My Edibles: Lime Trees

Finger Lime - Collette (Grafted)

Comments: -

Fantastic tasting fruit that is reminiscent of Kaffir lime/Key lime cross - love it!  Bought tree already bearing fruit (tree about 30cm height), and a few weeks ago started flowering again  - can see tiny little Limes forming, YAY!

Finger limes indiginous to area where I live, (grow on Tamborine Mt.), so should grow well.

Planted: 2012

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

First Fruited: 1 Months from Purchase in Pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Citrus feed, Seasol, Blood/bone

When I Fertilise: Yearly

Pest Control:

None yet

Finger Lime - Ricks Red (Grafted)

Planted: 2012

Pollination: No

lime - sublime (Seedling)

Comments: -

A dwarf style lime grown with the hope that it will fruit whilst adding interest to an area close to the house (where plants cannot be put in the ground due to an extended slab). Something is making it very sick, and it lost all its leaves. I added coffee (for nutrient not pH) and the sticks are now covered in healthy looking little leaves. I have sprayed to prevent futher infection, as of Oct 2010 it is bushing up nicely. Now in Jan 2011 it is a solid green bush without any sign of disease. Hopefully next year it will make some limes! By April 2011 I've got a few flowers - but I don't think I'll get any limes as I've not seen a bee for ages. (developers seem to be knocking down trees where wild bees are ... I do need to get my own!)

A decent prune in August 2011 and thinning of the fruit means that I've got about 6 fruit growing to maturity. The plant gets little attention, but seems happy enough over winter.

An attack of scale in November 2011 caused me to resort to chemical relief. Another massive prune to keep the plant compact. In Jan 2012 - now scale free I've set this sublime free into the garden

May 2012 - this little plant just won't quit. I am seriously considering moving the mandarin and adding more sublimes to make a hedge. They are tough, attractive, and minimal maintenace. The only issue is that the fruit are small and hard to peel ... but that is fine for curries, stir fries, marmalade etc.

Planted: 2010

Height 0.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control:

home made sprays (oil dish-washing liquid) to supress the major leaf minor infestation - there doesn't seem to be any leaf minor anymore but I think the infection was so bad that almost all the leaves fell off. The new leaves appear healthy.

C

Organic Status:Partially Organic

Question:

Lime - Tahitian

Comments: -

I'm not really sure where this came from (it traveled between rental properties as a friend's mascot), or even if it is a tahitian lime! Unfortunately it never set fruit prior to 2010 and I've not yet had a fruit reach picking stage. This could be because it has been dug up and re-planted roughly every 6 months until now. I've piled about 100 litres of sheep poo around it - I'm hoping this will leach into the soil and improve things a bit ... there are some flower buds so maybe the poo is doing the trick!

This plant suffered badly summer with only a small amount of watering - many of the branches were burnt off. I've sinced discovered that WA citrus need approximately 6 litres of water per day per square metre of canopy and the orange has responded very well to an almost 7-fold increase in water! There are now many new shoots. I've also errected a screen of cardboard boxes around the plant to provide additional shade. Ugly - but it is working.

Hopefully next summer the Jujube will provide some additional shade!

Plant was 'transplanted' in June 2011. I dug the plant up, removed the pale WA sand and replaced with a better quality soil, and re-planted the tree. It seems to have coped with the ordeal OK.

Jan 2012 - it is hard to imagine this is the same plant that struggled last summer. A bit more food and water and it is growing like a champ and covered in fruit. No cardboard this year - just sugarcane mulch.

May 2012 - already more fruit than I can eat, thankfully friends at work are happy to consume the extra limes. Water and food clearly appreciated!

Planted: 2009

Height 1.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control:

ladybugs

Organic Status:Partially Organic

Comments

actual tahitian limes are quite hardy and don't need huge soil improvement. They will establish as long as the rootball settles in. Should be flowering now at that size

Lime - Tahitian (Grafted)

Comments: -

Love all things lime ! 

