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krizleykrislo

Meyer Lemon- is it ok for a young tree to bear lots of fruit?

krizleykrislo
11 years ago

I bought a Meyer Lemon in March from a local nursery, and it's been doing beautifully in a 10 gallon hard plastic container out on my deck. The leaves all look very healthy, there has been plenty of new growth since transplanting it, and there are 8 tiny lemons growing- 4 on one branch, 2 on another, and 1 on each of the others. Two of these are already the size of large grape tomatoes. My question is whether or not my tree is getting over-eager and trying to produce more fruit than it can manage; I would assume that it is a graft of a mature tree, but it is only 3-4 feet tall and the base of the stem less than an inch in diameter; furthermore, the stem splits about 7 inches up, and the other half was obviously cut off along with several suckers when it was initially removed from the main tree. The remaining stem has a curve before straightening up, and is only about 1/4-1/2 of an inch in diameter. It seems to be quite sturdy and is probably capable of bearing the weight of the fruit (it's also staked, just in case), but I worry that a tree this small will invest too much energy into the fruit and become weak. How many lemons would it be safe for this tree to bear? I would like to keep at least two. Thanks!

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