Delicious fruit, sweetly fragrant flowers and Leaves for Tea, dwarf Meyer lemon trees are a great fruit tree to grow. You can grow Meyer lemon trees in pots indoors and outdoors for big beautiful sweet lemons!
You know when those wonderful catalogs roll into the mailbox in winter and you’re looking longingly at those dazzling photos of luscious plants? Well, we were drooling over the vivid pages and stopped at the dwarf Meyer lemon tree loaded with fruit.
We wanted to get one, but wondered, do those dwarf citrus trees really produce fruit like that…? Are those pictures of tiny trees loaded with lemons real?
We now know that it’s TRUE! They’re great little producers of the BEST TASTING LEMONS EVER!! BUT… they do have some basic needs that must be met or else they won’t fruit or the fruit will fall off as ours has this season. First, let’s meet the Meyers.
What Are Meyer Lemons?
The most popular indoor-outdoor citrus tree is the dwarf Meyer Lemon tree. We now have two, that Coleman got me for birthday and Christmas presents… favorite kinds of pre!
Born in China
A hybrid native citrus fruit of China, Meyer lemons, Citrus × meyeri, are a sweeter, less acidic variety of lemon. With smooth, bright yellow skin sporting a hint of orange color and flavor when fully ripe, the dwarf Meyer lemon tree can fruit indoors or outside, in pots or in the ground in temperate zones, 8-11.
Why Are They Called Meyer Lemons?
The Meyer lemon tree is named after Frank Meyer who imported the first plants from Beijing in 1908. Thank you, Mr. Meyer! The Meyer is a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon, which likely accounts for it rounder shape, sweeter taste and hint of orange flavor and color.
The Meyer lemon is a cross between a mandarin orange and a lemon.
Improved in the USA
Once banned for spreading disease to other citrus trees, the University of California began working to improve the Meyer lemon tree around 1975. Fortunately they succeeded so that the ban was lifted and we can all enjoy this delightful lemon plant, with scant concern for disease.
Growing the Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree
FERTILIZER – When to Fertilize Meyer Lemon Trees
- WHEN: After 2 years, 3x / year, best between April-September,
- TYPE: High nitrogen good for citrus fruit
FRUITING – When do Meyer Lemon Trees Bear Fruit?
- Can bear fruit year round, but especially in winter
- How long before Meyer lemon trees Bear Fruit?
- 1-2 years for grafted Meyer lemon trees
- 3-7 years for trees grown from seed, without certainty of quality
- Can continue bearing fruit for up to 30+ years with proper care
FRUIT TASTE, TEXTURE and APPEARANCE of Meyer Lemons
- Round, smooth-skinned
- non-acidic, mildly sweet lemon flavor
- sizes vary, can be small to full sized large fruits
Meyer Lemon Growing Conditions
- OUTDOORS: USDA Hardiness Zone 8-11 (can be hardy to temps above 20℉ / 6.7℃)[1]
- INDOORS: Can grow and fruit indoors in large pots; best in cool room with humidifier
- POLLINATION: Self pollinating – no mate required
Disease and Problems With Meyer Lemon Trees
- DISEASE
- Citrus tristeza virus
- Root rot – from uneven or too much watering
- PESTS: Citrus thrips, more likely indoors away from natural predators such as spiders, lacewings, and pirate bugs
- FRUIT NOT YELLOWING – causes could include not enough fertilizer, maturity or sun
- FRUIT DROPPING OFF – causes can include:
- Natural thinning for optimal fruit quality
- Uneven watering
- FRUIT SPLITTING – caused by uneven growth due to extreme weather changes[1]https://homeguides.sfgate.com/baby-meyer-lemons-dying-88686.html
- LEAVES
- YELLOW LEAVES – needs water or fertilizer
- CURLING LEAVES – Cupping or curling leaves usually means too much water
- GREEN LEAVES FALLING OFF – some leaf loss during flowering and fruiting is normal, however, excessive loss could be due to a number of common issues, such as root rot, spider mites, or nutrient deficiency.
SIZE:
- REGULAR: 6-10 feet / 2.5 meters
- DWARF: 5-7 feet / 1.8 meters
- SOIL: keep soil moist (but not wet) in well drained sandy, loamy soil.
- SUN: Direct sunlight is best for a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight per day
- WATER: Not drought resistant; prefers humidity, rain and moist soil.
