Fertilizer, Morning Glory and Citrus walk in to a bar...

What do these three things have in common? A few years ago my hubby thought it would be cool to have a lemon tree, having no garden experience he asked if we got a tree would I take care of it for him and of course I said of course. Little did I know what a journey this lemon tree and I would take. We bought a two year old tree and as it grew I did as I had read which was to pick off the flower buds so that the tree could concentrate on growing. Well, it flowered a lot, beautiful sweet, suckled smelling blossoms that you wish you could sleep in, but it did not grow much and when we finally did let it produce fruit my husband was dubious about how such scrawny branches would hold a full sized lemon. Over the years I also struggled with keeping the leaves a lush green, they yellowed or turned a yellowish green a lot and often times they even fell off. Serendipitously for the lemon tree, I happened to be reading a thread on what to do about morning glories that don't produce many blooms (because yes, I was having that problem) a poster had suggested using rose fertilizer to force the plant...it seemed a novel idea to me and I wondered how else I could apply or what else I could apply rose fertilizer to, to make it bloom more. This year instead of following the gazillions of articles I'd read on citrus, lemons and meyer lemons I followed my instincts. I put the tree in the sunniest spot I could find, I made up my mind to not pinch off a single bloom and to let the tree fruit and flower all it wanted. I wasn't even sure the tree would be alive due to our particularly cold winter, but as spring approached it was clear there was life in him yet. I pruned back all of the dead portions of the tree, I bought what seemed to me a good citrus fertilizer AND some rose fertilizer. I crushed up the pelleted slow release citrus food* and incorporated that into the top soil, and when the time felt right I began using rose fertilizer in a fairly heavy dose every other week or so. Well, I've never seen the plant so green, or keep so many leaves. He had a million blossoms on him this year and since I wasn't picking them off I got to enjoy their divine smell every time I walked out the gate (oh what it must smell like in the middle of a citrus grove in the late spring!). Meyer lemons are notorious for dropping a lot of their tiny baby fruits and mine was no exception, it was hard to see them fall, but I held fast hoping that more than two or three would stay on. So, it seems that now we have about 10 lemons making their way towards becoming sweet yellow fruit. I continue to use the rose fertilizer and in a week or two will add a second dose of the citrus food. So, that is what rose fertilizer, morning glories and citrus have to do with one another. It would seem from scattered research and sources that rose and citrus fertilizer are the same thing or, at least very similar. However, I looked up the breakdown on some various options and Miracle Grow Rose Fertilizer which is what I’ve been using while having a similar N-P-K ratio to other ferts has a much higher level of N-P-K so perhaps it is this that sets the MG Rose fert apart and makes it so successful. Breakdown of Standard Fertilizer Options: Miracle Grow Rose Food: 18-24-16 I’m using this Dr. Earth Rose Food: 5-7-2 Miracle Grow Citrus: 13-7-13 Vigoro Citrus: 6-4-6 – I’m using this Basic Steps to Successful Lemon Trees in Containers and Elsewhere:  Sun, sun and more sun.  Fertilizer especially in containers! Try a rose fertilizer if your standard citrus version isn’t working.  Water less often than you think you should and when you do water deeply. It can be hard, but hold off on watering, if the lemon is in quite a large pot you need to give it time to dry out, more time than you think, so hold off a bit and then water and water deeply. Everyone says to do this, but really hold off a little longer than you think you should, and that's probably how often you should water.  Don’t let the tree fruit until it’s about 4 years old, this means picking off the blossoms when the tree flowers the first few years. This may seem an impossible task at the time, waiting so long for fruit, but you can do it and it will pay off. Or, fork over the dough and get a mature tree.  Once the tree is old enough to fruit let it do it how it wants to. Don’t pull off blossoms thinking it will give others a better chance to survive. The lemon will get rid of what it doesn’t want on its own. Hints: Container lemons will be far more finicky than lemons in the ground. But…they are doable, quite ornamental and can be taken with you when you go (to a new home, not the grave). *Am I the only one that feels like those slow release pellets need help breaking down? You can stick them in a pot and 20 years later I swear they’ll still be there