I'm new to everything about gardening as I'm only 15. My grandmother found out about my new hobby and she brought back a lemon tree from Florida (I'm sorry I do not know the name of the species). It was about 6 inches tall when i planted it (about 4-5 months ago) and now it is about 8 inches. Up until about a week and a half ago there were no new growths, but then there was a very little redish-brown leaf, very tiny. It grew and grew every day and now the leaf seems to be half the size of the plant. No other growths have started so I'm curious, what's going on with this thing?

New growth on lemons and on many other citrus varieties put out extra large leaves. Leaves that are much larger than the leaves that are already on the tree. It is quite normal. Franco, welcome to the Citrus Growers Forum, we are glad to have you as a member, and hope to hear from you from time to time concerning you lemon tree. - Millet

Thank you very much and I'll be sure to keep you posted with pictures.

Hello Franco,
First off welcome to the Forum!
Second, hello from a fellow New Jerseyite! Now living in South Carolina.
Morris county is a Zone 6a, I lived in Monmouth County which is a Zone 6b.
Later,
Darren

Welcome!

I sometimes envy young newbies because I wonder how much more you'll learn in your lifetime of this hobby! (im not yet 30, but things seem to sneak up on me more already!)

I just used a regular house humidifier (Wiped out with Rubbing Alcohol every week or 2- running it full time got some baterial growth on the inside. Make sure its dry before plugging back in!) to keep my several trees happy through the winter inside.

Problem with oldies like me, the old sectors gets corrupted and the info recalled are sometimes unreliable, needed to refresh memories too.

Welcome franco,
I think its great your starting with Citrus ..
Sometimes its trial and error but alot of the times its fun.

when i first started i thought i was doing everything just right and then found this site that taught me what i was doing wrong every thing is doing awesome .
you are gonna be Doing great in NO time. there are alot of people here who Know there stuff.

Zone 6 wow When i lived in NJ Many many yrs ago i had alot of fun.
Chasing The fire flys .
bet you do or did too ..

Any way Glad your here now you can learn.. even though im old do you mind having older classmates ?there are alot of us here grins LOL Tammy

Welcome Franco, I am a "newbie" too and an "old" one for sure. this is a fun hobbie so, glad you joined us, you will learn much here and lots of great help here also

Hey Franco, you win the award for being youngest member here (I think).
Darren, I heard on Paul James Gardening show that they now changed the planting zones again...no more A's or B's. Chicago & Milwaukee were zone 5b . Now I am 5 & Chicago is zone 6. Check your new zone - it may be different #.
A funny thing about fireflies (speaking of). I stepped on something that flew in the sunroom the other night, & the guts were glowing in the dark!!!! It musta been a firefly. Never saw anything like that before. Then, when it sorta dried out, I wiped it w/ a tissue & it glowed up again! How funny!

Thanks for all the reply's, I've been wrestling all summer so I don't have much free time. Speaking of glowing guts, I was at the beach at about 1 am and if you kicked sand around by the water all these neon green bugs would light up. They were stationary so I'm guessing they were dead but it was such a great feeling with the cool air and dark night and those lights. I'm just wondering if anyone has seen those and know what they are called. Anyway, my lemon tree is doing absolutely amazing now it looks to be more than double it's size and there are so many leaves on it. My dad has his camera phone with him but I'll put a picture up ASAP.

Hi Franco-- Welcome! I too am a newbie but an oldie (retired marine scientist).

The glow you saw in the water is called phosphoresence or bio-illuminesence. There are a number of marine organisms that can do that, some are very small algae called dinoflagellates-- and amazing group of organisms-- sometimes the comb jellies (scientific name is ctenophores) will do it.

Skeet

Wow thanks for the info! You say you are a retired marine scientist, how was that job like?

Hi Franco-- I sent you a PM -- (just click on the PM at the top of the page).

-- Skeet

Ok so I said I'd post pictures and never got to it but I finally took one and here it is.



What should I do for the winter, just bring in into my room? You can see where the new growths started (at that first branch about half way up) since the leaves are like quadruple the size of the original.

That is a very healthy looking plant Franco! Whatever you're doing, keep doing it , just don't fall off that roof! LOL
Darren says you are in Z6, so you'll have to bring your tree inside & hopefully put it in a south facing window. A small flourescent light above it would help since days are much shorter. Keep us posted. I always had problems with my meyer in winter.
Don't water as much in winter - just keep roots lightly moist, & it will need misting or some kind of humidity.