Planted: 2010

Height 1.8 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Winter

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Manure and Citrus feed

When I Fertilise: Yearly

Pest Control:

Manually squish some of Swallow-tail Butterfly caterpillars if they get a bit excessive (they seem to prefer this lime to the other citrus). Nil other problems. 

Organic Status:Partially Organic

Question:

Plant sets fruit, and they get to 5-10 cent coin size then drop. Any solutions, or is the tree too young? It can get a bit windy, could that be the problem?

Lime - Kaffir (Grafted)

Comments: - Use it in Thai style cooking - gorgeous aroma and taste!  I use mainly the leaves, but the zest of the fruit is good too.  Tough plant - I have on occassion forgotten to water plant and it will loose all leaves.  After having a drink, they all re-grow. (Not done deliberately, but keeps a cap on sooty mould and tree barely needs a prune!)

Planted: 2005

Height 1.2 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Citrus feed and coffee grinds.

Pest Control:

I must use white oil spray every couple of months and occassionally ant bait,as the little critters help overrun the poor tree with scale and the sooty mould gets out of hand. I'm thinking of finally planting poor little tree out to see if that helps.

Organic Status:Pesticides Used

Lime - generic seedling (Seedling) ^5/10

Comments: -

Just a seedling, and will be grafting a named variety on it soon (have actually very recently grafted a small veneer of an orange tree I have onto it, will advise how it goes)

Planted: 2010

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Organic Status:Organic

Finger Lime - Tasty Green

Comments: - I saw these on ABC's Landline series a few years ago and decided to buy one.  I moved recently to the coast and have now planted it in the ground and it seems to be very happy in its new backyard

Sun/Shade: Low Sun

Dwarf Lime - Tahitian ^10/10

Comments: -

Always blooming

Fruiting Months March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

Planted: 2011

Height 3 Feet

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control:

A few Scale bugs but nothing to alarm me just yet.  Hand picked off and have not seen again yet. 3/30/12 

Organic Status:Organic

Lime - Tahitian (Grafted) ^10/10

Comments: -

Has stayed manageable size in the pot. Great tasting fruit, low maintenance tree. Only pests are stink bugs which are easy to control. Pruned roots as well as branches this winter & has a flush of new growth & heaps of fruit set this spring

Fruiting Months January, February, March, April, May, October, November, December

Planted: 2004

Height 1.5 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Fruit Harvest: 60 Fruit Per Year

First Fruited: 1 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pruned By: 10% in Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Seasol, Dynamic Lifter

When I Fertilise: When Fruiting and Spring

Pest Control:

Pyrethrum or Enviro Oil for stink bugs as needed

Organic Status:Pesticides Used

Comments

Hi Sean, I have a Tahitian lime as well in a pot. How do you prune the roots?

hi Chak, sorry for late reply. I just took the whole tree out of the pot & trimmed the roots with a sharp knife & as Daleys advised pruned the foliage at the same rate. Then I put new in potting mix & dynamic lifter, repotted & gave some seasol weekly til it got over the shock. Very easy & responded well. Hope this helps

Lime - Tahitian (Grafted) ^5/10

Comments: - For cooking

Height 2 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Microcitrus australasica - Finger lime

Comments: -

This tree has been planted six years ago, but nearly died two years ago. It developped some sort of white rot that consumed most of the wood. I cut it right back and cleaned as well as I could. It started growing again from the base. No flowers or fruits, but it is looking OK.