PRUNING:
- PRUNE –
- at over 3 feet tall, as needed
- after last fruit is harvested
- LIGHTLY prune dead or extended branches moderately to even out
- NIP BUDS and/or Fruit
- remove all but one bud per cluster may produce larger fruit
- prune marble sized fruit clusters to 1-2 fruits
- REPOT: in spring
- LEAVES: save the pruned leaves to dehydrate for tea!
RELATED: see this avocado leaf tea recipe that includes lemon leaves or lemon balm
Hard to Clip Those Blossoms Though…
We have a hard time pruning off the buds because we love the flowers for their beauty and incredible aroma that sweetens a room. So we prune the fruit instead.
It would be interesting to do a case study of two similarly thriving trees side-by-side and see which one produces the better fruit: the tree whose buds were nipped or the tree whose fruit was clipped. Maybe we’ll try that next time we have two blossoming at the same time.
However, that said, for our plant that’s struggling this year, the one fruit left upon it is certainly growing large and beautiful. It’s like the tree is giving it’s one “child”, all that it has to give. We will repot it in spring in a larger pot with fresh loamy soil and more attention to fertilizing it as well.
RELATED: Check out espalier fruit trees.
Meyer Lemon Tree Fruit
How Do Meyer Lemons Taste?
Delicious Meyer lemons are the sweetest, mildest lemons we’ve ever tasted. Less acidic than the typical lemon, Meyer lemons are not sour and have a hint of the sweetness of an orange and can grow as large too.
Prolific Fruit for a Tiny Tree
When we first wrote this article, our first Meyer lemon tree had 14 lemons on it in its second year with us. The other one, none right now. It had a hard summer when, after transplanting it to a larger pot, Coleman didn’t realize there were no drain holes in it, so the poor little lemon tree nearly drowned.
Fortunately, it bravely bore to ripeness the two lemons that were already on it and well on the way to maturing, and they were delicious! Now it’s recovering nicely.
Lemon Water – a Daily Health Ritual
We start our mornings with lemon water. Either organic lemon juice, or a wedge of lemon squeezed into a full glass of fresh water. But organic lemons are expensive. Heck… even regular lemons are expensive these days!
So when the seed and plant catalogs came in, we were drooling over those beautiful photos of abundantly fruiting dwarf Meyer lemon trees. We wondered if any of the photos were real, or close to real. So we asked the GardensAll community if they had direct experience with growing the Meyer lemon trees. Many folks chimed in with their — mostly positive — experience, and including a few non-Meyer citrus trees.
“Anyone growing dwarf Meyers lemon trees or other dwarf citrus trees?”
Kristi answered:
“We have a dwarf lemon and a dwarf lime. During the summer months, we move them outside and bring them back in for the cold months. This year between the two trees we harvested almost 4 dozen fruit. The lemons were larger than my fist. My neighbor thought they were small grapefruit. We’ve found them both to be slightly sweeter than store bought varieties.“
WOW, That’s pretty good! Four dozen fruit from two dwarf Meyer Lemon Trees!
Many other people responded as well, and with varying degrees of success or failure. We share that stream of responses at the end of this article so you can see the range of experiences.
Abundant and Fragrant Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree Blossoms
In its first season with us, our first little dwarf lemon tree, had over a dozen of flowers altogether and it was exciting to see that tiny two foot tall potted Meyer lemon tree flowering and fruiting. It’s natural for some of the fruit to fall off in order to allow the healthiest ones to grow, so our first season it produced five lemons, that were ready to harvest at different times.
Meyer lemon tree blossoms flowers have a wonderfully sweetly fragrance.
We’re being careful to keep it moist as they do need some extra TLC in the dry indoors of a northeastern winter climate in zone 7a. Our Meyer lemon trees sit in our southern facing sunroom windows in winter. If you don’t have a sunny window, you can supplement with a grow light. We’re keeping a humidifier going under it, which has made a world of difference.
We actually have two humidifiers for our house plants. One is a warm air humidifier and also a cool air sonic humidifier. We keep the sonic going by day when the indoor temperature is higher, and the warm mist humidifier at night when we run lower heat. Both seem to work equally well.
When growing Meyer Lemon Trees indoors, they will need some extra TLC.
Meyer Lemon Tree Problems
Why Lemons Don’t Turn Yellow
- FOOD: Not enough nutrients (give monthly citrus tree fertilizer)
- AGE: Not matured yet (it can take up to 9 months to ripen)
- SUN: Not enough sunlight (this is often the culprit)
Lemon Tree Leaves Curling
Curling lemon leaves is a water issue. It means that your plant is either too dry or too wet. If your soil is moist it could also be due to dry indoor air.
