How to Grow Young Lemon Trees | Remove Buds and Stop Spring Shoots! This Will Strengthen the Tree

April Young Tree Management: This is the Turning Point for Growth

What to Do with Young Lemon Tree Buds? | The Correct Answer for 1-3 Year Old Trees is to "Pinch Them Off"

Hello, this is Fukaya Village.
Thank you for visiting.

Today, I will explainfor beginners, "What should I do if lemon buds appear in April?"on this theme.

By the time you finish reading this article, I think your worries such as,
"Should I pinch off the buds of young trees?" or "Will the tree become stronger if I let it bear fruit?"
will be clearly resolved, so please read until the end.

Also, at the end of the article,
for parts that are difficult to convey with text alone,watching the actual work in a video is 100 times easier to understand. At Fukaya Village TV, we carefully convey the hand movements and timing of decisions in the field,with easy-to-understand explanations. Since we cover the points where beginners often stumble, please be sure to watch the video as well.

■ Conclusion: For 1-3 year old young trees, whether in pots or planted in the ground, "please pinch off the buds"

The reason is very simple,
because young trees do not yet have the "stamina to bear fruit".

When lemons are subjected to winter leaf drop or drought stress,
they may produce many buds in early spring.

You might want to think, "Maybe this year will be a bumper crop!" but in fact, the opposite is true...

● Most of those buds will physiologically drop after blooming.

Why is that—

■ Reasons why young trees do not bear fruit even if they produce buds

1. Trees cannot perform "growth" and "reproduction" at the same time

Plants can only use energy for one of these:

• making the tree larger (growth)

• bearing fruit (reproduction)
  They can only use energy for one of these.

If you let it bear fruit while it is still a young tree,
the tree will switch to "descendant-leaving mode" and
will stop growing for a year.

2. Lack of stamina due to winter leaf drop and drought stress

Lemons tend to drop their leaves in winter,
and even if they produce buds in spring, those branches do not have any stamina left.

Therefore,

• they cannot support the flowers

• There is no surplus energy to grow fruit

• As a result, the fruit drops

This is the sequence of events.

3. Dropping buds early allows spring shoots to grow vigorously

If you leave the buds, the tree will send its energy to the "flowers."
However, what a young tree needs to grow is new spring shoots (spring growth).

If you pick the buds off early,
the energy is redirected to the "shoots," and
the tree switches back to a healthy growth trajectory.

■ The top priority in raising young trees is "building the framework"

For 1 to 3-year-old young trees,
this is the time to focus on extending branches, increasing leaves, and establishing roots.

If you let them bear fruit during this period,
the tree's growth will stop, and it will become a weak tree later on.

Conversely, if you build a solid framework while the tree is young,
it will become a "strong tree" that bears fruit consistently from the 4th or 5th year onwards.

■ How do you perform bud thinning?

From here on,
the actual hand movements, how to identify buds, and how to combine this with pinching
are areas where beginners often stumble.

These are 100 times easier to understand by watching a video than by reading text, so
I explain them in detail on Fukaya Village TV.

▼ Reference videos that beginners must watch

● Bud thinning for lemons and mandarin oranges to suppress incomplete flowers and ensure annual fruit production

● April care for young trees: shoot thinning, pinching, bud thinning, and flower bud promotion

https://youtu.be/tFKRSBkQNLU

● Greening renewal and training work for young lemon and mandarin orange trees

https://youtu.be/oBY6wiiTWUY

[Next Episode Preview] Stopping (Strengthening) the Leaves | How to Create Productive Branches

In the next episode, as a follow-up, I will explain how to "stop and strengthen the leaves," which means how to create productive branches.

■ Why stopping the leaves makes the tree stronger

For young lemon trees, the character of the tree is determined by "how far you let the spring shoots grow."
If you let them grow too much, the branches become thin and the leaves become thin.
Conversely, if you stop them too early, there will be fewer leaves, insufficient photosynthesis, and the tree will weaken.

In other words, the timing of when you stop them determines the strength of the tree.

■ What are productive branches?

Productive branches are the "main branches" that support the tree's skeleton and bear fruit consistently every year.
These branches have the following characteristics:

• The leaves are thick and dark green

• The internodes are short, and strong buds are lined up

• The buds are easy to renew the following year

The key to creating these branches is to stop the spring shoots appropriately to ensure a "period for the leaves to work."

■ Timing for stopping the leaves

A good guideline is when the spring shoots have grown and 5 to 6 leaves have unfolded.
By lightly stopping the tips at this time, the following "internal circulation" is established:

• The branches become thicker

• The leaves become thicker

• Root activity stabilizes

By stopping them, the flow of the entire tree changes from "growing wildly outward" to "storing energy inward."

