Citrus > Citrus General Discussion

meyer lemon losing its fruit

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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.

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