Yeah those are flower buds. Please don't remove them until they set fruit about the size of a nickel and then remove them if you don't want fruit. Your tree looks really tall, you can prune it to size. Those are definitely flowers tho...
Curling leaves could mean pest issues. Look closely at the leaves, look spider webs, or tiny mealy bugs. It could also mean water stress, like not enough water.

This post was edited by norwoodn on Mon, May 5, 14 at 10:57

Although I have no first hand knowledge, I am told that Meyer flowers indoors (not in direct sun) do not have the characteristic purple base.

Over the years there have been many similar questions on this forum. Nearly always the answer is the same.
Check whether you have a grafted tree, and check whether the unusual branch comes from below the graft point. If the answers are YES, then you are growing the rootstock instead of just the original variety.
In your case, the rogue branches with different buds certainly start low down, but the photos aren't looking at this area of the trunk so it's not possible to be certain.
Often Meyer's Lemon is not grafted but grown from cuttings. But I bet yours is a grafted plant and the rootstock is taking over!

Haha I bet Citrange is right! If you look at the photo on imgur, you can see a (potentially) huge rootstock with long thorns and the leaves are not lemon and that's where the green buds are from, and the other branch ONLY has purple buds on it!

So your tree is really tall due to the rootstock sucker. Prune it indeed if you can find a graft line.

I think you guys are right! I think I've got grapefruit or pomelo rootstock that's going nuts.

It's funny actually, because when I got the tree the first thing I did was look for the graft, and I thought I knew where it was. Now a couple of years later after not looking at it for a while (since no new low growth ever happened I stopped paying attention), the spot I thought was a graft has smoothed out a bit and I see a faint hint of what is probably the graft just above this particular branch. This branch existed when I got the tree, I swear...:grumble:...I'm gonna have to dig through my pictures, I'm sure I've got some from when I first got it, just to make myself feel better (or worse), haha. But then I probably would have noticed strange flowers last year so....

Google told me that grapefruit and pomelo rootstock is pretty common for lemons, so I looked for images of their buds, which look identical to what I've got. Now that you've pointed it out to me, I can tell the leaves are different, they're just similar enough that I never caught on.

So over half of the growth on my tree is rootstock. That's a problem. Since I had so much leaf drop on the actual lemon branches during the winter months, I'm worried about how much I should lop off of the rootstock branches now, and how much I should leave. There are some leaves on the lemon branches but not many. Maybe 90% of the foliage on the tree is rootstock. Bummer!

Thanks for your help guys and gals! And thanks for taking it easy on the obvious newbie. :)

Haha glad you figured it out, I was actually gonna say leaf looked like my grapefruit! Cut the sucker all the way back to the main stem as close as you can. Let your meyer set fruit and remove if you don't want any, then a new growth flush will happen and bring leaves hopefully. That's what mine did!

What is a bit unusual is that your rootstock is flowering. Most often rootstocks are seedlings and won't flower for many years even when allowed to grow freely.
So, if you want to help your lemon the most, then cut off this rootstock completely. But if you are curious to see the rootstock fruit, only cut it back to the flower buds and allow one fruit to develop. It probably won't taste very nice, but it'll be more interesting than just a lemon!

I'm not positive this branch is emanating from below the graft line. Mike is right to check it out, based on looking different that the rest of the tree, but you need to snap a photo of the trunk, around where this lower branch emanates, so we can see if your tree is grafted. It will not be grafted to pummelo or grapefruit rootstock. It will most likely be Macrophylla (what John Merr uses) or Yuma Ponderosa. It is incompatible (as most lemons are) with other rootstocks. But, water sprouts can look just like what you're seeing, so before you pull out your pruning shears, let's look at the trunk to make sure your tree is, indeed, grafted, and not grown from cuttings as many Meyer lemons are. Meyer lemons can display both pink tinged flower buds as well as pure white ones. I agree with Mike - that this branch is flowering makes me think it is NOT rootstock.

Patty S.

Blurg, I really wish I had just sat on this for another couple of days. I chopped off the suspect branch this morning. I'm still curious though, so I have additional evidence to submit.

Additional images are here: http://imgur.com/a/9avCc

The only spot that looks like it could be the graft is just below the lowest branches, there are angles from different sides.
I've also got pictures of the leaves and buds next to each other, and I popped open the biggest mystery bud and put it next to a lemon bud that had just started to open (I may have encouraged it a bit). If they're at different stages of development it probably isn't the best comparison but the stigmata look a lot different don't they?

When I cut the branch, it did smell lemon-y, like pine-sol (my first uh-oh moment).
None of the lemon branches have spikes anywhere near as impressive as the rogue branch, they're maybe .5-1cm on the lemon branches and sparse vs. 3-4 cm on the rogue branches and all over.
I can't tell any difference in the petioles on the leaves, neither have obvious wings like some other citrus.

If the branch were actually a water shoot, how much damage would I have done to the tree by chopping it entirely?

Here's something that might be conclusively helpful.

I was mistaken. I did not get this tree from Stark Bros (whom I called a little bit ago, they said their Meyers aren't grafted so I was back to worrying I'd made a huge mistake).

After digging through my email, I realized I got it from Four Winds Growers because Stark Bros was out of stock, so it's an improved Meyer dwarf. Their website says: "Our premiere dwarf citrus are grafts, not self-rooted cuttings."

Whew! All right. Clearly not living up to my username over here.

That picture is without a doubt the graft. So hopefully suspect branch grew below that!

Yep it sure did. I chopped the sucker off, fertilized the tree, gave it a good drink, left it in the shade to drain and start getting used to being outside like a normal tree again, and apologized to it about a billion times.

My tree is doing well but it has tiny lemons that are yellow instead of green , it also has some green ones what’s wrong?

more pics dontpanic

bklyn citrus - "dont.panic" started the thread 4 years ago so not sure if that poster is around/monitoring this anymore. The thread was bumped by another poster asking about a baby meyer lemon fruit that had yellowed.

And I would agree with Alanna that fruits that are about to drop often suddenly turn yellow or brown and then fall off (although they can fall off while green too).

Thank you so much I have wanted tree and finally bought one this is established tree has many blooms