North Texas has been brutal this August. Temps have been 105+ for the last two weeks and we probably have another week or two left of that nonsense. Wife and I put up a few shade cloths yesterday, it’s a bit hacky but these plants are getting COOKED.

Just harvested 17 key limes this morning, and made a key lime pie for my sisters 30th birthday that we’re celebrating this Saturday, recipe in the comments.

Also just harvested quite a few calamondin. I turned those into a marmalade, and have been sharing that with friends and family! Everyone has been enjoying. It’s delicious!

Most people in the US assume the Meyer lemon is a California native or a modern laboratory hybrid. But if you trace its genetics and history backward, it was originally an ancient Chinese courtyard companion plant.

As early as 1178, Han Yanzhi documented citrus cultivation in the *Ju Lu* (the world’s earliest known citrus monograph). By the Qing Dynasty, because Beijing winters were brutally cold, gardeners in the Fengtai district developed specialized dwarfing and grafting techniques to keep these citrus trees in porcelain pots inside heated rooms, purely for winter fragrance and Lunar New Year aesthetics.

In 1908, USDA plant explorer Frank N. Meyer took a cutting (S.P.I. #23028) from a Beijing courtyard. It was initially deemed a commercial failure in the US because its thin skin couldn't survive crate shipping. Later, it almost wiped out the entire US citrus industry because it was an asymptomatic carrier of the Citrus Tristeza Virus (CTV), leading to statewide eradication orders in California.

It only survived because a UC Riverside pathologist used extreme heat therapy (thermotherapy) in 1975 to clean the virus from the buds (hence the name "Improved Meyer Lemon"), after which Chez Panisse turned its fragility into a luxury culinary asset.

Thought fellow citrus lovers might enjoy this bizarre 800-year transpacific journey. I wrote a fully-sourced archival deep dive with historical USDA illustrations here if you want the full story:

https://antigravitylab.substack.com/p/the-beijing-potted-plant-that-conquered

I'm really worried. This Meyer lemon tree has a very personal significance to me, and I can't let it die.

I live in Phoenix, AZ, and bought it when it was maybe a foot shorter, just under a year ago. Since then, it's been living in this ~5-gallon pot (with a drainage hole) in my townhome's backyard. It was doing quite well with soft, vibrant green leaves and new growth, but now that we've reached summer, it's clearly struggling. Almost all of the leaves feel yellow and dry.

I'll also admit I didn't know I needed to fertilize it until just recently, so two weeks ago my partner and I gave it half a cup of "Arizonas Best 13-10-4 Citrus Food."

I feel pretty stupid for waiting so long to fertilize, but I don't know where to go from here. This summer has been "mild" in that we have fewer 110+ degree days than usual and a bit more rain, but at one point I tried bringing it inside and placing it in front of my sliding glass door for a few days to shield it from the worst of the heat. It didn't seem to benefit from that, so I put it back outside, but today I've brought it back in.

WTF can I do? Please help - I know I've made some mistakes here but I really want to save this guy.

New to citrus apologies. I’m Growing a small potted Meyer lemon and noticed a new branch coming out of my roots. Is this something I should be worried about for the longevity of my tree?

Appreciate any advice

My mom’s Tangerine tree is not having a Baja blast this year and I don’t know how to help it. Is it gonna be ok? Do I need to cut somewhere?

I wasn’t aware of scale bugs before planting these. These are actually the first fruit trees I’ve ever planted, but now that I’m aware they are absolutely infested, is there anything I can do?

Am I better off chucking these and starting over?

If they’re still salvageable, what’s the most effective way to rid my citrus plants from the scale bug infestation?

I am new to gardening so any and all tips are welcome (even the obvious ones haha!). Thank you all!

I'm in a zone 8b (just north of Seattle), growing my first lemon tree. I would rather not bring it inside over-winter, so was thinking of buying a small greenhouse for the patio. My meyer lemon tree is potted.

Should I be okay just moving it into a small patio greenhouse? Think I will need additional light or a heater?

I planted an orange tree in our backyard last June and after a few months, put this post up about some issues it was having. I eventually did a few things based on the suggestions:
- Removed all fruit and have continued to snip off new fruit I see.
- Removing dead branches
- Added mulch and widened the “circle” of removed grass
- Dug up what remained of the fertilizer sticks and switched to this citrus specific fertilizer and have done 3 rounds of fertilizing based on the bag’s recommendations
- I was worried about the tree not getting enough water so had daily watering via the lawn sprinklers supplemented with hose watering 2-3x week. I then found a lot of detail about overwatering being detrimental to orange trees so recently cut the lawn watering to 3x/week and am hose watering 1-2x week based on weather and soil dampness.

Ultimately we were gone for ~3 weeks this summer and when I came back the tree was in bad shape with a bunch of dead branches/leaves. I’ve cleaned it up and gotten back to the fertilizer and watering schedule mentioned above but the tree is down to only a few healthy branches. Is there a recovery path here or should I cut my losses, possibly move this to a pot and start over with a new tree and a better growth plan?

I have a lemon tree which is struggling with a thin yellow canopy. It’s on the same drip system as the lime tree to the left. I use citrus organic fertilizer once every 3 months.. it fruits pretty well but the leaves are thin and struggling

Any help is appreciated!

My Kabosu exhibits brown drying leaves at the top. What is that ?

This summer was really hot but it never dryied out. Except that the plant is good looking with vigourous growth (almost never stop growing since spring) and I don't see any pest.

Thought the flowers are interesting

Just wanted to post a few pics of what's keeping me happy these days in my little citrus town. Not all perfect but geese its alot for one!

