Thanks for that thread Suzabanana on Meyer lemon care. I'll spend some time perusing it.

My small sour fruit was shaped like a clematine, but smaller and sour, so not a kumquat I'm afraid..

Hi NHBabs,

I have an 8 year old lemon tree(believe it's a seedling or rootstock, never flowered/fruited), a couple 2 year old satsuma trees, and a small meyer lemon that I rescued from near death. None of them are dwarf, but citrus are relatively small and I keep them in check by pruning. My father also has a lime tree that regularly produces edible fruit. The excellent advice I got at the citrus forum here is what initially brought me to the pre-houzz garden web site. You should check out that forum because there are several other northern citrus growers, and a ton of folks from the natural range.

If you're sure it's not a kumquat, you probably had a calamondin. It's similar to a small sour mandarine orange, though like kumquats the peel is supposedly sweet.

Basic rules for growing citrus indoors based on my experiences:

1. They hate wet roots, fast draining mix is best. 511 mix or gritty mix does well for many. I just use a fast draining potting soil heavily amended with pine bark fines(actually reptile bedding from the pet store).

2. They like fertilizer. The best NPK ration for citrus is 9-3-6, Dyna-grow Foliage Pro is the go to recommendation but any fertilizer with a similar profile will work. Non-organic is best for potted. Since the potting mix drains quickly it's usually best to follow the fertilizer's instructions for feeding at every watering.

3. You don't have to baby them too much in the cold weather, I usually bring them in when the temp drops below 40F. However, they're generally fine down to 35F. Some varieties can go even lower but why risk it. My Satsumas have gone down to the upper 20's in a unheated porch with zero damage.

4. The transition from indoors to full sun needs to be done extremely gradually or they'll drop all their leaves. Meyers are notorious for this. I move them out to a fully shaded location for 2 weeks, gradually move them to semi shade over 2 weeks, only then do I put them in full sun but watch them for signs of sunburn or stress. The exact reverse process is used in the fall. You can experiment with a quicker schedule, but I once gave my lemon a sunburn and the growth was stunted for half of my short growing season. If you don't have much leaf cover, paint the trunk with a 50/50 mix of water and interior white paint to prevent death by sunburn. I know this all seems odd for a semi-tropical tree but it's true.

6. It takes an extremely long time for a seedling to flower/fruit, if ever in a northern pot. Always grow grafted trees unless you have absolutely no interest in getting flowers or fruit

5. Fruit is possible, especially for sour varieties. At the very least the leaves and flowers smell great.

For varieties I'd suggest a lime tree or other sour varieties. Lemons tend to get very large and can be difficult to manage. Meyers aren't really pure lemons, they can do ok in pots but many people in the citrus forum have trouble keeping them alive. Calamondins, and kumquats seem to do well also. I wouldn't bother with grapefruit or oranges though you might do ok with mandarins/clementines. My satsumas(a mandarin) haven't flowered yet for me, but they got shocked pretty bad in transit when I ordered them.

Good luck!!

I'm one..I grow over 100 of them and never under that....That forum is a great place to hang out...

I always tell people to use a good porous mix, especially for our area, a well balanced fertilizer in which Foilage Pro is one of them, Vinegar if your water is too high in pH, and a great well brightly lit area...If grown warm, in full sunny window, if grown cool, in a window with not as much sunlight...)

My Meyer lemon is about 15 years old. Right now it's in my office room here because I am painting the sun room, but it will spend the winter in the sun room when I'm done. It has 4 large ripe fruit, and three more still getting larger, but green. I noticed only 2 days ago that it is forming another batch of flower buds. It's a little early but that's probably because it's warm in this room compared to the unheated sun room where I normally keep it.

Thanks to all of you for sharing experience, advice, and resources. I think mine was probably a calamondin as Dtunes suggested. I will start checking around to see what if anything is available in my area, but I may have to wait for spring warmth to mail order a plant. I really enjoyed the scent of my previous plant, which as far as I was told by the person who gave it to me, was started from seed and at least a dozen years old.

Anyone try the hardy citrus 'Poncirus trifoliata'? I've been growing it in my yard for the last 10+ years. It did fine last winter too. The fruit which drops to the ground will produce seedlings too. It's a very interesting tree.

Photo of fruit:

Photo of seedlings growing under tree:

It's a bit cold for it here, though I have a friend who grows one in a large pot that goes out in the summer and comes inside to a cool, well-lit area of a building for the winters. I don't think she gets as prolific fruit as yours.

What is the fruit like, timbz6?

NHBabs, there is a guy in z4b Vermont growing PT but it has to be grown in areas which aren't windy.

Suza, the fruit is too bitter to eat. But still cool to grow. I'm trying some citrus hybrids crossed with PT but still not hardy enough to grow here. We need to try more hybrids.