Good job! Could you post a foto of the trees? Judging solely from the appearance of the fruit, I would be concerned that your trees are somewhat under fed; but that is only educated speculation. How old are your trees; and on what rootstock? I am always interested in the success of others in producing Meyers.

That's a lot of lemons! What are you going to do with all of them? I planted my small tree a year ago. It produced 8 lemons this year. How long can they stay on the tree once they turn yellow? I've only harvested a couple.

Natal, your tree looks good; needs food. You can leave the fruit on the tree until March; I would harvest it now. It is mature and ready to eat; and if you leave it, it will reduce the growth of the tree and the size of the next crop. My advice... harvest the fruit, give it a good shot of balanced citrus food and water; it should give you a primary bloom in January/February and another larger crop to harvest this time next year. BTW, if you want good advice and want to learn a little, visit the citrus forum; there are lots of very smart people there, especially for Meyers.

John, I'm in the process of reorganizing my photos since I have thousands of them, literally - give me a week or so and I'll try to post something.

My oldest Meyer is a bush that sprouted from a seedling from a neighbor's Improved Meyer. Meyers must be so low in fertility as to almost be sterile - neighbor never picked her Meyers, hundreds of lemons just fell off over the years and rotted away, but this is the sole seedling that sprouted and survived. It's now 17 years old and about 7x9'.

We purchased two Meyers on dwarf rootstock from 5-gall cans. They were put in the ground in 2003, and are around 6x6' now.

John, I'll be harvesting them within the next month. I fertilized end of January and mid-May this year.

Didn't know there was a citrus forum. Thanks for mentioning it!

Natal,
I would add a third fertilizing in September; twice per year is not enough; as the tree gets 85% of its food from the first 18 inches of soil. The somewhat sparse look of your tree is testimony that it has put all its energy into the fruit and has little left for growth. Because the tree produces lemons on new growth, you will likely have a smaller crop next year. A good shot of food now will help.

natal, color isn't always a reliable 'tell' for picking. Meyers are not like Eureka/Lisbons; if they are too ripe they will simply fall off and rot on the ground. They will start turning to an orange-ish color as they get really ripe and the skin softens up considerably. Even refrigerated they won't keep long at that point.

Give a gentle tug with a little twist upwards. A ripe lemon comes right off - not with a 'snap', more like a 'click' - hard to describe but once you do a couple you'll understand.

John, here's some photos. I'm one-third the way through organizing my photos and decided it was easier to take new photos of the trees rather than search endlessly, LOL!

Temps are hovering near the freezing point at night lately, so the leaves are pretty curled up (I took these just as the sun came up; it's in the low 40's right now). I feed my citrus with citrus fertilizer quite heavily during growing season - once a month - also after the first flush of lemons, so around end of January. They also get buckets of diluted liquid kelp mixed with liquid iron (that's what causes the residue spots on some of the leaf photos) every other month or so. Occasionally I toss some humic acid and greensand or alfalfa meal around the beds, too. The trees have to put up with a lot of competition from other plants and so they're always hungry.

I judge how hungry my citrus are by the color of the new leaves. If they come out red and open dark green, everything's fine. If they're pale green, they're in need of food. In the winter everything slows down; no new leaves coming out right now. The difference between daytime vs nighttime temps is always at least 20 degrees and sometimes as high as 40 degrees of swing, all year long. Frost days average 7-10/yr here. Four years ago we had a terrible two week period of below-freezing January temps that even killed one of my Japanese maples, but the Meyers hung on although the harvest was considerably affected.

The oldest gets chlorotic easily, as it's in old clayish dirt as opposed to the rich compost the two trees started with. It's also in a terrible spot: mostly shaded by the storage shed, in an area where it has to live on runoff because I can't get the hose over to it during our bone-dry summers. Despite this, it flourishes....go figure!

The oldest Meyer, a bush and most definitely not a tree, as some have suggested:
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Closeup of the leaves:
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One of the trees - yes, there is actually a trunk there, nice and straight and getting thicker by the year. This one produces extremely well as it gets the most sun:
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Closeup of Tree #1 leaves:
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Tree #2 is in the backyard and doesn't get as much sun as #1. I didn't stake it properly as it grew which was a mistake. Three months ago I had to pruned off a good-sized hunk of it on the RH side because it was leaning way over and starting to intrude on the pathway:
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Tree #2 leaf closeup:
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Jkom, color may not be a reliable indicator, but for someone who's new to growing them it's safe, lol. A neighbor a few houses down picks his when they're still pretty green. Not good.