We placed humidifiers near our lemon trees and paid more attention to careful watering and the leaves stopped curling. If your citrus tree, leaves or fruit are having other problems, here’s a very helpful PDF guide put out by UC Davis.
For more on lemon tree problems, see the PDF Guide linked at page bottom, or in this footnote.[2]https://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/530-15.pdf
Harvesting Dwarf Meyer Lemons
And… here’s our latest harvest! I got 7 lemons off on the same morning. To harvest, just give a tiny twist and if they fall off, they’re ready. If they resist, leave them on for another few days.
Notice the humidifier in the lower right corner of our photo. The Meyer lemon trees really like humidity, and ours started producing fruit after we added a humidifier nearby for the dry indoor winter climate.
So yes! Dwarf Meyer lemon trees are awesome!
Now… when you harvest your lemons, you’ll want to use the entire fruit, skin and all. We were so STOKED to learn of these more about the many benefits of lemon peels, and also on the many uses for lemon peels to enjoy.
Where to Buy Meyer Lemon Trees
Check with your local nurseries first. It’s great to support local businesses, plus great to establish a good relationship with local growers. Most are glad to answer questions and help with any problems, and some will even order special request items that may not be in stock.
Before ordering online, be sure to check reviews. A great resource for reviews on growers is Dave’s Garden. Run a scan through their lists to see if the company you’re planning to order from is upstanding in products and services.
Make sure the description says “grafted tree”.
- Amazon (be sure to scan the reviews)
- Local nurseries
- Local home stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot
- Online sellers – check reviews on Dave’s Garden guide to gardening by mail
Best to Buy a Grafted Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree
Since the dwarf citrus can take so long to grow from seed and there’s no guarantee of fruiting or quality, it’s highly recommend that you buy grafted trees. If you buy a couple plants that are a few years old, you can have more fruit much much sooner.
Buy an Older Lemon Tree and Save Money for Years
If you buy lemons regularly like we do, to buy a more mature lemon tree will save you money in fruit in the long run, especially if you’re buying organic lemons. Organic lemons are currently retailing for $1.49 each at our local Lowe’s Foods store. However, organic Meyer lemons sell for more like $2-$3 each.
If your plant produces 20 lemons in a year, a $40 plant would pay for itself within the first year or two at an estimated $2 per fruit retail price. Then you’d have it for increasing quantities of lemons for decades for ongoing savings.
Grafted Meyer’s lemon trees can take just 1-2 years to produce fruit when grown from seed.
Growing the Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree Indoors and Out
Contributions from the GardensAll Community
Linda:
“They are indeed real. However when my lemons come in there are a lot ready at one time.“
Jason:
“Shower & mist them. They take a while to get healthy enough to produce. You need to feed regularly and water often if they are in the sun. They like there leaves misted as well. Once they get going, it doesn’t take too much [effort]. I just water and feed them when they are outside during the summer months. It’s the winter, I guess I give them more care. I get fruit most of the season though.“
“I have four different types of them. They do better outside, during the summer. I feed mine often and keep them moist. I throw them in the shower, once a month to wash the leaves. Make sure the water is warm and not on full blast with water pressure.“
“They need a lot of sun.“
Tanya:
“Meyer Lemon I am growing from seed in my greenhouse here on the Oregon Coast. Have other citrus trees as well. Found out best thing is humidity & misting frequently.“
Comments from the Community – continued
Jan Michalak Elliot:
This is my dwarf orange tree. I bought it almost 7 years ago. It was about 6 inches tall. It has produced oranges once. There was 40 of them. They were bitter and pretty small. That was two summers ago. They didn’t produce last year but it was caught outside in a hailstorm. Hoping to get some blooms this year and some good fruit from it.
Elizabeth advises Jan:
You must prune it and feed it. Prune for dwarf fruiting trees. Get to know the difference of fruiting and mere vegetative buds? Oh and feed.
Louise:
Yes, we’ve grown them in big pots for 3 years but we only get 1 lemon a year. We put outside as soon as it gets above freezing.
Alicia:
Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree outdoors, and then we have ruby red grapefruit, and navel oranges but they aren’t dwarf. All in sunny Arizona!
Ashleigh:
I am! I’m in CT. I have a 3-in-1 dwarf citrus tree. So far, only limes. Last summer was the most fruit it ever put out, around a dozen+ limes. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s only a foot and a half tall and in a 5 gallon pot.