Planted: 2006

Height 50 Centimetres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Low Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

When I Fertilise: Spring

Pest Control:

not needed

Organic Status:Organic

Advanced Lime - Kaffir ^10/10

Comments: -

Thai cooking, e.g. Tom Yum Goong. Both leaves and zest add nice flavours

Fruiting Months March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

Height 1.2 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Fruit Harvest: 1 kilograms per Year

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pruned By: 5% in After Fruiting

Pollination: Self Pollination

Dwarf Lime - Tahitian (Grafted) ^10/10

Fruiting Months March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October

Height 1 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Fruit Harvest: 5 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 2 Years from purchase in pot

Pruned By: 10% in After Fruiting and Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

When I Fertilise: When Fruiting and Spring

Pest Control:

contact spray when gall beetles are about to emerge

Finger Lime - Ricks Red (Grafted) ^10/10

Comments: - The red browed finches nest in it dense sikey foliage every year. It is the native food source of the citrus butterflies, including the Dainty Swallowtail. Small frogs like the protection of the thorns as well.  Fabulously product tree, I have been picking fruits for months and selling them at the local farmers market.

Fruiting Months January, February, March, April, December

Height 2 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 2

First Fruited: 0.6 Months from Purchase in Pot

Water Given in: Summer

Fertiliser or Organics Used: cow manure, compost

When I Fertilise: When Fruiting

Pest Control: suffers from scale

Organic Status:Partially Organic

West Indian Lime (Grafted) ^10/10

Comments: - Heavy fruiting, good flavour. On rough orange rootstock. Have grafted mekrut (kaffir) lime and joppa orange on but these grafts are quite recent and yet to fruit.

Fruiting Months January, February, March, April, May, December

Planted: 2005

Height 5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Fruit Harvest: 50 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 3 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Pollination: Self Pollination

Pest Control: Pick off citrus shield bug and caterpillars, spray for lea miner occasionally.

Organic Status:Organic

Lime - Kaffir (Grafted) ^6/10

Comments: - Makrut lime. Regular feed and water. Fruit always drops.  Appears to be a poor scion selection, growth very irregular.

Fruiting Months August, September, October, November, December

Height 1 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Pruned By: 10% in Autumn and Winter

Pollination: Self Pollination

When I Fertilise: Winter and Spring

Pest Control: organic oil for citrus leaf miner, lime spray for white citrus louse 

Citrus Splitzer - lemon/lime

Comments: -

One of the grafts seems much more vigorous than the other (not sure which yet). It's also helped by the fact there are 2 grafts of one and only 1 of the other.

Spring 2011: Covered in flowers and just starting to grow teeny tiny fruit.

About a month after this  I decided to get rid of the fruit. There was just so much and I thought that it was a bad idea to leave them all. It didn't seem to like that and suddenly dropped all of its leaves. There are teeny tiny new shoots appearingon some of the branches (mostly on one graft not the other). No idea what I did wrong - I am SURE there was enough food, I am sure it wasn't too wet or too dry. I am hoping that it was a sunlight issue so I have moved into a sunnier spot.

Summer 2012: First day of the new year and I have noticed new shoots on the bare branches. I think that the weather has just started to warm up enough for it to get going again. Catch is that I think they shoots might actually be flowers not leaves. What is it thinking? All I can do is keep an eye on it and keep reminding my man to help fertilise!

Fruiting Months September and October

Planted: 2010

Height 0.75 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

First Fruited: 1 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Pollination: No

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Charlie Carp, Seasol, and my partner helps out too

Australian Blood Lime (Grafted) ^10/10

Comments: -

New CSIRO developed native lime cross. Here's their spiel:

'Australian Blood' (also known as 'Australian Red Centre') is a hybrid between an acid mandarin and a native finger lime. It has blood-red rind, flesh and juice.

It is a nice plant. More prolific than the ordinary finger lime. Very weeping habit. Tons of round fruit which start off like a stumpy black finger lime and fill out to a round red fruit. Taste is very good - particularly in salads or chopped into 'wheels' and put into drinks. Skin is edible and sweet! 

Fruiting Months January, February, March, August, September, October

Planted: 2011

Height 3 Feet

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Fruit Harvest: 3 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 2 Months from Purchase in Pot

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: Organic Link

When I Fertilise: Winter and Spring

desert lime

Comments: -

I used to work somewhere where this grew wild, and I used the refreshing  fruit for cooking. The crushed leaves are gorgeous too. The other fruit that grew there I have not found for sale anywhere- currant bush Carissa ovata. It has sweet fruit like dates.

