My pride and joymy lemon

Just want to share a photo of my prized meyer lemon tree. I purchased this tree from Walmart 3 years ago just to see if I could get it to grow. My goal was a 6 foot tree with 3 or 4 fruits for a conversation piece. This past winter, due to a family tragedy, I was unable to care for it but it still produced 2 fruits, one of which, hung on well into the spring. I was amazed at the fact people would stop their cars to ask if it was a real fruit! This year should really be fun. Opps! wrong photo.

This message was edited Sep 2, 2008 3:18 PM

Here is the lemon tree. Someone tell me how to remove the other photo?

i dont think you can... but it made me laugh... expecting a lemon and seeing a chicken or whatever kind of bird that is

Are those the lemons in the bottom of the cage????


LOL>

lol... not ones that i would eat! is it a meyer lemon? does it have thorns? my meyer lemon is making thorns, and i thought that it was not supposed to do that!

This message was edited Sep 2, 2008 4:57 PM

Well, I'm glad you guys get a little chuckle out of my goof! No, those are grapes in the cage with the serama bantam. LOL There are no thorns. Exactly 2 dozen good lemons and I culled several that had cracked.

It was labeled a Meyer, but you know the story on WM label accuracy, so I assume that is correct.

This message was edited Sep 2, 2008 5:57 PM

ok... what color were the flowers

They were white. Looked like all orange blossoms I have ever seen. They are clustered.

ok because my meyer lemon fowers were pinkish

Okay maybe not white/white. Here is photo, maybe you can tell more about color.

Looks like Meyer to me. You've got lots o'lemons there!

yeah thats how mine looked... pink outside white inside

Yup! Meyer lemon. That flower form is unmistakeable. I have a 10 yr old tree that has produced religiously for the past 7 years. It's not the "Improved Meyer" that I've seen offered here of late, but an original plain ol' Meyer Lemon. I need to get an "improved" variety to try to understand just how it is you "improve" on perfection! They smell Heavenly! I'm nose-dead, but even I can pick up that heady fragrance. And the taste is something else.

how cold can your meyer lemon tree take ? I was thinking about getting one, and I'm getting conflicting info on hardiness.

Don't know, bonjon. The first night they predict below 50 degrees, I hustle it into the prime spot in the greenhouse, and it won't come again out until spring nights are reliably above 50 degrees. I know for a fact that it withstood a couple of nights in the low 40's ("user error") with no apparent damage. My key limes are much fussier when it comes to temps...

Meyers lemon can go much lower than the 40's. I see them planted in the ground all around here. Good into the 20's easily. How far into the 20's is a different matter.

can you grow a lemon tree from lemon seeds saved from regular grocery store lemons??

im sure you could, but it wouldprobabl not be as nice a variety as the parent plant. plus, i think most citrus are grafted, and dot have very good root systems naturally

Commerical lemons aren't cold hardy and I doubt the root system would do well. You could give it try, no harm. You might run into a problem of not enough of a growing season for the lemon to mature.

Good question and now you got me thinking, experiment time. LOL. First I have to figure out exactly what ends up in the store.

I am jealous I only had 8 fruit on mine. Beautiful Plant. It would be nice to keep in the ground all year round. Im sure it would be more prolific in its number of lemons.

I love experiments! Seven years ago I experimented with a truly delicious tangerine's seed that my wife brought home from the local Harris Teeter. Three of the 5 seeds I planted germinated in the GH. I grew those 3 trees out for the next 2 years, wintering them over in the GH. I up-potted all three yearly but moved them outside in their pots every spring, then back in the GH every fall. They got quite large, and took up too much room in the GH, so I gave two away. But even the one I kept was a struggle to get into and out of the GH for the winter, so I decided to plant it in the ground and hope for the best. Didn't think it would survive, but there was no room for it (it was about 7' tall and wide by this time). But it had green tangerines on it! Those tangerines ripened, and were delicious( about 30-40 of them), so I muscled it into the GH for the winter, but vowed it would be the last time! I planted it in the ground outside the greenhouse that spring thinking that would be the end of my "experiment". The thing is now 7 years old, and last year we picked over 100 tangerines from it. And they're really good! Like all the citrus growers teach us, they don't grow true from seed. These tangerines are slightly smaller than the parent tree, and have more seeds. But they are just as tasty! I consider this a truly worthwhile experiment...