Help please with lemon trees (zone 10ish) Spain 🇪🇸

Hi all!

When we moved to Spain from the UK 7 years ago, one of my greatest wishes was to pluck fresh lemons from our trees.

Many trees later, 2 or 3 tiny 1cm fruits that came to nothing and I've realised I need help!  Neighbours trees and those throughout the whole region are all covered with fruit, so I'm obviously missing something.

One of the trees that looked most hopeful had started to have crossing braches and looked overcrowded, so I followed the advice in one of my local Facebook gardening groups and opened out the centre, only to read the next day that the branches I've left, that have huge spines on them, are likely from the root stock and so won't produce fruit.

I've just harvested our first limes (they're yellow when ripe, picture for interest!) and the orange trees are full.  Please help me overcome my lemon  drought!

Helen said, "Please help me overcome my lemon  drought!

This thread offers several ways to overcome drought:

https://permies.com/t/138768/Water-Plants-Trees-Drought-Conditions

I like to use ollas like I referenced earlier.  These can be a simple DIY system or even just a clay pot.

Why Soil is Where You Want to Store Your Water



https://permies.com/t/127073/store-water


I would also like to recommend this book:

https://permies.com/wiki/51855/Rainwater-Harvesting-Drylands-Brad-Lancaster

Hello Helen. I'm in France. Not hinthered by much expérience with agrumes, i'll " advice " you.
I'd go online and check Portugese websites of tree nurseries.
Maybe just get rootstock! And otherwise get the whole tree.

I grow rootstock myself. Of apples, pears and cherries that is... Not a big deal. Guess the same could be done with agrumes. Speak to orchard folk. Just ask what you could do.

Sometimes in old discarded orchards the trees fall over. That could be a source of rootstock. I doubt they care much.

But maybe no rootstock is needed. It seems following YouTube tutorials i saw they just grow easily  from cuttings.

I checked that out because i'm in the south of France now where  in the middle of an eighties housingblock a Giants Pomélo stood full of fruit. The owner let us climb it with ladders and harvest a bit. Forty kilogrammes of fruit. There was loads more, but no time.
I took cuttings like this in bottles. Hoping i won't have the problèm of rootstock i just put fourty like this and have quite some seed.

Ola Helen. I'm in Spain now. Costa d'El Sol. I've visites Antonio's projecti in Dénia!
This one!

https://permies.com/t/145856/Project-Intense-Food-Forest-Mediterranean

It was great. And hé told me a bit about rootstock for lemons. It's called a "patron" and hé mentioned the variéty "Volk Americano" for clay soils.

https://citricas.com/limon-volkameriano/

I don't know if this site is Spanish or Peruvian thpugh. But it's a small step towards great lemons for sûre!