Citrus Seldom Needs Fruit Thinning

Q. We have a two-foot tall, two-year old Meyer's lemon with 40-50 young blossoms.  Shouldn't some clusters be thinned and if so how?

Lemon tree planted with mulch. Keep the mulch away from the trunk for the first couple of years.

A. Don’t thin them. In most cases citrus does not need to be thinned. The plant will drop the fruit it cannot support.

It is not like a peach, apple, plum where small fruit must be removed to make way for larger fruit. Just let it be and see how well is sets this year. My guess is that it will drop most of the blossoms or fruit that it cannot support. It may drop all of them if the tree is too young to support fruit growth and branch growth at the same time.

Lemon with a good fruit set

            That being said, sometimes citrus does have too much fruit on a limb. Leaving too much fruit on a limb can break the limb. If the fruit is closer than the diameter of a large fruit, start removing some when they are the size of a quarter.