And I though dealing with this forum via pc was bad

I recommend letting the plant do it’s thing. If it cannot support the fruit, the fruit will drop.

Have you done any research vs posting questions.

Relax it is what it is..

Why citrus in NY?

Is there some sort of “I can grow it” club?

I am directing the question to someone else who has grown a potted navel. I generally pull fruit at pea size unless the tree is big enough so as not to waste the trees energy. My research is growing citrus for a few years and I'm very relaxed. The I can grow it club is me.

In my experience, the plant will perform fruit drop. How has picking small fruit worked for you?

Do you see pollinators?

Navel doesn't need a pollinator and yes pollinators are around anyway. Expecting a 1 foot tall tree to give you a full size fruit means the tree shifts gears. Man intercedes in these situations to not waste a growing season on limited fruit that may or may not take it grow well. Babies shouldn't have babies. In spring it held onto one a long time. It's best to be unemotional in these matters. While fruit drop may occur it may not occur rapidly. A navel orange is big and heavy. My eye says this tree is on the fence. If I pull fruit early and save that energy I may get an additional growth flush or two under lights.

bklyn one fruit will NOT waste the tree's energy. Perdue University research has shown, that leaving one fruit on a small citrus tree does not retard the tree's growth. This is because a citrus fruit only draws all the energy it requires from the tree's three closest leaves to the fruit, NOT from the entire tree. You can feel very comfortable leaving one of your fruit grow. Best of luck to you and your little tree.

Jim, you ask why citrus in NY? I ask why not? I live 15 miles from Brooklyn and grow citrus successfully as does bklny citrus. I guess you know better than us and I should throw all my citrus trees in the compost pile.

I have 18 different mandarins, oranges, lemons and lime in containers. I have never picked off flowers or fruit. Just let the tree do its thing naturally.

Congratulations getting bloom at this point in the season! Does blooming usually follow growth? I am getting quite a bit a new shoots but I assumed it would be too late in the season to flower/fruit...
I am not qualified to answer your question about picking fruit as I have yet to bring fruit to fruition :(

I left my 3 NZL lemons on my tree last fall on a similar size tree and the tree still grew and the lemons sweetened up and were quite tasty to eat out of hand.

Steve

This year 2020 has been crazy in so many ways and it is effecting bloom time on several mandarins in my yard. I have 5 trees with blooms right now and 2 trees with tiny fruit. I have no idea if they will hold on but I'm leaving them alone. If they hold great if not then in spring I will see a new blooms.

What makes citrus culture so interesting, is the guessing game, what the tree is going to react to the different ways of watering and fertilizing. With me, I continue to better my tree’s to steady improvement, the part I like most, “ my own way” , only ask if you need a problem you don’t know as how to fix it. With time, you have less and less things to go wrong.

we might think they may be too young to bare but the trees thinks otherwise maybe the tree developed to bare younger than it was supposed to and it a new variety of the same trees

Howard, its a grafted navel orange. It has bloomed at least twice that I remember before. Its a mature scion grafted to a rootstock. Nothing new is developing here.

ok it was just a possibility but I am no expert