I just tried the tug and twist on 3 of them and none let go. I cut off the one I twisted the most. Skin is still firm. I know what the soft ones feel like.

John, the LSU Ag Center recommendation for Louisiana citrus says to avoid fertilizing after the end of June. "Late fertilization will encourage vigorous growth, delay fruit maturity and decrease the cold hardiness of the tree."

Where are you located?

I doubt LSU has much experience with Meyer lemons.
For harvest, if you cut the fruit leaving a small piece of stem as opposed to pulling it off, it will last lots longer off the tree.
Meyers will withstand as low as 26 F for a brief time without damage.
My Meyer farm is in Guatemala; 8,000 trees now and 8,000 more in production for planting May of 2012.

LSU has a large agriculture school. Citrus is grown commerically in the southern parishes.

Here in Baton Rouge it's not unusual for us to have hard freezes below 26 degrees, so that is a real concern. When we first bought our house in '81 we had a hard winter with temps in the teens and single digits. We lost 3 mature satsuma trees that winter.

Good to know about the harvest method. That's the way we harvested the dozen satsumas from our year old tree this season. I picked up some sweet kumquats yesterday at the market and practically every one was split open at the top where they had been pulled off the tree. :(

jkom,
Excellent color of the trees; you seem to be doing the right things. You should post these on the citrus forum; a lot of Meyer fans would be jealous of your success. As for the lopsided growth and need for pruning, generally the roots grow in the direction where they get the most food and water; then the limbs follow. The best way to balance a tree is to increase fert and water on the side where you want it to grow. Alternatively you can prune for shape anytime; but don't prune it up so the sun hits the trunk; it can sunburn the trunk and kill the tree.

My mouth is watering looking at these pictures :). Nothing better then a fresh flavorful fragrant juicy lemon! Enjoy!

Natal, sorry that one of your original questions went unanswered - I didn't notice until I was rereading this thread (which is why I do it, lots of times we get a little distracted in our discussions and a few things 'fall by the wayside'.

Realistically we should have just kept with one Meyer, since there's only two of us, and where we live it seems like everybody has a citrus tree of some sort. The area we live in is urban now, but right up to WWII was pretty much a semi-rural, second-home area punctuated by a small group of wealthy families who owned good-sized estates. Glimpses of streams and remnants of old orchards can still be found all over despite the lots being carved up over time into the usual CA 1/6 acre-sized plot.

Getting rid of the excess Meyers wasn't a problem when I worked in San Francisco. If I put out a bowl of Meyers in the common kitchen, they disappeared within minutes! Most SF residents don't have gardens so even though it would be citrus heaven (they have zero frost days!) hardly anyone has any fruit trees.

Now that I'm retired, though, and the trees are producing more heavily - in a good year I can get 75+ lbs. from just our oldest - I'm reduced to giving them away to friends because even my family can't use them all.

Meyers, being less acidic, are exchangeable for most, but not all, standard lemon recipes. The ones I keep, I juice, add some peel (which extracts some of the oil), and freeze in small containers that hold about 1/2 cup each.

Lemonade, chicken piccata, lemon bars, lemon sponge pudding cake (our favorite), lemon curd, and lemon butter for any seafood dish, is usually what we do with the Meyer juice. A splash will perk up any bean dish, BTW. My DH doesn't like any vinaigrette dressing now unless it's made with Meyer lemon juice.

The following is a very old recipe - easy to make, and one of the best ways to use Meyer juice. Using more lemon juice makes the sauce more tart, but won't affect the cake. We don't like super-sweet desserts, and the Meyer fragrance really makes a difference in this one:

Lemon Sponge Pudding Cake
This is a lovely light dessert. All the ingredients are mixed in one bowl, but something magic happens in the oven: The batter separates into two layers, a creamy lemon pudding on the bottom, a light sponge cake on top. If you want to make a double recipe, it does NOT double when baking. Make a double recipe, but divide into two 1-qt stainless steel bowls or souffl� dishes when baking.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 Tblsp all-purpose flour
1/3 to 1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice or 3 Tbls grocery store lemon juice
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
Heavy whipped cream, lightly sweetened, whipped only until soft peaks form

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter (or spray with a canola cooking spray) a 1-quart baking dish or stainless steel mixing bowl. Get out a slightly larger pan, at least 2 inches deep, that will hold the pan(s) comfortably.

