Growing Lemons in Wisconsin

Meyer Lemon in Summer 2010

My little lemon tree put out a lot of growth since last spring. 

This summer, it bloomed out with tons of surprisingly scented white blossoms.  However, that many lemons will not be developing.  Shortly after this time of beautiful blossoming many of the older leaves became netted with yellow and it dropped nearly all of those stressed leaves within a week.  After some research on the internet, I learned that I should be feeding my little lemon some acidic fertilizer and some diluted epsom salts for the magnesium content.   Apparently lemons are very heavy feeders during bloom time and need to put all their nutrients into formation of fruit.  It looks like I'll be getting 2 lemons if the last two little green lemon buds can hang on!

Same Meyer Lemon in June 2011



 

Meyer Lemons harvested from my Friend's Tree in Spring 2011



My Meyer Lemon Tree

A few months ago I was at my friends house working on our sewing and making tote bags. We had the tv on the home shopping channel and we were both drawn it when they began talking about the Meyer Lemon plants they had for sale.


We quickly dialed up the number and had 2 plants on order.


It took a while for the mini tree to arrive, because they ship them after the danger of frost has passed. When it arrived we were pleasantly



surprised by both the height and healthiness of the plant. We potted them up in some nice patio pots for it's summer outdoors. We plan to bring them in to survive the harsh Wisconsin winter. Perhaps the bay tree will be a good companion for the lemon this winter. It has always done well indoors for 5 months. The rosemary plant seldom ever survives a winter in the house.



It is very happy in the pot that I put it in and it seems to love the glass marbles I added to the top of the soil. I was reading the care pamphlet and it said to make a special spray in a water bottle with mostly water, a drop of liquid soap, and a drop of vegetable oil. I have been spraying it almost daily.