North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

On 12/20/2011 7:34 AM, mIEKAL aND wrote:
> Lawrence: What's the most lemons you've been able to ripen on a tree
> that size.  I get good pollination and take on mine but other the
> course of the year most fall off one by one (or are knocked off by
> something) and I end up with 6 or 7 very large lemons.

There are 52 on the tree, some as big as oranges, 6 on the table for 
meals and maybe 28 already eaten. If the sun comes out today I will take 
a photo of it now in bloom. You need to see that. Lemons plus many, many 
blooms. I water it frequently, a watering can every other day. It soaks 
it up. The huge amount of enriched, mineral nutrient amended compost I 
put in the pot, mounded up 4" above the rim, twice over the past 12 
months vanished rapidly leaving the soil level 1-2" below the rim. The 
pollinating insects really go for the blooms. I will do some pruning 
soon to keep the form compact and increase bearing branch caliper for 
strength when fruiting. I do not know whether stress has any effect on 
fruit production but it has been briefly subjected to cold, lack of 
water, vines and weeds almost covering it, too much water, poor drainage 
and over fertilization. A friend said it responded well to applications 
of urine so I put that on it a few times each week. I just look at the 
plant and how it is growing and take a guess about management: water, 
fertilizer and pruning. It is in the biggest pot I can manage to move 
around and I have that sitting on a garbage can dolly. Eventually I will 
locate it in indoors in a sunroom.