I ordered a Meyer Lemon from the Ty Ty nursery in GA back in 2002. It arrived as a bare root and was potted in a 5 gallon pot, I believe. It has done, and still is doing well for the most part. After having had the tree for about 2 1/2 years it was left outside in the hot summer sun for about a week without water and dried out. The apical growing tip died back about six inches, leaving only the lower established branches growing and flowering. Since that time what I now believe to be the root stock, after having read serval postings, has been sending out several new shoots. They are long and spindly. And again, after reading several posts, the leaves seem to be trifoliate in nature. I had initially cut back most of these new shoots because I didn't know what to make of them, seeing as they were markedly different from the growth that I knew to be the lemon tree. I did however allow one to grow and it has, over the last year and a half, grown to be about 3 1/2 feet tall. The bark is slowly changing from a green sapling look to a hardened bark look; it has a fare amount of 1-2" long thorns, doesn't produce any flowers, but the leaves do smell like lemon when pulled off. The lower portion of what I believe to be the graft has flowered every year in Feb. will hold fruit to maturaty, and occasionally puts on new lateral branches, but there has never been a "secodary" apical vertical growth.

My question now is should I cut that root stock growth back to the base, or should I let it grow in the hope that it is in fact a juvenile lemon and, one day way down the line, will bear fruit? I have all the patience in the world, and the flowering is more of what I am after, which the smaller graft part supplies in spades.

Also, I have suffered some leave drop from the small graft portion. The tree seems to only flower from those bud areas and never re-leaf. The only new leaves I get are those that come with new branches. Which isn't emtirly bad, but I only get about 2 new branches a year.

Just looking for some insight and brighter people than myself to shed some light on what I might do.