little in the dog house bc my husband really loves that tree and it did so well under his care.

Thanks again!
johnmerr
13 years ago
I feed my trees at the beginning of January, May, and September; I would do the same with Citrus Tone; but maybe at one and a half the recommended strength. I have found it nearly impossible to over-fertilize a Meyer in the garden.
hoosierquilt USDA 10A Sunset 23 Vista CA
13 years ago
I agree with John, and for my Meyer, which tends to sort of alternate bear (kind of - one regular year, one ridiculously heavy year), on my heavy years, I'll fertilize every 2 months. I cannot seem to over fertilize that tree. You can use a Jan/Feb May Sept rotation on regular years. And I also agree with John - I put about 50 to 100% more fertilizer per application on my Meyer than my other trees because it produces SO much fruit, that it really needs the additional fertilizer. I can't keep up with all the lemons it produces, I have to give a lot of them away, and we drink lemonade, I use it in cooking, in my ice water, make limoncello, Meyer lemon ice cream, etc. Tons of lemons, so just be patient, it's recovering and it will reward you with more lemons than you can use in a very short while if you feed it regularly.

Patty S.
Estella
4 years ago
Same thing happened to me in February of this year i feel so bad. i think i overpruned it! But a month later, it has a lot of healthy new leaves but i dont see any blossoms whatsoever

im curious, did your tree ever produce lemons again? Do i have hope of producing lemons and if so how long will it take?