Jason replies:
Nice! I am in Massachusetts. It will produce more as it gets bigger. Make sure to feed it when it’s producing.
Julie:
I got about 13 lemons from my small indoor dwarf Meyer lemon tree this winter, but I find keeping the trees healthy indoors is very challenging. My tree is about 3ft tall, so very small. It was much happier outside over the summer. My orange tree only produced 1 orange last year, but just had about 20 blossoms…so I am hopeful for this year. I do find them to be difficult inside though.
This was mine this fall:
Gardens All: That’s been our experience in the past too, Julie. The citrus just love the outdoors… regular rain, fresh air and direct sun.
Comments from the Community – continued
Ivy:
My neighbor is having success with a dwarf Meyer lemon. I’m looking forward to getting one soon too. She got it just this last year, and it was pretty tiny. She got only 3-4 lemons off it. It is growing and looks healthy, so I am sure this year will be better for her.
Christina:
Only my second year … We just got a few off each tree so far. But we’ve moved them to a better location this year, so hopefully it will be better.
Erika:
My cousin grows a lemon tree in her house. While it doesn’t produce like the photos posted on here it does make enough she can make pies and all sorts of stuff.
Kirstin:
My inlaws grow them in pots. Both the lemon and orange trees get lots of fruit but I find them quite bitter. We are in Southeast Pennsylvania so they bring them in throughout the winter. You would know better than I would if it’s a soil issue. But definitely get lots of fruit.
[See tips for sweetening citrus below].
Linda:
They are indeed real. However when my lemons come in there are a lot ready at one time. You might be drinking a lot of water. Love my lemon tree!! It was a gift so I have no idea what kind it is. I keep it in the greenhouse in winter and outside in the summer. I love it dearly. The lemons are wonderful and very big.
Cynthia:
Bought a Meyer lemon at Lowe’s last year (NOrth Central PA) and it was beauteous and covered with blossoms and produced like crazy, 6 lemons, then….it….DIED….????
Comments from the Community – continued
Kristi:
We have a dwarf lemon and a dwarf lime. During the summer months, we move them outside and bring them back in for the cold months. This year between the two trees we harvested almost 4 dozen fruit. The lemons were larger than my fist. My neighbor thought they were small grapefruit. We’ve found them both to be slightly sweeter than store bought varieties.
Buford:
Meyer lemon did great in my passive greenhouse too cold for my banana but the lemon has fruit on it now.
Tips for Growing a Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree
Julie Rabern:
I’ve had that happen, (fruit all fell off) last year in fact. This year, it’s loaded,and then it blossomed again after the first ones were set and about the size of small walnuts! Craziest thing ever. Potted in a container, still outside in Oregon. For sure the little tree that could!
So we asked Julie:
Wow, Julie Rabern! Very interesting! Did you change anything this year…? Repot; fertilizer, etc? Either way, so GLAD you’re getting lots of fruit from it this year!
And Julie responded with some interesting tips:
Julie Rabern:
I took it out of its old pot, used a serrated knife cut across all the roots at the bottom; used happy frog type mulch, a shot of miracle grow, and cut WAY back on water even through our drought. I water every couple weeks,until it pours out. Then wait at least two more weeks. This little tree is loaded!!! At least 40 lemons!!
Cutting back on the water was critical. The leaves kind of cup if they are getting too much water.
Related Articles:
THANK SO MUCH to all the Gardens All Facebook folks who chimed in. Here’s our email address if you want to send your tips and info. And if you haven’t visited our Facebook community yet, we’d love to see you there too, so come on over!
Let’s keep on growing!
I’m LeAura Alderson, a garden, herb and plant enthusiast with a passion for discovering the many edible and medicinal benefits of the plants all around us, including the weeds! I’m a writer, editor and media publisher for our family of websites.
While I was certified in fitness and life coaching, I am NOT a health practitioner. However, I’m a lifelong health enthusiast, with a keen interest in healthy, organic foods and making home remedies and the content we share is from our own experience and usage as well as that extracted from scientific research so that you can explore further on your own.
Always seek the advice and guidance of your health practitioners first and foremost.
As a family we’re steadily expanding our gardening, experimentation and knowledge around all things gardening, edible landscaping, fresh organic foods and self sustainability with farming in our future. I also own and manage iCreateDaily.com, a site all about transformation through creation, and the power of positivity, optimism and mindset.
References