Lemon tree advice

[Nat22]

Hi everyone I was hoping to get some advice on a couple of Lemon tree questions i have. Firstly what size pot would you recommend for a tree roughly a foot and a half tall? And secondly, the tree got a little damaged when we had the real cold spell a few months ago (it usually copes fine in my conservatory but this year was exceptionally cold), should a cut back the dead branches and remove the dead leaves? Thanks in advance

[starloc]

Citrus dont like big pots, it depends on what size pot its in now, only go a tiny bit up at a time, say froma 6 inch wide to a 8 inch wide , and dont go much deeper than its in now and use a very very free draining compost suitable for citrus, something like a citrus compost mixed 50/50 with some perlite or bark chips ( sold for orchid growing )

its best to wait till closer to may when its growing well to repot so they grow into the compost quickly

dont chop it yet, leave it again till it gets warmer, wait to see where its sprouting, as if you chop old wood off it may not flower/fruit this year, the branches may be better than you think even though the leaves are dead, just check the leaves dont go mouldy if you spray it, remove any mouldy ones

[sarahspatch]

Citrus can look almost dead when they drop their leaves but its surprising how they often come back into leaf when the growing season starts.

Be patient, hold back on the watering whilst its bare and keep fingers crossed!

[Nat22]

I've only just managed to read my replies as my internet has been down for a couple of weeks. Thanks for the advice guys, i'll let you know how I get on

[Nat22]

My tree is still alive and has grown loads woo hoo!

I now have another question though - the tree is now about 4 foot tall, should i prune it? It has never flowered or produced fruit and I'm unsure what to do as I have read so many conflicting opinions online! Some people advise pruning but others say not to prune at all until the tree has started producing fruit, please help!

[starloc]

Its best never to prune a lemon tree, they mainly ( and some varietys only ) fruit on new wood

With a grafted plant ( most commercial plants ) it will fruit eventualy, but not well if you prune it, the main problem preventing fruiting with a grafted plant is transplanting to a very large a pot, in a large pot ( if they dont die due to root rot) they grow rapidly without fruiting till they start to get root bound

If its seed grown you can not prune it for about 10 years, till it gets old enough to start fruiting, they keep count of how many leaf nodes they grow and when they get to a certain number they will start fruiting, it will be about 10 to 15 foot tall and wide before it fruits

Another thing that stops them fruiting is keeping them warm in the house during the winter, they do need to be inside to protect them from frost, But...... to flower they need a certain number of chill hours during the winter, in the dark during the winter let them drop down to below 10C ( air temperature ) , they need over 400 hours of chill hours to start fruiting in spring, dont let them get that cold in bright light or they shed there leaves, i tend to open the window in the room there in during the winter at night unless its very very cold,
You can also bring on flowering by stressing the tree a bit by making sure you let it dry out between watering a bit more, till it starts to wilt slightly, this will bring on flowering if the tree is of fruiting age, this is how they get fruit from lime trees in warm countrys such as thailand and extra crops of lemons in places such as Sicily

Keeping a plant too wet will prevent watering, another common problem, if kept too wet it only flowers when it starts to think its dieing and has root rot

[Nat22]

Wow there's a lot to think about there, thanks so much for the advice