Oh! Here is a picture of what it currently looks like. It's on my porch hardening off so I can stick it in full sun in a couple weeks.

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Im sure once you put it in full sun it will start to take off with new growth. Citrus like sun.

Carl,

I just recently started putting my tree outside for a few hours a day. I am getting it adjusted to full sun. Your tree looks healthy to me. I hope those leaves in the front are missing pieces from you trimming them and not from animals eating your leaves. Other than that it seems like you are doing the right thing. When that girl gets under the full sun she will be really happy!

Here is a picture of my plant:
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Good Luck,
Doc Citrus

a SERIOUS suggestion... lose the stake; your Meyer doesn't need support; and staking it, almost guarantees that it will break in the future. If you are afraid, about taking off the stake, at least every 3 months move the ties down 3-4 inches. Trunks get strong by bending... the technical term Sphygmomorphogenesis... look it up if you have a BIG dictionary... it means something like pumping iron for big muscles... when the twig flexes, it gets stronger.

Dr. Citrus,
The leaves on my tree are not from animals or from trimming. I ordered this tree from Four Winds Growers and some of the leaves got mangles when I took the tree out of the box.

Johnmerr,
OK. I'll try removing the stake tomorrow.

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Thanks,
Carl

I totally agree! I'm sure that your plants come with stakes, and tied to the point of strangulation! That's to get it though the shipping process in one piece. Stakes and ties need to be removed.

I keep mine loosely staked, meaning the stake holds the new tree up by threading it between an array of strong branches, and then into the container. The stake is not tied to the tree at all. I leave it just until the roots "anchor" because I find that my newly-planted containerized trees in gritty mix or 5:1:1 will tilt very easily...luckily 4 Winds only uses 1 stake and it's attached loosely during shipment, if it's attached at all.

Your tree looks great! The Meyer I received at around the same time was losing leaves, but that seems to have stopped now :-)

All,
Thanks for your advice! I just removed my stake a couple minutes ago and the plant is still up right. The only noticeable difference is the fact that it sways just a tiny bit more and the branches have spread out farther. That means more light to the inner leaves! Mandarin1 my Meyer lost like ten or twelve lower leaves a couple weeks back (probably because it was being constantly moved inside to escape the cooler weather) but now it's stopped. During that time I got creative and wrapped a tomato cage in a couple layers of plastic wrap and set a couple of gallon jugs of water in the bottom and I had my own mini green house! That's when the leaves stopped falling because I wasn't bringing it in and out any more and the temps weren't fluctuating as much. I took it out of the "green house" two weeks ago.
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Thanks,
Carl

Great greenhouse idea! I'm going to try that with any new additions that are struggling. Remember I wanted to see whether the variegated Pink lemon would handle transition better than the Meyer? Unfortunately it won't be a fair comparison. The Pink arrived quite traumatized, and I've sprayed it because I saw webs. It would probably benefit from your greenhouse idea because it isn't happy...

Thanks for sharing! Best of luck with your Meyer going forward!

Mary

Mary,
Thanks! What I did with the green house is when the sun goes down is put a lay of plastic wrap on the top and then a towel or two to help hold in the heat. As it gets warmer though you should make sure that there is some air flow because, at least with mine, the temperatures would get up to 100 easily if the top was covered. So to kind of monitor the temperatures I put a kitchen thermometer with one of the probes that is attached to a long cord. Then I had it set so it would beep if it got up to 90 so it would remind me to take the plastic off the top. I also secured the frame to the ground with both the little metal stakes attached to the bottom and with tent stakes. With both of these things to secure it it stood up to our early spring thunderstorms here. Glad I could help because I'm usually the one getting help. Oh! And here's a picture of my "green house". Since I'm not using it its "resting" by the shed.
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Thanks,
Carl

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All,
We'll I came home today to the sight of my leaning out of the pot almost parallel to the ground. Luckily it didn't tear any roots. During this time I just decided to gently dump the tree out of its pot and to my dismay there was no new root growth and the bottom of the pot was still very wet despite the mix being about 50% perlite and the last time I watered was over two weeks ago! So I decided to re-pot it into a much smaller clay pot so it will dry faster and unfortunately I had to re-stake it again because even after re-potting the tree kept leaning at about a 45 degree angle. Don't mistake me saying that the trunk was bending! It was perfectly straight just starting to pull the roots out of the soil to lean over, so I decided to re-stake it loosely for the time being just to help it stand up straight until the roots final start the really grab the soil.
Another question I have is whether or not I should remove the leaves that were damaged in shipping. I know it would probably trigger a flush so should I wait until its settled in so I don't stress it even more?
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Thanks,
Carl