No fruit on Lemon treesNo fruit on Lemon trees

A lemon tree provides gorgeous blooms and delightful fruits that’s why when there is no fruit on lemon trees its becomes unpleasant.

When you harvest the lemons, you are sure to have your homemade lemonade and its benefits.

However, Lemon trees are very vulnerable to poor environmental conditions. It becomes easy for the tree to get a low fruit set due to damage to the plant’s health.

This article will see why your lemon tree has no fruits and how to make it bear the fruits.

Why no fruit on Lemon trees?

There are several factors which cause a lemon tree not to amass fruits, so let’s have a look at one by one down here;

1. No flowering

If your tree is not blooming at the right time, the chances of producing fruits are very nill; thus, no fruit on lemon trees in your garden.

The absence of flowers makes a lemon tree, not fruit. Sometimes lack of blooms is due to inferior cultivation methods, improper watering, and wrong rootstock. 

2. Immature tree leads to no fruit on lemon trees

It’s possible for a lemon tree to have blooms but still fails to fruit. No fruit on a lemon tree is sometimes because the tree is still young and not mature enough to produce fruits.

If the lemon tree is not three years and above, it will not have fruits because it’s not the time for it.

3. Blossom drop hence no fruit on lemon trees

When blossoms on a lemon tree drop, it also leads to no fruit on the tree. While blooms drop, most of the newly forming fruits fall before they start to grow. Hence the lemon tree will have no fruits that season.

4. Excess fruits on a tree

A lemon tree with many fruits on it leads to fruit drop; hence no fruits on lemon trees at the end of the day.

When the tree excessively produces fruit in a season, it won’t thrive because it will need a lot of energy to flourish. 

So when the tree needs to concentrate on its growth, it will drop most unhealthy fruits and keep the only ones in shape, thus no fruits.

5. Too much water results to no fruit on lemon trees

When you water excessively a lemon tree, the soils will become soggy, yet lemon does not want water-logging grounds. 

Wet soils lead to root rot of the tree, which causes fungus. Of course, a tree that has infections cannot produce fruits hence no fruits on lemon trees.

6. Low nutrients leading to no fruits on lemon trees 

Whenever your lemon tree lacks nutrients that can help during fruit production, it will not bear the fruits. 

Nutrients come from fertilizers rich in Nitrogen, potassium, and Magnesium, which support the tree to bloom and fruit. The absence of these will lead to no fruit on a lemon tree.

7. Too much coldness leads to no fruit on lemon trees

No fruit on lemon trees because of the cold weather conditions for your plant. Lemons do not enjoy cold atmospheres, so usually, during the winter, they do not produce fruits or have trivial and unhealthy fruits.

Lemons do not thrive in frost weather conditions because they freeze the fruits, and the tree goes into dormancy hence having the lemons die.

How to get your lemon tree bear fruits?

1. Location

Place a lemon tree if it’s in a container at the southern side of your house to prevent it from the northern winds, which might affect the tree’s growth and blossoms, which leads to the plant’s fruiting. 

Ensure where the tree has no shade or objects obstructing it from getting bright light that enables it to fruit. The area needs to be well-draining with a proper shelter to shield the young tree.

2. Warm temperatures 

When growing a lemon tree, please keep it in a warm area to enable the blooming and fruiting process. If it’s in the winter, keep the tree indoors and put it outside when the sun comes out for at least six hours every day. 

You can use thermal covers to protect budding lemon trees or with little fruits when freezes transpire.

3. Apply fertilizers to the soil

When you want a lemon tree to bear and retain fruits, you need to ensure you add fertilizers to give the tree nutrients. 

Potassium and nitrogen are suitable for the tree’s flowering and fruiting. When you add these nutrients, the tree will be firm to produce the flowers and fruits.

The best time to apply fertilizers is in the early spring before the plant is ready for new growth.

4. Water your lemon tree deeply

For a lemon tree to bear fruits, you need to deep water the plant and help the soil absorb the water and become moist. 

