Sunday, January 29, 2012

Meyer lemon

This weekend the feed store got all their fruit trees in and while some of them will last a while those that are unusual go quick. They had a nice assortment this year of citrus and even had olive bushes (I almost got one but the lemon tree just cost too much for me to get two). I wanted a Meyer lemon. I used to have some that I started from seed (of course, they would likely not have produced true but I had heard from several people that they would still produce nice lemons) but they all died (my lack of watering enough again).  The feed store had two Meyer lemon trees and they were really nice sized.  I went ahead and splurged and got the smaller one (the other would have never fit in my car).
The Meyer lemon is a native of China where it was a decorative house plant. It is thought to be a cross between a lemon and common orange or mandarin. It is rounder and sweeter than true lemons. Meyer lemons were brought to the United States by an agricultural explorer named Frank Nicholas Meyer who collected plant samples all over the world for the United States Department of Agriculture. In the 1940's Meyer lemons were quite popular in California but most were destroyed when it was found they were symptomless carriers of the Citrus tristeza virus which had killed millions of citrus all over the world. A virus free selection was found in the 1950's. 
My pretty little Meyer lemon tree has lots of buds on it. I can't wait to see if it produces anything this year. It, of course, cannot live outside here especially while it is so cold at night but I put it on the porch during the warmer days and move it back in at night until we can get the greenhouse done.
 

11 comments:

  1. I never knew that about Meyer Lemons. Very interesting.

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  2. We have one of those and they are awesome...the Lemons are fabulous!

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  3. I wish lemons would grow in Michigan. I would love a lemon tree.

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  4. I hope you're tree will fruit soon. I am waiting for my lemon tree to bloom and so far I can't find any. I believe lemons need a lot of fertilizing and so I've been adding coffee grounds. Is there anything special you do for Meyer lemons?

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  5. I have been hearing about Meyer Lemons but didn’t know much about them so many thanks for the information. Look forward to hearing how it fruits in due course...

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  6. Anita, I really don't know what to do for it. The ones I had I just had in the greenhouse and watered and fertilized just like my other plants. I am not sure what coffee grounds will do for it though I like to add them to my compost bin.

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  7. OH! you're building a greenhouse!

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  8. No we already had the greenhouse it just needed new plastic and some repairs.

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  9. Scroll down a couple posts and you'll see me redoing the greenhouse.

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  10. I love Meyer lemons - I particularly like using them to make salad dressing, and lemon curd, and lemon icing, and and and. I bought a tree about 6 months ago but it has yet to fruit. I get them from my mum though - delicious. Hope you enjoy yours....

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  11. I live in Michigan and have a patio size Meyer Lemon tree. I have it outside most of the year but bring it inside when the temperature is going to be below 40 degrees. I picked it up on clearance a couple years ago. I figured even if it didn't produce, I could justify the $3. The first year I had blossoms all winter long. It smelled amazing in the house. It ended up with spider mites in the spring and I lost all the leaves but I didn't give up on it and now it is full of leaves again. No blossoms this year but it is thriving.

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