Combine sugar, salt and flour in a mixing bowl; stir to blend. Add the beaten egg yolks with the milk. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir until thoroughly blended.

Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff but not dry. Fold the beaten egg whites into the lemon mixture. Pour into the prepared baking dish.

Set the dish in the larger pan and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and just begins to crack. Remove from the oven, and take out of the water. Cool on a rack.

Serve lukewarm or chilled, topped with whipped cream.
Serves 4

It's funny you mentioned the vinaigrette. I use lemon juice in my Sensation salad dressing, but it's always vinegar in any other. Saw on a recent cooking show where the salad was dressed with olive oil and Meyer lemon juice. I'm going to have to try that.

And your pudding cake recipe reminded me of my not-so-pretty attempt to make it last year. My recipe was similar, but I used ramekins. Even took a picture. It tasted good, but I didn't do something right as you can see.

Here is a link that might be useful: this is what it was supposed to look like

Actually, the recipe I gave comes out quite differently. You'll see a cake top (it usually splits in the center, but not always). It's meant to be spooned out, as there's a modest layer of creamy lemon custard on the bottom of the baking dish. It does not unmold; the cake is so tender it would simply fall apart if you tried.

The pouf of whipped cream adds the necessary richness and a touch of sweetness since, as I mentioned, we don't like sweet desserts and so the sugar is kept to a minimum. If you like sweet desserts, taste the batter before adding the beaten egg whites; you can add up to another 1/2 cup of sugar if need be.

If you wanted to make it look fancy, a glaceed lemon slice or a curlicue of candied peel would be a very pretty touch - but in our house a bowl of this doesn't last long enough for appearances to matter, LOL.

I feel about this recipe (I've seen many variations) the same as I do about baked custard. Anything firm enough to unmold actually detracts from making it as tender and light as possible. But YMMV!

Bottom line... once you know the Meyer lemon, no other lemon will ever be good enough for you.

You guys should visit the citrus forum; there are lots of people there and lots of gurus too, who are huge Meyer fans.

I am a regular visitor to the citrus forum; and only found the cottage garden by a cross post of this original thread.

Whenever I see Meyer lemons for sale in a local market - that is what goes into my shopping basket! They are so aromatic, flavorful, delicious - I can eat them as an orange, no sugar added. Had a pleasure growing them in containers few years back (They need to be taken indoors in Georgia for the winter).
What a fabulous fruit!

I agree the Meyer is great, but I'm content with other lemons when it's not available.

Other varieties are good too. I was surprised when we first got to know our neighbors, and I picked some of her Eureka lemons. It's a mature tree and the lemons are there almost year-round. They have the same taste as supermarket lemons, but they were not only incredibly juicy, but virtually seed-free!

There's another variety that grows around here and I've forgotten the name. The lemons get very large, are very round, and have an extremely thick peel with pale flesh. Not as juicy as the Meyers or Eurekas, and about halfway in acidity between the two. A relative has one of these trees in her yard, and every once in a while we trade lemons.

Being a real city rat (I was born and raised in Chicago rental apartments, so gardening was something I didn't discover until I was 50 and living in the SF Bay Area), it was very startling to me to discover that Meyer lemons turn quite orange when superripe, but Bearss Limes turn pale yellow when ripe. I was only familiar with grocery store varieties; e.g., lemons are yellow and limes are green. But not when you're growing home varieties, I discovered!