When it’s in the winter, you water half of the amount of irrigation to the tree, and when it’s in the summer, you need to water at least once a week to avoid the soils from drying out.

5. Prune where necessary 

A lemon tree needs some pruning at least once a while to remove dead or diseased branches. Any limbs with problems lead to no fruits on the tree since fruits set at the end of the tree branches.

So removing these unhealthy branches help a lemon tree to bear fruits when they can nourish during production.

5. Look out for pests and diseases.

Helping a lemon tree bear fruits requires you to ensure the tree has no insects which attack and spoil the fruits or the tree as a whole.

Spray the pests and remove the undesired stems with infections, and the tree will become healthy, thus producing fruits for your tree.

Sometimes, after all these attempts, a lemon tree might still fail to bear fruits, so you need to know which rootstock you are using. Usually, dwarf rootstocks are the ones that produce the best fruit, and having the fruit is fast.

Lemon tree fruit cycle

Are you living in a mild frost and subtropical climate area? It’s easy to grow a lemon tree in such conditions. Lemon trees fill your garden with fresh redolence and gorgeous fruits.

Let’s find out about the lifecycle of a lemon tree fruit and how to keep your tree for as many years as possible.

The lifecycle of a lemon tree

A lemon tree has an average lifespan of over 50 years if it gets proper care. It can live for even 100 years so long as you curb any diseases and other factors that might shorten the tree’s life.

Diseases are a crucial issue that affects a lemon tree’s growths, but the tree gets life again when you prevent these diseases.

A lemon tree’s life cycle is that after planting the tree, between two to five years, it blooms and produces aromatic blossoms, leading to the plant’s fertilization.

Each branch poses male and female blooms, and bees are the principal pollinators for these flowers to produce fruit.

How long do lemons trees live in containers? 

Lemon trees live in a container at the same time as in the ground. It would help if you repotted a lemon tree to a larger pot each year when it’s growing faster.

While repotting a lemon tree, you need to put fresh potting soil in a new container to keep the tree fresh and rejuvenating. 

Once a lemon tree reaches its maximum growth size while in a large pot, you do not have to continue changing it but rather keep putting fresh soil.

Here is are the factors that can extend a lemon tree’s lifespan;

1. Direct sunlight

Lemon needs to have access to the sun for at least eight hours every day since they love sunlight to grow healthy and blooms. A tree that you put out to the sun will have a longer lifespan than the one you keep most of the time indoors.

2. Well draining soils

Lemon trees need soils that are light and well-draining to enable it not to have wet roots. Lemon trees hate “wet feet,” so you need to make sure the soil is favorable for its proper growth.

If you minimize roots rotting issues and contain the fungus, you give the tree a long life span.

3. Proper watering

Give your tree enough water, and it will live for an extended period. Try to make sure the soils do not completely dry out because it results in leaf and fruit drop. 

When it’s the dry season, use the deep watering method at least once a week and only water when the soils are dry during the winter.

4. Fertilize the soils

Always use citrus fertilizers to fertilize lemon trees at least every spring season. It provides nutrients to the tree and gives it the energy to grow, bloom, and produce fruits each growing season. 

Make sure the fertilizers contain all essential micronutrients to enable the tree to be healthy. A healthy and energetic lemon will thrive for many years and have a longer life span.

5. Pruning

Most times, reducing lemon tree branches allows it to have more sunlight access and ease air circulation for the stems. When the tree is not thinning, the risk of diseases will be high, leaving for a shorter period.

Remove all dead, broken, and diseased branches to reduce infections to the lemon tree and other related issues that might affect its long lifespan growth.

Lemon tree flowers falling off.

It’s rewarding to grow lemons for yourself, but you need to know how to give the tree care and keep it healthy.

When anything goes wrong with your lemon tree, it will stress because you won’t know its cause.

Now you are growing a lemon tree, and suddenly it’s blossoms begin falling off, and you are wondering why!

Here are the reasons why a lemon tree’s flowers are falling off;

1. Temperature changes

When climates change, it affects lemon trees since they are susceptible to weather changes. When the temperature is cold and windy weather, blossoms will fall off a tree.

