A lemon tree in the making – part 2

I don’t know what got into me yesterday but with my parenting instincts re-energized with my lemon tree, I hopped onto my laptop and googled tips about caring for lemon trees. Yeah, I know, this sounds a lot like gardening (which I hate) but I thought if this thing needs care, I might as well find out what care it needs. Besides I also do want to know how long it will be before I can make a lemon meringue pie.

So, onto to my laptop I went and would you believe, the search terms “lemon tree care” scored 10.8 million hits in Google! Wow! I am thinking to myself that there’s a lot of advice out there on lemon threes. Or at least people offering advice. Why is that so? Are there so many issues with lemon trees that there’s a need for that much advice? Maybe that’s where the saying “I bought a lemon comes from”. I immediately erased that thought from my mind! Just focus on the beautiful juicy lemons . . .

To my folly (depending on which way you look at it), I ended up clicking on a website that had tips about how to choose your lemon tree. I know what you are thinking . . . why go there when we’ve already bought one. . . I don’t know . . . but I just did. So, I could not believe my eyes when I read that one of the first tips on picking a tree is that you are NEVER to pick one with lemons on them! In fact, don’t even go near one if they are starting to flower. This is a sign that the tree is in distress. They only flower and fruit (in a pot) if they are really stressed and hence to survive, they propagate. No, no, no, I say to myself. REALLY??? Ouch, my head is hurting once again. This is exactly why I hate gardening.

If you recall in my last blog, the lemon trees looked a bit worse for wear. So, we compromised. But in doing so I went in favour of more lemons. The more the merrier right? It is no wonder then, our tree looked straggly. It all makes sense now. The poor sod had NINE lemons on them! Nine Lemons! And Aidan rightly points out – on only three branches. So, it was probably knocking on deaths door. Just about to pack it all in. Our strategy for picking a lemon tree clearly had a serious flaw in it. Actually, Aidan chimes in, “Not flawed but just plain WRONG!” Trust a teenager to rub it in. I guess at least, he did not add EPIC FAIL at the end.

In the end, after a bit more research, we had no choice but to remove all the lemons from my tree. This was to give it the “best possible chance” to recover and hopefully turn the corner. Apparently, without having so many mouths to feed, the lemon tree might just turn its attention on reinvigorating itself. All of this is as abstract to me as the difference between CTRL and ALT keys on the keyboard. Who would’ve thought a fruiting lemon tree was actually committing kamikaze. So, there you go. Just when I thought I was ahead. The lemon meringue would have to wait. *Sigh

ImageOur first harvest (Almost Pass Fail).

3 thoughts on “A lemon tree in the making – part 2

  1. Hi Sze, I stumbled upon your blog while looking up your contact details to pass on to a friend! Great blog you’ve got going and this post totally cracked me up. Good luck with your lemon tree and when you’ve got some lemons, Shannon Bennett’s lemon tart recipe is worth a try. Ranks tops in my books!

    Have a great week!

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