Getting more lemons

[AndreaNg]

I'm getting a lot of flowers on the lemon tree but not much fruit. Anything I can do to ensure more fruit?

[greygardener]

How big is your tree @AndreaNg and how old is it? It might be too young yet. They take 3-5 years to get mature. It might also not be getting enough sun or too much water. Is it in the ground or a pot?

There might actually be no problem at all. It is not uncommon for the plant to have a lot more flowers than fruit. It will only grow as much fruit as it can handle. 

Some tips for ensuring plenty of fruit - make sure you feed a few times a year, prune out any old wood but don't prune too much, make sure there's not too much nitrogen in the soil, and keep pests at bay. 

[AndreaNg]

It's in a large pot and is mature in age but not a big tree. Thanks for the advice. I might try a bit more food. It gets plenty of afternoon sun. 

[Andy_Mann]

@AndreaNg

I love gardening, but fruit trees aren't my specialty. I seem to recall something about fruit being more prolific in the more horizontal branches, hence the success of espaliered fruit trees.

Update:

Back when I was still growing up, we had a lemon tree in our backyard. There weren't any water restrictions, or Chlorine in mains water, but it was commonly known that they flourished with an occasional sprinkling of urine . ; )

[Isobel]

Tip for getting more lemon juice: roll them against the benchtop before you juice them. 10 or 20 seconds in the microwave can also help, especially if they've been in the fridge.

[Janina_G]

My lemon tress always produce great fruit but this year...YUK... neither the lemon, orange or grape fruit did as well as previous years.. Maybe not enough sun. as when I did get fruit [ I am in Victoria and summer was late] it didnt ripen, thought it was shortage of water and mens pee but not we send the men to the lemon tree and watered overnight every third night and still no success...

In pots my newer on is growing nicely again fruit but not ripening as per normal. what I also did to help all my potted plants [ and me so I dont have to repot] was to drill holes around the pot from 2-3 from the top to the bottom, and am finding they dont get pot bound and produce more flowers and fruit each year...... except this year.... bumma

Love espalia....

[John1]

Try Iron either in the packet form or old rusty nails etc in the soil. Have heard of people hammering nails into the trunk. I know it works on lemon trees planted directly into the ground because we had one placed over an old sewer pit dug in the wrong place. We used the hole as a rubbish dump for old iron bed springs etc. The lemons where huge and juicy. The tree kept giving us an excellent crop each year without us doing anything except watering it. Lasted for about 6 years and then it still produced lemons but they where quite average in size and juice.