When the lemon tree is under a shade and cannot access the sun, its flowers will fall off.

2. Unseasonal cold spring 

Lemon trees do not tolerate frost conditions so that the flowers will drop on outdoor trees.

3. Indoor cool climates

Container indoor lemons are prone to flower drop since the house rarely has sunlight to support blooming. Moving the tree in and out of the house affects a lemon tree, leading to blossoms falling off the tree.

4.Over and under watering

Changes in watering a lemon tree can lead to flowers falling off the tree. If you give a lemon tree less water, it will resort to dropping its blossoms and fruit to conserve its energy for growth. 

Simultaneously, when the water is too much for a lemon tree, it causes waterlogging and flooding, which the roots do not want hence dropping its flowers. Lemons enjoy well-draining soils with appropriate watering.

5. Poor soils

Flowers falling off a lemon tree may be due to infertile soils. If you do not add fertilizers to the tree to equip it with nutrients rich in potassium and nitrogen, the flowers will drop. 

Potassium is vital for the flowering of lemon. Whenever it’s lacking, the lemon tree will drop its flowers. 

Lemon trees will face flowers falling off when the weather conditions, location, and care are not favorable for the tree to flourish as above.

Lemon tree fertilizer

Fertilizers are necessary for your Lemon tree’s growth and fruit production since they help the tree be energetic.

The fertilizer needs to be richer in nitrogen responsible for the growth of leaves, phosphorus, the development of roots, flowers, and fruits, and then potassium for the plant performance’s overall functions.

You need to apply fertilizers at the right time and ensure you do it not more than four times each year. Add fertilizers during cold seasons when the tree is not actively growing. 

How do you apply fertilizer to lemon trees?

If you want a lemon tree to produce many fruits, you need to add fertilizers to give the tree nutrients.

1.Apply the fertilizers circularly around the lemon tree but avoid putting them at the tree’s base. Make sure the fertilizers get to the root system of a lemon tree.

2. Apply the fertilizers 3 feet to the tree if it’s 3 foot tall and if it’s 20 feet tall, apply the fertilizers 20 feet around it.

Adding fertilizers to a lemon tree will produce blooms and, eventually, fruits. The tree will have the necessary nutrients to facilitate its general production.

Pruning lemon tree

Pruning helps to cut back your lemon tree and improve its overall quality of the fruits it’s going to produce.

By pruning, you cut off all undesirable branches and leave what the tree can handle to thrive. 

Sometimes, the tree has many branches, weak, dead, diseased, and fatty fruits, making it lack aeration and sunlight access. The tree might also lose energy for growth.

Pruning is best when the tree is still in its first and second year to help it grow how you want it and maintain a good shape. 

While cutting the tree back, make sure you leave it at eight to 10 feet tall to help you have easy access to it during harvest and while you care for the tree. 

Be sure only to prune out unhealthy branches because you might cut stems that have buds, affecting the lemon tree.

Prepare your tools such as pruning shears, blades, and make sure they are sharp and clean to keep your tree healthy and make the cutting easy if the equipment is sensitive.

Prune in the early spring or else February through April are good months for pruning after the tree produces its fall harvest.  

A pruned tree is healthy, fresh, and will thrive adequately, so you can do it occasionally according to how the tree is growing.

When do Meyer lemon trees bloom?

Meyer lemons have two major blooming seasons that are in the fall and early spring.

 In case the tree blooms during a cold season, keep it indoors to have the tree warm and avoid blossom drop. 

Otherwise, sometimes lemons bloom all year round, depending on the care and weather conditions.

A lemon tree needs the factors below to bloom; 

• Light
• Proper watering
• Nutrients
• Warm temperatures
• Pollination
• Pruning
• Patience since lemons take much time to mature

Your tree will produce lots of fruit with much care. Its lifespan is prolonged if you maintain watering, fertilizers, direct sunlight, warm temperatures, and pruning.

Frequently Asked Questions