By: Ron Skaria

Every serious garden in the United States should have a Meyer lemon tree. Why? Because it is readily available, easy to grow, very attractive, and produces delicious fruit!

The Meyer lemon tree is naturally a smaller tree, achieving a dwarf size of 7 feet, so it can be grown nicely indoors or on your patio. The lemon tree can be kept in decorative and very attractive pots. With pruning, the tree can be contained to the size of a shrub ~4 feet with plenty of fruit production of incredible lemons year-round!

Meyer lemons are not quite as tart as the lemons you typically find in a grocery store from a Eureka lemon tree, and they are also sweeter. With Meyer lemons, you could enjoy your own fresh homemade lemonade, and have your own fresh lemons, harvested by hand for all of your desserts and dishes!

The Meyer lemon was a variety discovered in China between the 19th and 20th centuries. It is likely a cross between a traditional lemon with an orange or mandarin, giving this variety's characteristics a sweeter and more subtle acidic flavor. The fruit of a Meyer lemon has a thin skin, and it is very juicy with a bright yellow-orange. The lemon has a distinctive flowery fragrance and flavor.

Key Takeaways for Growing Lemon Trees in Pots:

1. Grow your tree in containers using regular potting soil
2. Maximize sunlight
3. Use our watering and fertilizer schedules to grow your citrus
4. Bring your tree indoors or in a garage below freezing temperatures

Now that you have realized your egregious mistake of not having a Meyer lemon tree, how do you get started on growing one?

(My rangy lemon tree in West Texas has been through a lot, including very high wind gusts. It's in need of a good pruning, but I am enjoying all the growth I've seen in the 10 months after planting!)

Where Do Meyer Lemons and Citrus Grow?

With proper citrus care, having a citrus tree such as lemon, lime, grapefruit, kumquat, calamondin or orange tree will produce decades of delicious fruit. However, the growing regions in the United States where citrus can be planted into the ground are California, Arizona, South Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

If you do not live in those regions, we do not recommend planting citrus in the ground. However, we consider this a good thing, because it's going to make your citrus growing a lot easier.

Growing Citrus Outside of Growing Zones

So how do you grow citrus outside of these growing zones? You do so by planting your tree in a container. You can use a plastic barrel, a wooden planter, a nice decorative pot, or really any sort of container that has adequate holes on the bottom for drainage.

Another option, which we enjoy, are fabric smart pots which do not have holes, however, the entire container is made of a fabric mesh which allows proper drainage and aeration of the soil.

The Planting Process for Growing Citrus Trees in Pots

The actual planting process of our trees in pots is very straightforward, with standardized use of potting soil and watering and fertilizing schedules.

You can keep any citrus tree pruned back, but the Meyer lemon is naturally a smaller dwarf type variety which gets to be about 4 to 6 feet, but it will still produce an abundant harvest.

Step 1: Container for Meyer Lemon trees

The keys to an appropriate container are having sufficient drainage through the material either being some sort of mesh cloth or having a few holes on the bottom of your planter.

Secondly, the size of the pot should be at least 1-gallon to 15-gallon, with our favorite size recommend being 5 gallons. We find that anything above 25 gallons is quite difficult to physically move with only one person.

Step 2: Soil for Meyer Lemon trees

Choosing soil for your Meyer lemon trees is simple. All you need is any sort of potting mix. We do not recommend gardening soil or topsoil to use for container gardening. This is advantageous because even if you lived in a citrus growing region, you would have to take into consideration the type of soil.

For example, US Citrus is based in the Rio Grande Valley, and we have a wonderful sandy loam type soil which drains very well. Other types of soil such as different types of clay soils especially with limestone mixed in will have a very difficult time draining and this will adversely affect the root health of your tree.

With a standard potting mix for your container gardening, you do not need to worry about any of these factors. You also don't have to worry about the pH balance of the soil. We have just removed a large part of the headache of growing citrus by having all customers grow their citrus in containers and using any standard potting soil which is available at your local nursery garden center supply store.

Step 3: Watering for Meyer Lemon trees

Watering is crucial, typically when citrus is planted into the ground there is a worry of proper drainage and overwatering your tree. Citrus trees planted in the ground prefer to have their roots a bit on the dry side. We have found that if there is proper drainage in container gardening it is difficult to overwater citrus trees.

See our watering schedule for our citrus trees based on their size and the outside conditions.

The best way to figure out how much water your citrus tree needs is to actually look at the tree. If the leaves are wilted and dry, your tree needs more water. After watering, the tree’s leaves should perk up.

Overwatering Your Potted Citrus Tree

Overwatering is a possibility and we find that this especially happens when the trees are indoor and there's a garden saucer used underneath the pot. When there's a garden saucer there is impeded drainage, which is helpful while you're on vacation and cannot water your tree for a week, or when you have your trees indoors to prevent water seeping onto the floors and causing damage.

However, if trees are over-watered, the plant leaves will wilt and may turn a bit yellow and look sad. Watering more will not improve the condition of the tree obviously, and you will likely notice that the soil is waterlogged at this point.

Giving your tree a break by taking it outside if possible or letting the soil drain without a garden saucer in the bathtub for a day is a good solution. Afterward, you can adjust your watering schedule appropriately. Our watering schedule also has a section for indoor planting.