■ Tips for growing productive branches

1. Identify the spring shoots: Choose branches that are vigorous and have dark leaf color

2. Decide where to stop them: Lightly pinch the tips once 5 to 6 leaves have unfolded

3. Make the leaves work: Expose the leaves to plenty of light for 2 to 3 weeks after stopping them

4. Feel the root activity: Success is achieved when the leaves become thick and the branches firm up

Branches grown following this process will become your "productive branches" for the following year.

■ Next Preview

Next time, I will release
"How to Grow Leaves (Please Stop the Spring Shoots)". To grow a young lemon tree healthily,
not only bud management but also "how to grow leaves" is extremely important.

In particular, the "spring shoots" that emerge in spring
can weaken the tree if they are allowed to grow too much or are stopped too much—
this is the point where beginners stumble the most.

I will explain this "correct way to stop spring shoots" and "how to create leaves"
in detail in the next article.

■ It is 100 times easier to understand when watching the video

Parts that are difficult to convey with text alone are 100 times easier to understand when you watch the actual work in a video.
At Fukaya Village TV, we carefully convey the hand movements and timing of judgments in the field, with easy-to-understand explanations.
Since we cover the points where beginners often stumble, please be sure to watch the video as well.

Please follow the Fukaya Village blog and stay tuned.

The next article to read is here👇

If you have successfully created spring shoots, go here next👇

■ "Hand movements" that are difficult to convey with just a blog are better understood through video

There are limits to what can be conveyed with text alone.
Especially for lemon and mandarin orange management,

• Which buds to leave?

• Which buds to drop?

• At what timing to stop them?

These "hand movements" are the key to understanding.

At Fukaya Village TV, we
carefully explain the points where beginners often stumble while demonstrating the actual work.

"Read and understand on the blog → See and grasp it in the video."
This two-step approach is the fastest way to improve.

Click here to register for Fukaya Village TV membership👇

▶Register

Fukaya Village TV membership offers
10-15 priority releases and exclusive videos every month. You can learn the "core" of internal circulation farming ahead of everyone else.

◆ Membership

[Entrance]

When growing young lemon or mandarin orange trees, you will inevitably have concerns like,
"Am I doing this right?"
"I don't know how to stop the shoots..."

This is not a "mistake," but rather
a healthy hesitation that arises precisely because you are growing them amidst the fluctuations of nature.

[Bridge]

The content covered in this article is merely the "entrance" to Fukaya Village's internal circulation farming.

The essence lies in:

• Reading the flow of the shoots

• Designing the number of leaves

• Creating the skeleton of the branches

• Regulating the circulation of microorganisms

• Suppressing alternate bearing

• Reducing imperfect flowers

This is what constitutes "building the tree's OS."

The blog helps you grasp the big picture, while
specific judgment criteria and design blueprints for training are available for in-depth learning on Fukaya Village TV and through membership.

[The Deciding Factor]

If you are thinking,
"I want to grow my lemon tree properly this year,"
"I want a tree that bears fruit every year,"
"I want to learn a way of growing that connects with nature,"
then the Fukaya Village membership will be a great help to you.

In the membership, you can learn:

• The overall annual management plan from young trees to mature trees

• Criteria for bud pinching, shoot tipping, and bud thinning

• How to identify imperfect flowers

• Management to suppress alternate bearing

• The philosophy and practice of internal circulation farming

• A 'tree flow map' that can be understood through diagrams

You can learn these systematically.

Join the community where you can learn the 'core' of internal circulation in depth

■ Fukaya Village Philosophy

We are all integrated.
We are all connected.

Growing lemons is also about connecting with nature and organizing your own life.
Please take this opportunity to

Please take this opportunity to,
follow the Fukaya Village blog,
andwatch Fukaya Village TVto advance to the 'next stage' of your lemon cultivation.

Magazine (Lemon)

A learning magazine where you can systematically learn the 'basics to applications' of internal circulation

Magazine (Mandarin Orange)

A 'deep dive, field-level' magazine for practitioners

Watching all three will connect the 'overall picture of the field'

• Lemon: Basics

• Mandarin Orange: Practice

• Membership: Core

Lastly,

here is the welcome movie (the philosophy of Fukaya Village).

■ [Copyright Notice]

This article and its illustrations are
original works based on the Fukaya Village philosophy system (Beneficial Bacteria Cultivation/Negentropy Farming Method/Internal Circulation Cultivation Model).
Unauthorized reproduction, duplication, or citation is prohibited.

© 2026 Fukaya Village Beneficial Bacteria Cultivation/Negentropy Farming Method (Internal Circulation Cultivation Model)