Question:
I have a dwarf Meyer Lemon tree that’s currently in my living room as I’m using it as an indoor plant. I love the fragrance of the blossom, but the flowers keep falling off. What do I need to do to help it bear lemons?Answer:
- Meyer lemons can be grown as a houseplant: however, it is not typical in our areas.
- They’re the easiest of all citrus to get to bear fruit inside. That being said, it will be challenging to keep it as a long-term houseplant.
- You’ll need lots of direct and indirect light to keep the foliage green.
- Usually, this is not the biggest problem. Also, keep in mind that the dwarf variety of lemons are not small and petite. They grow to six plus feet with a three to four-foot width.
- You’ll need to prune it often to keep it small.
- To set fruit indoors, you’ll have to hand pollinate each blossom with a little camel hair or artist brush to replace the bees, mother nature's pollinator.
- The blossoms fall off whether they're pollinated or not. With the brush, you gently swirl each inside the flower individually to transfer the pollen from the male to the female structure. Once pollination occurs, lemons take nine to twelve months to mature
- Water and watering are the biggest ongoing problem you’ll face.
- At first, there is plenty of room in a container for root growth and moisture retention. But as the plant grows, the root ball becomes denser and requires more frequent and larger volumes of water. As the plant matures, you’re not going to be successful with a periodic glass or two of water.
- You’ll need to move it to either a bathtub or outside to water it thoroughly. And can become tedious as it should occur once or twice a month.
- Irregular watering causes the leaves to yellow and the maturing lemons to drop off. The long-term solution is to look for a more permanent outdoors location.
Note:
Kaffir Lime and Calamondin Orange also work indoors. But I’d avoid Naval Oranges and Grapefruits as they’ll never sweeten up sufficiently because of the lack of summer heat.Question:
I replaced a portion of my lawn with drought-tolerant plants. I’m concerned about feeding the plants as I covered the area with a four-inch layer of fir bark mulch, How will the plants ever get the food and do I have to remove the mulch every time I want to feed?Answer:
- It’s not necessary to remove the mulch when fertilizing.
- The nutrients are spread evenly around the drip line of the plants and lightly cultivate in to the mulch. Granular fertilizers are water soluble.
- When you water, the fertilizer dissolves and the mixture of water and nutrients percolates into the root zone by the earth's gravitational pull. So, it moves through the mulch and into the soil where the roots are located. This also applies to liquid fertilizers.
- So, there is no great mystery to feeding your plants.