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HELP! Pruning (fruit) Lime tree

brian stoatbrian stoat Posts: 111
in Fruit & veg
Small lime tree bought last year with several fruits on it which all got used. Put in the greenhouse over winter heated to 8 degrees. Plenty of flowers through back end of last year, through winter and into spring. All became nascent fruits, but have all gradually dropped off. Using proper winter and summer citrus feed. LOTS of new leaf growth, but no new flowers now.
Desperate to know what to do regarding pruning or anything else to help it. Most googling leads either to Tilia not Citrus, or plants in super hot climates or grown to full size.
Heeeelp😢
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  • BenTheBeginnerBenTheBeginner Posts: 66
    Too much nitrogen perhaps? 
  • brian stoatbrian stoat Posts: 111
    The proprietary summer feed (Vitax citrus summer feed) is very high in nitrogen (25:6.5:12.5), but this is apparently a specific requirement “promoting leaf growth and general vigour and discouraged premature ripening, fruit drop and leaf discolouration”.
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    If there is lots of new leaf growth then it is doing fine. It is probably concentrating on growth rather than reproduction as it is still a young plant. It may take a year or two to start fruiting again so keep up the tlc and wait till it is ready to fruit again.
  • brian stoatbrian stoat Posts: 111
    thanks for that - fingers crossed 🤞🏼
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Picture might help. It won't have liked going below 10°C over winter, so may have gone dormant. Just dont panic if when flowers appear it start to loose leaves that seems to be its cycle after any stress old leaves drop and lots of new growth.
  • HotwaxHotwax Posts: 51
    I have a kumquat tree with a similar problem. Fruited well when I bought it two or three years ago, but now nothing! Looks very healthy and like Brian Stoat I do all the right things. But no flowers at all! I’m wondering if they force it for sale so it’s covered in fruit, and this sets them back for a couple of years? Would pruning help it to put out flowers?
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    My only advice is only feed when it's in flower for the lime, summer feed. I use Vitax summer crystals,  one teaspoon to a 2 litre bottle of water. Use this until gone ( depends how big the tree is) then rest watering for a couple of days and use plain water. Which means only water two/three times a week and feed every other week when in flower.  Mist daily, especially in hot weather twice daily during summer.
    Only prune long limbs that get out of hand, dead limbs and crossing central limbs to keep it open to air flow.
    It will self regulate and drop limelets if there are too many, there should be only one/two per limb
    Hope this all helps.
  • brian stoatbrian stoat Posts: 111
    All interesting info to feed into the system thanks. Anybody have any pruning/trimming info? It needs to remain a manageable size for shifting into the greenhouse. Should I leave it to grow for now and prune before winter? Leave it til I bring it back out next summer?
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Do you have to put it in the greenhouse? I think you lost the fruit because of chill (8°C is too cold) and doing more than trim the ends to keep it tidy may shock it again. How big is it?
  • brian stoatbrian stoat Posts: 111

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