Meyer lemon tree producing small lemons but starting to flower again

Question

I recently purchased a small Meyer lemon tree and it just recently started to grow lemons on it. The tree is about 3 1/2 feet tall and has about a dozen small thumb nail size lemons growing on it. I keep it indoors at night (above 20 degrees indoors) and move it outdoors during the day time (when it’s sunny hot BC summer weather of about plus 23/24 degree weather). Just recently the plant started to produce more flowers again. There are over a dozen more flowers looking to be pollinated. Should I leave those flowers alone? Pollinate those by hand with a q-tip? I’m just wondering if I pollinate those new flowers if it might stress the existing little lemons growing. What do you advise? Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Meyer lemons often flower more than once in a season, so your flowers are perfectly normal. I would leave the flowers on the tree, because they smell so wonderful, but don’t worry about pollination — you want the tree to be putting its energy into growing roots and branches rather than more fruit. For the same reason, you might want to remove all but 2 or 3 or the little fruits. At this young age, the tree won’t be able to support all those fruit to maturity. I’m sending you an article on growing Meyer lemons, and also some more information on fruiting. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/lemons/growing-meyer-lemons.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/lemons/lemon-tree-fruit-drop.htm