NOT... the word is Sphygmomorphogenesis; it means every time the branch bends it is strengthened... sorta like flexing your muscles. Staking only assures you that one day it will break.

I have 21,000 trees (okay they are Meyers) and not one has a stake, although they are prolific bearers. What I do is cut off any fruit that touches the ground; and in general prune out any branches growing in a downward direction.

When heavy fruit bends the branch down, it will encourage new upward branches from the sides (now the top) of the limb. I would opt for thinning rather than supporting; green calamondin make excellent "lemons".

Sphygmomorphogenesis

I did not know the correct name for this. I first read about a scientist setting up flex experiment to see how the tree responded to movement that was to slow. He proved that each tree caries a genetic code to the frequency that a limb must spring back. from a wind.. If the limb takes longer to spring back the tree picks up on this and increases diameter to strengthen itself. It is the flexing and unflexing that determines the limb strength. Trees have to constantly monitor for adequate strength because trees do not learn from breaks. If the tree is too laden with fruit it can fail before the limb can compensate. This makes staking in some cases the better choice. Once you start picking the fruit unstake it while it is quite heavy but not so heavy the tree might break. It is also good to stake in a way that the tree is still doing most of the work and gets flexed regularly. Trees learn through motion, not static weight

Steve

Thank you both-- I'll start thinning the fruit a little and give the tree just enough support so it doesn't break, and remove all support when enough of the fruit is gone.