meyer lemon losing its fruit

[redster]

i have a 5 year old meyer lemon that produced 700 fruit last year that dropped all but about 20 fruit this year. all my other trees are holding on to their fruit just fine.  my best guess is because of the hard winter it had and losing 3/4 of its leaves.  it full of new leaves now, but would that cause it to drop so many fruit, or could something else be at play???


thx red

[brian]

I would imagine that if there are no leaves to support it the fruit will fall off early on.  I have had a few plants that were mostly devoid of leaves that would flower all over, setting fruit, and then it would all drop off.  I'm not sure if meyer lemons tend towards alternate bearing but that could also be a cause if you had such a massive harvest last year. 

EDIT - just re-read that you said it has many leaves now.  Not sure what the issue could be.  Maybe draught stress during flowering or shortly after?

[Millet]

Red,  there are two items involved with your Meyer lemon.  1)  It could well be the loss of leaves.  Even though the tree has set new foliage, the new leaves are not yet generating any energy or nutrition, either to develop the fruit or to the benefit of the tree.   A citrus leaf does not/cannot send out any energy or nutrition to the tree or fruit until the leaf become fully developed and  mature.  Therefore, the new foliage probably was of no help to the tree.  2). The tree spent much of its energy last year, by producing a extensive crop of 700 fruit, and was not able to re-supply itsef with  enough energy to produce a full crop this year because of the loss of it leaves. - Millet

[redster]

that's pretty much what I figured it was.  I fertilized it well, figuring it would need it, but it likely wasn't enough for that much leaf loss. although mine hasn't yet in 5 years, meyer tends to flower twice a year, there is a chance I can get another bloom right? I would hate to go lemonless this year...

[Tom]

Redster, you could have another flush of blooms this year . Yes Meyer lemon can be bad about alternate bearing.

[hoosierquilt]

What Millet & Tom said.  I had this happen with my Improved Meyer, when I first moved into our current home.  It was languishing due to no water source.  Lost a lot of leaves, and has since been restored to health, but now prefers to alternate bear to some degree.  I have heavier seasons and lighter seasons, often with a second smaller season.  So, this will probably be the bearing habit of this tree from now on out.

[redster]

well I don't have a problem with alternate bearing as long it bears some fruit. id be happy with 100-200 but im not getting that many yet, hopefully the next flush adds a few more fruit to it.

[Tom]

I have a good sized Meyer in the ground. Two years ago I had 130 fruit and I was afraid I wouldn't have a crop this past year. I saw a few but not many. When I started picking I picked 70 this year. I had told several friends that I had about 20-25. My estimate was way off. This year I have had less than five blooms at any one time and I don't see any fruit. As you probably know the thorns are vicious. I could have five fruit hidden in there somewhere but I am still waiting for a flush of leaves or blooms. There is a little dead wood but over all the Meyer came through our winter real well with plenty of leaves. Our weather has been very erratic. We seemed to have gone from winter to summer with a very quick spring. Really almost no spring. Plenty of rain but plenty of cool temps too. I need to fertilize again. Tom

[adriano2]

i can say i have much experience with meyers. They are my most regular bearaers. However even they need a rest sometimes. 2 years ago one of my meyers produced 30 kg, i guess it has exhausted it, because it moved all its energy in to fruit production,  it was loaded with fruits, but produced less leaves that year. Next year i got only 5 kg, but the tree looked healthy wit lot of new leaves.
for my big surprise last autumn it started to bloom for the first time in that time of the year. It usually does so in spring. Not the tree is loaded with maybe even 50 kg of fruit plus new flowers and newly developed fruits from regular spring blooming are growing.

[swimmingfree]

not sure how the big citrus growers do thing ...up here in Michigan are apple trees get spray to make them drop some of the apple  it make the other apple bigger and is not so hard on the tree...  i feel that wood work on the meyer lemon  tree as  well the autumn  bloom .... how meany meyer lemon  can you use at one time
swimmingfree

[adriano2]

i will try my best to consume as much as i can. the rest will give away to my friends and relatives. I also think the tree has to many fruits, but i would feel sorry to take them off the tree now, when they managed to survive winter and grow bigger. I guess the autumn bloom will get ripen by the end of the summer. The spring bloom as usually in november.

[adriano2]

here is the tree, i took the picture on monday.