Hi all..
I have a lemon tree planted in the back yard and it's full of lemons which have been green for weeks now.. They look like they're not growing much, just .. Staying green .. I water the tree once a week for about half an hour, sometimes more..
The tree is full of flowers (which, I must admit, have an amazing scent).. Do I have to cut these flowers off?
Summer has recently ended in Australia, and Autumn has begun although our days are still really hot ..
I don't know about Oz, but when I lived in S. Arizona we always looked forward to ripe lemons for Thanksgiving Lemon pie. That is late Autumn. I'd say you have a month or two of anticipation.
Lemons mature slowly. It takes a few months for blossom to result in a ripe lemon.
DO NOT remove the flowers. Lemons are ever-bearing; they have no season. Unless frost stops blossoms from forming, you will find flowers, little green lemons, large green lemons, and ripe lemons all at the same time. Eventually, this will keep you in a constant supply of fresh lemons.
Don't pick the ripe lemons until you need them. Citrus stays quite fresh for a long time if left on the tree.
Don't over-water. Allow the top 1-2 inches (2.5-5.0 cm) of soil to dry between watering. Citrus is very sensitive to soils that drain poorly or that are soggy. Because my soil is heavy clay, I planted my tangelo in a raised bed with gypsum, wood chips, peat moss, compost, and plaster sand dug into the soil to improve drainage.
Citrus should be fed regularly from about two weeks before the last average date of frost in the spring until about two months before the first average date of frost in the fall. Frequent, LIGHT applications of fertilizer are better than a few, heavy applications. Citrus prefers a slightly acidic soil, lots of nitrogen, and some iron and zinc. Depending on the soil, some phosphorus might also be needed. Unless you are an organic gardener, commercial citrus food should be used. Where I live, the commercial citrus food lacks zinc; so I add a small amount of zinc sulfate with each feeding. Only feed if the soil is slightly moist; feeding in dry soil will result in root burn as soon as you add water.
Pruning is not needed to promote fruiting. Prune only to remove dead growth, to keep branch ends off the ground, and to make the tree look nice. If ends touch the ground, that becomes a route for ants and other pests to reach the foliage and fruit.
Here, branch ends touching the ground is a major path for snails; I don't know if snails are a problem in Australia. Snails will not only destroy fruit; they will also eat the bark off the limbs and trunk, eventually killing the tree. In my garden, I have decollate snails (Rumina decollata), carnivorous snails that eat the eggs and young of the destructive brown snails (Helix aspersa). (R. decollata are legal here but not in some other parts of California.) For my dwarf citrus, I also tied a braid of copper wire around each pot. For my tangelo, I tied a braid of copper wire around the base of the trunk in a way that allows the braid to expand as the trunk grows.
Hi there..
Thank you all so much for your reassuring replies. They've been green for a while now, and we've been having some really hot and dry weather, which made me assume would cause the lemons to ripen earlier .. I guess I was mistaken though. The tree has lotsof lemons of different sizes so I will be looking forward to its fruits all year.. I recently bought this house with the lemon tree in the back.. It was almost dead with no fruits nor any flowers when I got here .. The tree had fallen to its side and was being held up with a plank of wood.. When I got here I started taking care of it, watering it, cutting off dead branches, and a few months later it's flowering like I've never seen before. I had no idea lemon trees flowered. Can I assume this is a good sign of a healthy tree?
Unfortunately, some plants put out an extra effort to reproduce (flowering and fruiting) just as they are dying. Citrus will flower well when very healthy and also when dying. The difference is seen in how well it produces new foliage, which will soon slow as you enter your southern autumn. Thus, you really won't know for about 6 months whether your tree is doing well.
(Chuckle) How do you think little lemons get born?
You have been a wonderful nurse/midwife. Congratulations!
(First tree I put in when I bought the house, dern near 40 years ago, and it's still putting out so much that I have to give them away in droves.)
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