Step 4: Fertilizer for Meyer Lemon trees

Your Meyer Lemon tree will need both macro and micronutrients, just like a human. The macronutrients that all plants need are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. You have likely seen fertilizers and soil which state three numbers together, this is the N – P – K system which shows the concentration and relative amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium respectively.

These machinations are very important for the development of the root system, the color of the leaves, appropriate photosynthesis, the growth of the trunk of the tree, proper flowering, fruiting, and taste of the fruit. See our blog article on nutrition for more information.

Micronutrients are also very important - think of these as vitamins for humans. They are needed much in smaller quantities and plants can have characteristic symptoms if they have a micronutrient deficiency. We will detail out micronutrients and symptoms of deficiencies in later articles.

However, our promise to you is that we make this simple. Between regular potting soil and the fertilizer we recommend, you will have all the macronutrients and micronutrients that your tree needs and a simple fertilizing schedule for easy and effective fertilizing when you get your tree and for every February, May, and August. See our fertilizer schedule below for amounts that we recommend.

Fertilizer Schedule

Step 5: Sunlight for Meyer Lemon trees

Sunlight is crucial to citrus trees, especially citrus being a tropical plant. In most areas of the United States, you want to maximize sunlight with full sun exposure. If you are planting indoors, make sure that it has full sun next to the window, but we would also recommend having a grow light.

Our Grow Light Recommendation

We love SANSI 24W LED grow lights. They have a clean white light because they are full spectrum. They have all the right mix of light spectrum for growth, leaf flush, flower blossoming, and fruit set. 24 watts is a good amount of power for indoor lighting. We recommend placing the grow light anywhere from 6 to 18 inches away from your tree.

Your tree needs 12-16 hours of light a day. You can be very flexible with your light. You can keep it on for many days straight. However, all citrus trees need some dark time.

You can easily use one grow light for 1-3 trees. An easy way is to use one light on a tree for 24 hours at a time.

All grow lights get hot. We prefer SANSI because they use ceramic sinks to dissipate the heat. We have found the majority of grow lights on Amazon to have disturbing safety profiles. Use standard safety precautions, don't let babies and pets stare directly into the light or touch the heat from the grow light!

Our socket/clamp Recommendation:

We recommend the following clamp for your tree. It has a UL certified socket, electrical cord included as well. And it fits the Sansi bulb!

Citrus does best when it has six hours of sunlight a day. If the temperature is consistently above 90° especially for younger trees, there may be some wilting of the leaves. This wilting will reverse however and at this point, it would be advantageous to keep your tree by elementary and partial shade.

Step 6: Winter Protection for Meyer Lemon trees

Meyer lemons are more cold-resistant than traditional Eureka lemons, withstanding temperatures in the mid-20s. However, we do recommend that under freezing temperatures, you move your citrus tree into a warmer area such as a garage or indoors for the entire winter. This point you can utilize a grow lights for continued growth.

There is nothing more frustrating than losing years of work and future decades of fruit than losing your citrus tree to a freak cold-snap which occurred while you were vacationing out of town! Citrus can diet with exposure to temperatures in the teens for even up to 12 hours.

Important Considerations for Meyer Lemon trees

Humidity

Again these are tropical trees and they enjoy higher amounts of relative humidity. This is important, especially in arid desert-like conditions. When keeping your Meyer Lemon in a pot, one the best things you can do to increase local humidity around the plant is to keep the soil moist by following appropriate watering schedules.

If the lemon tree is indoors, using a garden saucer and putting rocks around the tree pot will increase the relative local humidity around your lemon plant. Humidity differences occur between any growing region in the United States, and this affects their quality of certain characteristics of certain citrus varieties. However, your Meyer lemon should do well in the range of humidity conditions.

Step 7: Where Do I Buy A Meyer Lemon Tree?

First of all, if you live in the states of California, Arizona, Louisiana, or Florida, you will need to purchase your citrus locally as citrus cannot be imported into your state because of USDA regulations.

Every single one of our grove's citrus trees including our Meyer Lemon trees is Micro-budded to produce the fruit for our Citrus Craft Club subscription boxes. Micro-budding is a proprietary grafting technique invented by our founder, Dr. Mani Skaria. Micro-budding allows a small citrus tree to all-naturally grow at a very high rate and bear fruit in its second year of full growth instead of the typical 4th to 5th year of growth needed by citrus trees. This allows you to enjoy fruit from a Meyer lemon tree sooner!

At US Citrus, we always offer free shipping straight to your door. Also, since we are located in Texas, we can ship our fresh citrus fruit boxes to any location in Texas as well. Other growers outside of Texas are not able to ship citrus into the state due to regulations.

Step 8: Obtaining Fresh Meyer Lemons

Lucky for you, our Meyer lemon trees bear fruit year-round, with the main harvest being from the middle of November to the middle of April. This allows us to include fresh lemons in our citrus fruit subscription boxes year-round. All lemons are highly productive in cooler areas where the harvest is more spread year-round, and in warmer areas, the harvest is concentrated in fall to early summer. High humidity areas may produce a bit lower quality Eureka Lemon so an Improved Meyer Lemon is an even better choice.

We hope this information has been helpful, and we're confident that you will enjoy our Meyer lemon fruit. You and your family and friends will have a blast enjoying our delicious, grove-fresh Meyer lemon fruit. Don't forget to send us pictures when you do!

 Growing Trees is fun, and every tree we send comes with a 20-page care guide.