[Arid_gardener] missing lemons

[Carolyn Hills]

Hi Gloria -- A few other possibilities for a non-productive citrus tree:

1) The tree might be recovering from over-production last year. If a tree
really puts out a lot of fruit in one year, it may "dump" most or all of its
blossoms/fruits the following year to allow it to recover. As long as the
tree looks healthy, don't worry. Commercial citrus growers actually remove
fruit if a tree is overloaded, since they need consistent production
year-to-year.

2) Not enough fertilizer: Citrus trees are heavy nitrogen feeders, and need
to be fertilized three times a year in Jan/Feb, Apr/May, and Aug/Sept. A
tree that has not been adequately fertilized will also dump whatever fruit
it doesn't have the energy to support. Any good citrus fertilizer from your
nursery or garden center will do, and follow the instructions on the bag. Be
very careful not to overfertilize, as that will burn the tree.

3) Inconsistent or inadequate watering: The most important thing you can do
to keep your citrus healthy is to water it correctly. Check out this
publication from the Maricopa County Extension on irrigating citrus:

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/crops/az1151.pdf

A tree that has been inadequately watered is weakened, and will also dump
fruit. Hope this helps!

Carolyn Hills
Maricopa County Master Gardener Volunteer

-----Original Message-----
From: arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu
[mailto:arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of Tyler Storey
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 9:07 PM
To: gbancroft at w-link.net; arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu
Subject: RE: [Arid_gardener] missing lemons

Hi Gloria,
It is possible, depending on the timing of your lemon blossoms, that they
were lost in the January freeze, around the 12th or 13th.  I noted among my
and my clients' citrus trees that the lemons and Mexican limes in particular
seemed to lose their fruit this year.  

For instance, some lemons were blooming before the freeze and lost the
flowers without setting more.  Some Mexican limes I observed had not yet set
flowers but lost their flower buds and never did blossom.  

If your lemon blossomed pre-freeze, that may explain the lack of fruit.  It
is unfortunately fairly common across the Valley right now.  My normally
prolific lemon tree (usually bushels of lemons) is offering up only 4 fruits
this year, albeit abnormally large ones.

If the blossoms were post-frost, then I'm afraid I don't have an answer.

Thanks much,
Tyler


tyler at tylerstorey.com
http://tylerstorey.com
602-738-2978

-----Original Message-----
From: arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu
[mailto:arid_gardener-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of
gbancroft at w-link.net
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 2:19 PM
To: arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

Gloria
85248
gbancroft at w-link.net

Our lemon tree had a lot of blossoms on it this spring but now there are no
lemons on the tree. What happened?


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