Friday, September 01, 2006

Lemons, limes and mandarins



We thought we'd have a bash at a few fruit trees, not having much sunny garden beds left we could use, we thought we'd try them in large pots. On the left is an Imperial mandarin and a Tahitian lime next to it. Above is a dwarf variety of lemon called "lots of lemons" they are grafted onto a rootstock called flying dragon ( whatever that is) Has anyone had success growing fruit trees in pots? They get plenty of sun where they are and we used a good citrus potting mix, so hopefully they should be ok.

6 comments:

Correy said...

Flying dragon roostock is used to make sure your tree remains a midget.

Keeping your fruit trees in pots means that you will get fruit quicker and more of it. The roots are confined which means the fruit tree is going to be dwarfed or bonsaied anyway even without the flying dragon rootstock. The next thing is that because it is stressed being in the pot it does everything it can to produce fruit so that it's kind doesn't die out.

When in the pots they really do need water every day. I am not sure of your water restrictions but you can get those dripper irrigations to put in the pot and they love that.

P.S I have added your blog to my blog

roybe said...

Thanks for that information Correy, very interesting. Watering shouldn't be a problem for us now we have a rainwater tank.

Anonymous said...

I have also recently planted a lot of lemons in my garden. I am a very novice gardener and was wondering if any one could give me any advice of pruning these bushes. I am in Cairns and since planting the tree 2 months ago, it would and more than tripled in size. But I have had no flowers???

Thanks for any comments

Anonymous said...

Hi Roy, I am also in Brisbane and bought a Lots-of-lemons recently and planted mine rather than leaving it in a pot. It has recently been flowering like mad and small fruits started to form on the end of the branches (about 2-3 mm) but a lot of them are falling off - I hav assumed that this is a form of natural selection and only the strongest fruit will hold on. Fingers crossed anyway! There are still a lot of flower buds which I am watching intently and hoping that they reach the fruit stage. Has yours started fruiting yet? Best of luck with it.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I just wanted to inform you that Lots of Lemons are not grown on Flying Dragon, or grafted onto any other rootstock for that matter. They are actually cuttings from selected Meyer lemon trees. Just thought you should know. ALl the best.

Anonymous said...

I just bought the same lemon tree. Apparently the Meyer is best suited to colder climates, like where I am in Melbourne but it does not have the high acid content as other ones. Since you are in Brisbane, a dwarf Eureka or Lisbon will go really well and can be kept in a pot. The Eureka tends to fruit all year round.