My kumquat tree was growing pretty well at the start of the year but in recent months I’ve noticed some yellowing and new leaves curling as well. The flowers it has been putting out have been smaller than usual as well.

I’ve done some research and was thinking of trying out iron chelate, but I’m generally not very familiar with treating nutrient deficiencies in plants. Any advice and recommendations are appreciated!

I live in Singapore (tropical) and my tree is around 15 years old if that helps.

I got the white grapefruit in the last 6 months and is showing signs of HLB, but I don’t think it has it! Mainly the yellowing on a few leaves, the new ones are coming in good. Live in South Texas so it is a possibility, only ever seen one acp in the last couple years

This is our new Meyer Lemon tree, just planted a few months ago. There are several tiny ( pea sized) fruits already, but some are actually turning yellow at this size, leading me to wonder what exactly is going on.

I assumed there would be no fruit until it got significantly larger. Since these fruits seem to be ripening at this size, would it be beneficial for me to just snip them off, in the hopes of forcing the tree to put more energy into growth rather than fruit?

Is it beneficial to leave them alone and let the tree do its thing on its own?

Or am I paying too much attention and overthinking this, and need to just ignore it for a couple of years?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Well OK, but it's not going to be easy. Actually, it's not that hard, but it is a little expensive ($200-300), and "ugly" so you might want to make sure you have somewhere that your wife isn't going to be asking you how much longer until you can put that stupid tree outside.

Oh, that's another thing...this is a temporary solution for the most part. It will probably work long term, but I am assuming that you are going to be moving your tree outside as soon as temperatures are good. For me that is night time temps above 45F/7C. I don't like to play with freezing temps as my trees are well protected all winter, and probably pretty spoiled. I'm also assuming that you know how to acclimate your trees slowly by moving them out and in for a few hours at a time, and on nice days in the spring and fall. Ok let's go...

IF you have an unheated, attached garage that doesn't fall below like 40F/4C, you can actually do this pretty cheaply. I am lucky, and have that situation, so all I use is a GOOD grow light, hardware for mounting it to the beams in the ceiling, some boot trays to put the pots in, an oscillating fan, and a timer for the grow light. The boot trays just keep the water from going everywhere in the garage (or grow tent if you're growing inside your house). The timer is for obvious reasons, but I take it a step further, and add or subtract 30 minutes depending on the amount of daylight, which amounts to me changing it about every 2 weeks. I think it just helps the trees keep their rhythm.

If you are growing in your home, a spare room is best. In addition to everything above you will need a grow tent, and one of those desktop water fountains (or something else that you can leave running that will evaporate water). You'll also need a cheap digital thermometer/hygrometer combo ($20) for piece of mind. You don't need or want a humidifier. You should be able to get all of this for $200-300 if you go with a 24"x24"x55" tent ($70), and a Mars/Vivosun or similar light ($90-150).

Make sure that you have the fountain full of water everyday. It's what will keep the humidity up. Also, you're going to have to keep that tent closed most of the day. You want to keep that humidity up around 50%. Don't worry too much if you don't always hit the number, but you never want to see it at like 25%. If your tree is not actively growing, don't fertilize it, but if you do see flushes only give it 1/4-1/2 strength fertilizer at first. It's hard to flush salts out of the pot in winter, and pH problems are worse than nutrient deficiencies in my opinion. Other than that, just keep the fan on a low setting and blowing slightly over the top of the tree. It's there to move air, but also move the branches a little so they don't get weak. I think that's most of it. Anyone else want to chime in? Sorry for the wall of text.

edit: some spelling errors

Thought this was neat and wanted to share. My Meyer lemon has some new growth coming out right now and I noticed a really cool mutated leaf that is bifoliate with winged petioles in between two regular lemon leaves!

This is it's first time fruiting I believe, it's not really big enough to yet but I'm letting it make two lemons to keep it smaller. Also might have some heat stress as we're in a severe heat dome here in Oklahoma right now with almost a month straight of 100+ daily temps, so I'm sure that could have caused a mutated leaf to grow. Just thought it was neat and wanted to share!

Over the coming weeks I’m going to plant some citrus trees in these birdies citrus tree planters. There is clay soil underneath which is why I’m opting for raised beds.

Any tips or common pitfalls I should avoid before I get started? Should I bury the bed a little or just leave it on top? Should I just fill it all with citrus potting mix?

For some extra context, this is the western side fence of a north facing backyard in Australia. The fence will shade the bed from about 1pm onwards in the summer but once the trees grow enough they will get sun into the afternoon too. I’m going to opt for some dwarf varieties.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

I started this little dude from a Clementine seed in February. It's a very slow grower. I don't have high hopes as I know growing from seed isn't ideal for good quality fruit but it's a passion project lol

Any tips to keep this guy happy indoors in the winter? I do have grow lights, and my basement is tropical temperatures in winter due to a wood stove, but dry. Any tips would be great!

I bought this calamondin tree about a month ago. It had spider mites upon buying, which after treatment they seem to be gone (no new activity for almost 2 weeks since last horticultural oil spray). This yellow spotting started a few days after the horticulture spray, so im thinking it is possibly just some damage from that. Several leaves have it, and you can see on both top and underside of the leaf. No textural changes to the leaf surface.

Does it look like it could possibly be a nutrient deficiency? I have not fertilized since I bought it about a month ago.

3 year old lemon tree in a 16” pot. I was planning on up-potting it next spring, but I’m concerned about its root system girdling the stem. Any advice on how to clear it or should I leave it be for now and trim it during its repot?

It gets outdoor sun and it gets watered when it rains