Hi, Sheba, welcome to the forums:)

I'm by NO MEANS an expert. I have my own panic attacks regularly with my Meyers. lol. However, I was in your shoes last year with a lot of the same questions. I followed the advice of the people I bought my Meyers from and waited before repotting. I almost lost my trees to root rot because of this. So I can not stress this enough, DON'T WAIT TOO LONG and repot sooner than later. If you already have 511, it's even better. As far as size, I'd go bigger or at least as big as the canopy, but that's just me.

I'm not sure Id bare the roots completely. But there are much wiser people than me around here that will answer that one.

Don't bother removing the small lemons, the tree will drop what it can't keep. Which is about 70pct of them, lol.

I wouldn't prune anything before you repot, so as not to shock the trees on too many fronts. The good thing about Citrus is that you can prune pretty much all year long, so no hurry there. There is also some rule about below or above the graft, which I can't remember right now. So try to get a pic of your trunk that shows the graft and those smaller low branches, that will help them tell you what to do.

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Good luck with your trees!

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Atheen

Sheba,

First glance I would say your Meyer is planted way, way too deep; you should dig down to find the graft/bud union and raise it up to at least above ground. If you bury the bud union, it will soon kill the tree. I am assuming, since you are in California, that your tree is grafted. About the fruit, for the first year and for a tree that size in general I would remove all the fruit now to allow the tree to put its energy into growth. While most citrus will self thin if left alone, a young Meyer will not; it will keep too many lemons and "forget" to grow. If you get good growth this year, next year you can leave a few fruits; and after that you can more or less leave it alone, cutting only those fruits that are clearly too many, or which weight the branches down to touch the ground. Good luck; and welcome to the Meyer family.

I see your fruitlets have a purple tinge... mine do too. Is that normal, like the purplish tinge of green new growth? I was worried that meant they were going to wither and drop off.

Thank you all for your welcome and your quick responses and suggestions about my Meyer. I really appreciate it. I didn't get back to you sooner because I was trying to reach the nursery where my plant was grown, and I just got off the phone with them. The nurseryman told me that their Meyers are all own-root plants, not grafted. (He also called it a "dwarf" -- ?? The nursery's label just calls it "Improved" and grows 4-6' tall x 4-6' wide. I didn't want to argue as to whether it could be a "dwarf" on its own roots--but he asserted that it definitely was not a grafted plant.)

It is a really nice full bushy plant, I would guess it's 2.5 to 3 years old--do you agree? So, I still have some remaining questions--if you can bear with me, I hope you don't mind my many questions and long posts! I'm really wanting to do right by this beautiful plant; I lost my first Meyer several years ago and am only now trying again.

1. Do you still think I should re-pot it now? And if I re-pot it now or soon this summer, should I bare root it??

It seems really healthy and seems to drain OK in the mix it's in. I'm careful about watering only when it seems *almost* dry, testing with a bamboo pole going way down to the bottom of the plant.

2. Should I remove those little branches that are right down near the soil line? Or should I keep them if I re-pot the tree so they are higher above the soil line?

3. I thought the guideline was to remove all fruits for the first year of the plant's life--I guess you all feel that's not long enough? The branches seem quite sturdy (other than the tiny ones below) -- so you still feel it's necessary to remove all (or all but one) fruit? I want to do what's best for the plant, of course, but it is going to stay in a container, not going in the ground, in case that makes any difference. But if I need to remove them all, I will do so.

Thank you again for your help. I am mixing up more 5-1-1 this week so I'll be ready to re-pot if needed.

Sheba

PS: Hobbyartisan, yes, the fruits start off very dark purplish (the flowers have a purple/pinkish tinge also at first) before they turn green and then eventually, one day, God willing!, yellow! --S.

Helloooo out there--anybody able to get back to me re the questions above, especially re bare rooting or not? I pinched off some 43 fruitlets and left two on the tree. Should I trim off the tiny branches down at the soil line as well? Thank you, everyone.

Sheba

If it were my tree I would not worry about one thing at all...

You have the perfect weather and climate, not to say even sunlight to pull your tree into good active growth faster than most of us here.

This is a good time of the year to re pot since you have yet still have to approached the VERY HOT days of summer. So do it now before that.

I would remove all the OLD mix from your root ball pulling your tree up and down in a tub of water and using a hose and then leave it in the water until your mix is ready to put your tree into it.

If you remove the branches low, that is a personal choice. If you want in short and bushy don't. If you want it taller with a good canopy, then do.

I would not remove any fruit at all...Your tree will decide how many to drop if any at all if it's not happy for a while, which I find hard to believe considering your area and if you do a good job at re potting...

P.s...Make sure to soak your 5.1.1 mix for a day so that the bark gets saturated and don't forget to add lime)

Mikerno,

Thank you for the quick reply and for the great tips on bare-rooting. I haven't yet done this but I will--have to get my nerve up! The tree is looking very good. As there was disagreement from others in my thread about the tree dropping the fruitlets of its own accord, I had already removed all but 2 (about 43) before my last post. I now see a lot of new growth coming, but it looks like new flower buds rather than leaves.

The branches I was asking about removing are those eensy thin ones which are down right at the soil level. You can see them in the photos. As you can see, it is already a very bushy plant, and that's great with me, but I'm not sure it's good to retain those very low branches, so I will prune them off when I re-pot.

Well, I am in San Francisco, and we are in the foggy and windy area. We are certainly having a hotter year with more sunny days than I can remember in decades here (climate change....), but normally, we really don't have hot summer days. We usually have pretty damp windy gray weather much of the season, and our sunniest weather usually in Sept. or Oct. or even February. Still, Meyer lemons are very common in this town and many people do very well with them. My particular situation isn't ideal, but so far, so good.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm excited to see that my tree is doing so well and am glad to have all the great information from you and the other knowledgeable people on this forum. Will post pix once I re-pot and as my tree develops.

Sheba,

If it were mine, I'd go with Johnmerr and not plant it as deeply as before. I've read on here that the top roots should be closer to the surface (keeping the soil and mulch back from the trunk, too, for aeration. Also, per Mikerno, wash the soil off the roots and stretch out the roots so they do not wind round and round (as I've found can happen in one that was in a too small pot). I did this to a fruiting lime recently ( couple of months ago) and it has been very happy ever since.

BTW, You have a beautiful plant!

Suzanne

Leave the lower branches on as long as they have leaves to generate food. The tree will drop these limbs if and when its ready.

Sheba, I am going to say that it's an old wives tale that your tree will grow better if you remove fruit, on a healthy tree that is.....It's not proven and yet maybe on a sickly tree trying to struggle..I don't believe that for one minute that it will have any affect on a very healthy tree. If anything, if the tree is negatively impacted, it will shed the fruit it does not want need on it's own. All that wasted fruit if your purpose is to grow for food..

If your tree is healthy, which it should be, If it is cared for properly and fed good nutrients, even a very small cutting will hold on to what it wants too and shed what it thinks is too much and still, have healthy growth to boot..That is what I have experienced...

Silica, please provide me with a reference for the Purdue research on the effects of fruit removal that you mentioned above. I would like to read it. Thank you.