Question
I have a Meyer lemon in a large pot. It's a standard and approximately eight years old. It has fruited and at times is covered in flowers. At the moment it's winter here and temperatures can drop to -7c. Last night it was about -4. The tree is near the eaves but not under them, facing NW. It gets heaps of sun. I have a few problems - when the tree is covered in blossoms, often a lot of the blossoms fall off early and never develop into fruit. Sometimes the 'stumps' are a bit black. The last fruiting was about seven. It's a small tree, about four feet tall and 1.5 feet across in the crown, so perhaps that's about its limit. The fruit never get very big, but taste good and are very juicy. I still have fruit on the tree as they weren't completely ripe. Currently the leaves are all yellow and the fruit that are left on the tree are getting flatter on the upside, almost white like the skin is melting, and in places mouldy. I know that Meyers don't like frost, so could this be frost-bite? The pot is very heavy and I can't move it so I guess I'll have to try to rig something up to protect it. Any suggestions? Also with the yellow leaves, is this the cold too? Should I fertilise it or wait until spring? I have mini mondo grass growing in the pot as a living mulch and the pot is a water-well type. We have had a drought for several years and water restrictions, but in summer I did keep the water up to it. Nothing else gets a drink. Recently it rained quite a bit (yay) and the tree got a saturated for days in a row. Why do you think the leaves are yellow? It's looking very sad, the poor thing.

Answer
Tracey,

The problem is the low temperatures. Meyers lemons die back in temperatures under 10 degrees F. I would recommend building a shelter around the tree to try to insulate it from the weather, give it a good shot of fertilizer andprune off all the blackened branches to encourage new growth.

Good luck,
Ed Gulliksen