Advice on keeping a Lime (or lemon) plant

[Colin_M]

I've just been given a Lime plant for my birthday.

It's in a 12" pot and has been pruned & trained to a "standard" shape. It's got several limes on it (some ready to pick) plus several flowers. We were told it should be brought indoors pretty soon and will put it in our conservatory.

Can anyone else offer advice on getting the best out of these plants, or point me to some good websites etc?

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Colin,

I've had a Tahiti lime which did well for a year with flowers and numerous friuts. It has died this year as has the Kaffir lime I bought for my birthday - the Kaffir lime seems to have died from the graft, so not my fault.

Limes seem much more difficult than lemons. Limes seem to like being a bit warmer over winter than lemons, and both like a bit of humidity in the air. They don't like sudden fluctuations in temperature. They don't like to stand in wet soil.

Try and keep them above 45F but not too warm and keep the soil on the dry side.

My lemon tree is about six years old and seems to have a few flowers and/or fruit most of the year.

Hope this helps.

[Colin_M]

Hi PP, so I take it you bring yours inside during the winter and that they're kept in pots?

If so, have you re-potted yours many times?

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Colin, Yes I bring them in and have re-potted them in citrus compost. I re-potted the lime that has died back to have a look to see if the die-back was caused by a root problem, but the roots were fine. I'm going to ask for a replacement plant as I'm sure I've not done anything to kill it.

I either remove some compost from the top inch or so and replace with fresh, or pot on into a bigger pot if the roots are growing through the bottom of the pot - usually in early Spring before they start putting on lots of new growth.

It doesn't sound too good does it, me giving advice when two plants have died on me! I do have a lemon and a grapefruit that are doing very well.

[longpod]

I have just brought my lemon and kaffir lime into the greenhouse, where they will stay until the Spring. I wait for the soil to dry out before watering and giving a winter feed. My greenhouse is kept frost free and I give the plants (which are now quite large) an extra covering of fleece when the temperature outside drops to 5c. I repot only when I think they are getting pot bound as they don't appear to like too much space. I treat my kaffir lime in the same way, it gets several large fruit each year, which I take off, (after grating some of the skin and freezing it for Thai cookery).

Hope this helps.

Jeanne

[Colin_M]

Thanks Jeanne.

We're able to keep ours in the conservatory over winter, so things are a little simpler. We got some Citrus feed and it advises feeding every two weeks over winter to ensure a good crop the following year.