Planted: 2011

Growing: In a Pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Pollination: No

West Indian Lime

Comments: -

Flowers well, only a few fruit so far but it is still young. The other lime took 3 years to fruit well.

Planted: 2010

Growing: In a Pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Pollination: No

Microcitrus australasica - Finger lime

Comments: -

Extremely thorny. Flowers after rain. I have three- one is a new ricks red, one is a wild type, I am not sure what the other is. All flower well but no fruit yet.

Planted: 2008

Height 0.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 2

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Lime - Tahitian

Comments: -

Now flowering and fruiting continuously after three years, covered in limes  (only a few fruit as a two year old). Seems to need the most fertiliser of any of my citrus.

Planted: 2008

Height 2.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

First Fruited: 2.5 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: compost and chook manure, kelp and fish emulsion

When I Fertilise: Winter and Spring

Lime - Tahitian (Grafted)

Comments: - it taste good ,looks good

Planted: 2005

Height 2 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Question: got lime 2years ago ,it flowers but nolimes ,what sort fertilizer i should use and when. i live sydney nsw

Lime - Tahitian

Comments: -

Easy to grow;

Beautiful perfumed flowers;

Fruits easily and quickly. Most of the fruit drops off (sting bugs? or too much fertilizer? Tring less blood and bone and giving some potash to encourage fruiting (it gets a lot of flowers!)

Planted: 2007

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

First Fruited: 1 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Summer

Pollination: No

Fertiliser or Organics Used: blood and bone; manure

Pest Control: Only problem: citrus stink bug. They denude branches and suck the sap from developing fruit causing fruit drop. Once I see them, I flick to the ground (with a stick) and stamp on them to kill them.

Organic Status:Organic

Dwarf Lime - Tahitian (Grafted)

Comments: -

This tree is struggling, it keeps getting cut back hard to remove gall wasps and it has not had a chance to grow very much.  Gets scale and suffers from neglect. I will have to give it more attention if I want it to thrive, I wish I had bought a tree on trifoliata as the dwarf is too slow.

Planted: 2008

Qty: 1

Pest Control:

get spray occasionally with pest oil, I need to give this tree more attention

Comments

Lime - Tahitian ^5/10

Comments: - I need this for my fish and chips Hahaha .

Planted: 2011

Height 0.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Water Given in: Spring

Lime - Tahitian ^8/10

Comments: - small fruit on at moment going away so will probs fall off

Planted: 2011

Height 1 metres

Growing: In a Pot

Qty: 1

Sun/Shade: Medium Sun

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: seasol dynamic lifter

When I Fertilise: When Fruiting, Winter, Spring

Pest Control: pest oil for leaf miner

Finger Lime - Grafted ^6/10

Comments: -

Growing well, has just started fruiting, flowers prolifically.

Fruit is small but nice - just right to add to a bottle of beer!

Not many fruit this year - has been very wet.

Fruiting Months March and April

Planted: 2008

Growing: In the Ground

Fruit Harvest: 20 Fruit Per Year

First Fruited: 2010 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Low Sun

Pollination: Self Pollination

Lime - Kaffir (Grafted)

Comments: -

I have to tip prune to keep him from getting rangy and make sure that the internal part of the tree is kept open for air flow.

I thought I killed him a few years ago when I was pruning a large bottle brush above him. A big branch twisted out of my grasp and landed on him. It ripped a branch and part of his trunk half off. I put him back together and wrapped him with hemp twine. He survived and the wound healed back together. He just looks a bit like an old warrier with battle scars now.

I grow native violets in the pot as a living mulch and as a water indicator - when the violets droop the pot needs water.

Planted: 2006

Height 1.5 metres

Qty: 1

First Fruited: 2 Years from purchase in pot

Pollination: No

Pest Control:

caterpillars & grass hoppers = pull them off by hand and lux soap spray to keep them off

scale & curly leaf = white oil