Meyer Lemon Tree froze?

Question

With recent cold weather in Southern California dipping to the low 30s at night during the Winter, my Meyer Lemon tree froze.

While the fruit itself experienced NO DAMAGE (believe me, I was totally surprised), the leaves of the tree leave me wondering what's going on.

I have trimmed off/pruned everything that is dead - anything brown. There are SOME green leaves left, but the ones that are left are dried out looking/curling. Should I trim those off as well?

And if I see one or two healthy branches left, is there any hope for the tree to come back and at what point in the Spring should I begin to feed it to prepare it to come back in order to produce flowers/fruit? Or is there there no hope at this point at all?

Please advise. Thank you for any/all help with this.

Answer 1

Please STOP triming. Wait till summer or at least 3 months.
Give the tree a chance to produce new leaves. Dead leaves may not tell if the brachs are alive. Lemons can go as low as 28 for several hours before there is damage to the tree.

Answer 2

Does it have suckers (shoots from the trunk near ground level)? If it does then you should remove those because they will lessen blooms and fruit production. They will sap off energy from a flowering and fruit producing tree, which is why they are called suckers. Also, you said you fertilize it. You must be very careful not to over fertilize a fruit producing tree because you will get more growth at the expense of blooms and fruit production. You should avoid encouraging fast growth. Other than that, as long as the soil is not too dry (which I don't expect it would be in Louisiana) and it is getting 8 hours of direct sunlight, then I can't imagine why it won't bloom but maybe it needs a companion tree. I am not familiar with the Meyer lemon tree, or any variety of lemon tree for that matter, but I am familiar with some apple tree varieties and I know that most of them need a companion apple tree of a different variety to produce fruit. But that is for pollination and not for blooming. I wish I could be more help but those are the only possibilities I can come up with. I think you should check with the nursery you bought it from and draw upon their expertise for advice.