In the American language (US English) it is simple, yellow is lemon, green is lime. In Spanish they are all lemons (limon). IMHO the Bearss lime is a very poor fruit UNTIL it gets ripe (turns yellow; then it has a nice flavor and actually has some juice. The "other" lemon you have in California is the Lisbon; in my opinion a bit better than the Eureka. They are both part of the ELB base lemons so widely traded and known in the world, Eureka, Lisbon, and Berna (the primary lemon produced in Spain). There are two other important yellow lemons, the Villafranca from Italy and the Gevova from Chile, which is sometimes found in California markets. All of the 5 are fungible; i.e., the consumer cannot or does not differentiate among them; and they all sell for about the same price. Where they exist side by side in the same market, the Meyer typically sells at 2-3 times the ELB price. My ultimate goal is to put the Meyer side by side with the ELBs in all the major markets of the world.. it will do to the Eurekas what the fuji apple did to red delicious or the flame seedless grape did to the Thompson seedless, both of which had dominated their markets for 100 years.

jkom,

The photos of your mature Meyer trees/shrubs are very inspiring. Thank you for posting them as well as your recipes above!

I recently (within the last couple years) became bitten by the citrus bug and planted 3 dwarf in-ground Meyers and a Trovita orange in SF myself. They seem to be doing well, but I am running into a bit of leafroller caterpillar issue (I suspect they may be light brown apple moth caterpillars actually) and I'm wondering if you've run across the same problem on your Meyers since they seem to be pervasive and getting worse here in the Bay Area [I've posed this question on the Citrus Forum, but haven't had much success on local experience].

Also, can you please elaborate a little more on your watering schedule [your fertilizing frequency makes sense to me], particularly during this very dry winter. I understand your trees are more mature than mine and (as I suspect you're just over the bridge from me), you may have slightly more rains in your microclimate than I, but I'd love to get your local advice on watering. Just to give you a sense of my watering regimen/goal, this winter I'm watering each tree with about 5 gal every 2 weeks. As the growing season commences, I'm planning to continue with my 5gal/2weeks this year. In following years, with the hope of saving water, I'm hoping that I can decrease watering frequency further to once every 3 or 4 weeks - do you have any insight on this for your trees? Thanks for any help you can give. --- Tim

TimSF: I'm so sorry I can't help you with the leafroller/apple moth problem, haven't encountered that yet. I will keep an eye out for it going forward, though.

Watering: We get much less rain than the Santa Cruz or North Bay gets, being 25 miles inland. We stop just short of the hills that divide Alameda Cty from Contra Costa Cty, so are on the very edge of the SF fog belt.

Watering will be dependent upon your soil. We have disgusting, slick, greasy, gray adobe clay soil up here. I had the top 8" removed in 2002 and top quality compost put in. The plants have slowly "eaten it up" but mulching and topical soil amendments have helped keep the clay from taking over again. The soil's getting heavy, but isn't as bad as it was - and with the clay base, when it gets wet, it holds water very well for deep-rooted plants.

I think a lot of SF neighborhoods have a sand base, which is lovely for drainage but thin on nutrients.

I use soaker hoses for the majority of my beds (we have 15 separate beds spread out over 1/6 acre). But the two Meyer trees are watered just by leaving a regular hose on for about an hour at a time. Not a strong spray, but with a soaker attachment I'm pretty sure that's more than 5 gallons at a time.

Frequency depends on the weather. Hot weather demands every 2 weeks; cool summer weather can stretch that out to about a month between waterings. Winter: every 4-6 weeks if we don't receive sufficient regular rain.

The oldest Meyer bush lives almost entirely on runoff. It sprang up in a very inconvenient spot, and it's not a lot of fun to drag 3 gallon buckets full of water over. I will do it every few months (one bucket at a time) to foliar feed liquid iron and kelp mixed together.

Again, I mulch everything, usually with cocoa hulls. It costs about $20/month in the summer to water the entire garden, which totals about 2100 sq. ft. of cottage garden beds. That is water cost, not elevation charges or any of the extras EBMUD is so fond of adding to the bills, LOL.

I think the dwarf trees have different lemons from the full size trees. I don't think the lemons the dwarf tree makes are as good. The lemons won't turn orange and the rind is too thick. They are hard to squeeze. Maybe the tree is too young? I have seen other meyers around here, full sized that do turn orange. If they don't turn somewhat orange can they be consided ready to pick? I left them on a long long time. They won't turn orange, but looked a bit old inside. The tree is three years old. Will it get better?

Tropical.. doesn't sound like a Meyer to me; can you post some photos?

I'm looking for recipes for meyer lemons but see a lot of extra stuff in these forums.

Can anyone direct me to a website or place with just meyer lemon recipes?

Thanks

Tracy