r/GardeningAustralia • u/onomango • 1d ago
Is my lemon tree really a lemon tree? 🌻 ID This Plant
Good evening Redditors, The girlfriend and I bought a house about a year ago in the Northern suburbs of Perth, with an incredibly sad and neglected lemon tree in the backyard, it was all leggy and had been heavily cut back to basically just trunks (yes,plural) / branches....so, we watered it, we gave it love, it's bounced back great.
BUT - one year on, it's showed no signs of flowering or fruiting, just vigorous green growth.
Observations: Long spines / spikes The leaves (When crushed) smell very much like lemon leaves There appears to be dead wood in the centre, with the new "trunks" from below this point..(see photos)
So I guess the question is, are we simply growing some random lemon scented rootstock? Or is there a chance there is still a lemon growing in here somewhere, and the tree is still just recovering from its previous abuse/neglect?
Any insight from the brains trust would be greatly appreciated!
5
u/Special-Car170 1d ago
Definitely a lemon tree, i beleive they sometimes dont flower/fruit in their first year. Maybe because it has died off so much all the fresh branches count as new ones in their first year
1
u/onomango 1d ago
I hope that is the case! I guess it get to survive another year and see if anything develops
3
3
u/sanchoux 1d ago
The graft has died along time ago *
3
u/onomango 1d ago
This is what I suspect as well, looks like there was an original centre stem and the suckers never got pruned and have subsequently taken over 😪
2
1
u/vicms91 State: VIC 1d ago
I don't know if that is root stock or not.
Lemons can be pruned hard and survive, but they take a few years to produce fruit again. They seem to prefer a little snip here and a little snip there.
Dare I say that yours probably needs a bit of pruning? As usual with pruning, remove anything that is dead, damaged, or diseased. Any branches that are growing backwards can be removed. However don't remove too much at a time - give the tree a chance to recover.
I've found "IV Organics" on YouTube to be useful with citrus pruning info (he's American with a product to sell so you'll need to look past that!). There are probably many others too.
1
u/onomango 1d ago
You'd be absolutely right it needs some pruning, actually just bought some new secateurs yesterday 😎
1
u/Tigeraqua8 1d ago
Would an occasional bucket of Seasol help?
4
u/onomango 1d ago
It's getting decent fertiliser, including seasol, and mag sulfate to try combat the yellow leaves
1
u/Jackgardener67 1d ago
Do you know the history of the tree? Did you buy it from a reputable place and plant it. Or was it there when you moved in? You say that it doesn't have a graft? If it's been grown from a lemon "pip" (something people seem to find exciting to do) it is very unlikely to ever produce edible fruit.
1
u/daamsie 1d ago
In its sad state prior, did it have any lemons at all?
If it was producing prior to that major prune, I can't see how it would be rootstock. Those trunks are huge. For that to happen the rootstock would have had to have been allowed to grow for 10+ years. Not impossible I guess but seems unlikely.
Lisbon lemon trees have thorns so that in itself does not mean much.
I'd say it needs a season for the new wood to develop and start flowering. It's just putting all its energy into growing new branches.
Re: dead wood in the centre.. this is how trees work - the live layer is the cambium layer of the wood, basically the bark layer. The centre of a trunk is dead wood. It's why ringbarking a tree will kill it.Â
1
u/buffer1954 1d ago
Leaf shape will tell if it's root stock unless it's a lemon or orange rootstock break a leaf and scrub ch it then smell it citrus have slightly different odours
1
u/64-matthew 1d ago
If the whole tree has spines, it is rootstock and will never fruit. Cut your losses and replace it. If one branch coming from the bottom has spines cut that out. It also has iron deficiency
1
0
u/chocobobandit 1d ago
If they're all thorny, congratulations, you're growing a lemon that won't lemon.
Investigate your tree, and compare leaves between the different trunks. Either way, rootstock will sap energy from your tree and might be why you aren't getting fruit.
6
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Thank you for posting! Please comment your state or location to help others identify your plant.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.