The weight of the fruit bends the limb down; it will recover a bit after the fruit is cut; but will also send up new shoots from the new apical (topmost) bud created by the bending. Mandarins are much smaller; so they do not have quite such an impact.

Thanks John! I'm looking forward to the tangerines and excited to see more fruit but have this nagging concern, wondering if the tree is going to look "sprawly" later.

I assume I will get water sprout growth if I prune the lemon tree to a nicer shape and I'll be right back where I am now with sprawly limbs. I don't have a current photo of the lemon handy at the moment but here it is with a few green fruit and still with a fairly nice shape but limbs already getting drug down.

yes indeed! The more fruit, the greater the weight and the "bend" - or breakage! I am using rope to nudge key branches into a more vertical position on multiple trees. And, I had multiple branches break on 2 Lisbons and a Moro. I will be trimming a bunch of fruit off this season for sure. !!! - George

The bigger the fruit, the bigger the problem for young trees. My Chandler pomelos really bend with the fruit; but just the same they produce new vertical shoots from the new apical buds..

The bending, opening up the crown for more light and space for new branches, is probably beneficial for the species in terms of fruit and seed production. Satsumas also make a wide open tree for me. A neighbor had a commercial Satsuma orchard and she said they prune any downward pointing branches each year....I assume after the harvest. I have tried that some and found the new sprouts from the end of the pruned branch are just as prone to drooping down as the ones I pruned off, so it seemed like wasted energy from the tree.