I could use some advice on pruning.
I am in So California. 3 years ago I bought a 1 gallon dwarf lemon, "Myers" I think, and dwarf orange from Home depot. I planted them in 1/2 wine barrels in a location that gets sun most all day. They were only a foot or two tall and didn’t really change much for the first 2 years. I watered them with the garden hose when the soil felt dry. About a year ago I added a drip system and some granular fertilizer that I got at a local nursery. They immediately started to show some growth. This summer my daughter said I needed to prune then to make a tree instead of bush.
I have lost track which is the lemon and which the orange, I figured when they fruit I would figure it out. Before pruning they both had similar large leaves. One had a prominent straight branch vertical from the middle with small leaves. I decided to only let her prune one so she picked this one. She cut everything off and left the center which has grown quite a bit since but looks lanky and does not have the large leaves. It has new growth almost daily but the size of the leaves and lankyness concerns me.
The one that she did not touch also has 3 of the similar vertical branches with small leaves, and is bushy with big leaves around the bottom. I don't know it I should prune it or let it go.
If it will help I can take pics to better explain.

Pictures always help.

Crush & smell the leaves...

Another giveaway is that most Meyer & other lemons have a serrated leaf edge.

since I am not sure of their type I will call them "left" and "right" for now.


left tree at a distance


close up of left tree


right tree at a distance


close up of right tree

Well, first off your rootstock is taking over & needs to be cut back. Get a close up of the leaves. Remove all growth with trifoliate leave.

Or should I say left tree is roostock & right tree rootstock is taking over & needs to be caut off.

The leaves of three is the rootstock. He needs a close up of the large single ones.

The small triple leaves are rootstock & all those braches need to be cut off.

What the others meant about the left tree is that you (have) cut off all the branches of the variety, only leaving the rootstock.

The only way to go is to graft it again.

Yes that's lemon.