Key Lime Tree

The biggest disease that should be on your radar is Citrus canker. It causes brown spots on the leaves, which can move to the fruit if left untreated. Use a soaker hose to defend against this disease, but a preventive spray of a copper fungicide every year can be prophylactic.

How to Grow and Care for a Lime Tree

Les Engles achieved Master Gardener through the Camden County Extension of the Rutgers Master Gardeners Program. He is an arboretum curator with over 30 years of experience. He describes himself as a “tree-hugging dirt worshipper” who is a member of multiple gardening societies and foundations.

Andrew Hughes is a certified arborist, member of the International Society of Arborists specializing in tree heal care, and reviews tree content on The Spruce’s Gardening Review Board. He founded and runs Urban Loggers, LLC, a company offering residential tree services in the Midwest and Connecticut.

If you live in one of the ideal areas where a lime tree will grow, you’re a lucky person. There’s nothing quite as nice as picking fresh lemons from a tree in your own backyard. Citrus × latifolia is officially the Persian lime, but the Persian lime is what you’re most likely to find for sale in the grocery store. Growing a lime tree is easy and requires relatively little care if its placed in the right conditions. It’s known for its abundant fruiting habits and the quickness at which it will start producing fruit, in about three or four years.

If you often use limes in your culinary adventures or want to start and live in a good warm location, planting this fruit tree might be a nice idea if you have an open spot in your landscape.

Light

The most important factor of lime tree care is the light. Sunlight ensures your tree produces as much fruit as possible and stays healthy in an area with full sun. Planting your tree in a sunny location is a great idea, but this is extra important for potted plants.

Soil

While not as important as sunlight, soil conditions are important to guarantee that your lime tree remains vigorous and produces the blooms that will eventually lead to the delicious fruit the tree is known for. The lime tree enjoys rich soil loaded with organics that feed the tree with the necessary nutrients. At the same time, the soil needs to be moist but well draining. Test your soil before planting and amend it as necessary.

Water

The star of the show when it comes to limes, as we all know, is the citrusy tart juice. Give your lime tree plenty of water and keep the soil consistently moist to get the juiciest fruit possible. Use a soaker hose to keep the soil moist under the tree’s canopy to a depth of 2 inches. When the soil is dry to the touch, water again.

When you plant your tree, more frequent water is needed until it has established itself.

Temperature and Humidity

Lime trees are native to tropical areas, so recreating similar conditions would be ideal. Keep your lime tree in a warm area; they do not do well in cold conditions. Strictly adhering to the recommended USDA zones of 9 through 11 is your best bet.

Fertilizer

While a Persian lime will do fine without supplemental feeding, adding a fertilizer to your care regimen will increase the tree’s vigor and fruit production. Give your lime tree a fertilizer with an NPK formulation in a ratio of 2:1:2 three times a year. You can find specifically formulated citrus fertilizers with this formula at most garden centers. Apply in early winter, late spring, and mid summer for the best results.

Pollination

Unlike many fruit trees, you will not have to worry about planting two lime trees for pollination. The lime tree is self-pollinating, and there is no real increase in yield seen when multiple trees are present.

Types of Lime Trees

When you buy a lime in a market, you will most likely buy a Persian lime, which is what we’re talking about here. The hybrid Citrus × latifolia is the most commercially available lime in the world. Still, a few species are grown for their use in the kitchen.

• Kaffir Lime (Citrus hystrix): another very popular lime tree that produces much less fruit and is less hearty.
• Key Lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia): a small tart lime tree that produces limes used mostly for baking. The third most popular lime commercially.
• Philippine Lime (Citrus × microcarpa): a hybrid between the kumquat and mandarin orange.
• Rangpur Lime (Citrus limonia): a popular hybrid of the citron and the mandarin orange.

Harvesting Persian Limes

The lime tree will grow limes year-round. Once fruit appears on the tree, it will take around five months to become large and ripen to a greenish yellow with soft, tender flesh. At that point, it is ready to harvest.

How to Grow a Lime Tree in a Pot

Growing a lime tree in a pot allows you to move the tree to the area that receives the most sun, the most convenient location for watering, and areas that avoid cold temperatures that can damage the plant. A potted lime tree requires a bit more care than an in-ground lime tree.

Use a pot with drainage holes that is considerably bigger than your tree to give it room to grow, saving you the need to have to repot it soon. Select a good quality organic potting soil and add a mix of organic compost. Aim for a soil to compost ratio of 5:1. This mixture will give your lime plenty of organics to feed on and limit the need to add too much supplemental fertilizer.

Place your lime tree in a sunny place. If you decide to keep it indoors, you may need to add a grow light to supplement the lighting. A broad spectrum grow light will best mimic the light you need for an abundant harvest.

Potted lime trees will need their water needs monitored closely as the container they are placed in can impact the soil’s ability to hold moisture. The soil should be consistently moist.

If the temperature in your area goes below 50 degrees, you should bring your lime tree inside during the cold months.

Pruning the Lime Tree

Your lime tree will require very little pruning since it grows very slowly. Your biggest concern will be looking for damaged, dead, or dying branches. When the tree gets some height to it, it is a good idea to prune to allow for easy harvest, but this may be a job best done by a certified arborist since a mature lime tree will require a ladder to reach the top.

Propagating a Lime Tree

The Persian lime is a seedless variety, so the only option to propagate a lime tree is by taking cuttings. While this is possible, it is not recommended. You may get a viable tree that produces some fruit, but it won’t be as healthy or successful as a purchased sapling.

The common lime tree is a variety that is grafted onto the heartier rootstock of the bitter orange (Citrus aurantium). This species is highly disease resistant compared to the Persian lime and is much more tolerant of cooler temperatures. It is therefore a much better idea to buy a commercially sold lime tree. Your tree will be healthier, produce more, be more vigorous, and live longer.

Common Pests and Plant Diseases

Due to the use of the bitter orange rootstock, the lime tree does not suffer from many root or trunk diseases. It is generally a disease-resistant species. Your lime tree may have to deal with the occasional pest which attacks other citrus trees as well, but these are more of a nuisance than a threat.

The biggest disease that should be on your radar is Citrus canker. It causes brown spots on the leaves, which can move to the fruit if left untreated. Use a soaker hose to defend against this disease, but a preventive spray of a copper fungicide every year can be prophylactic.

Insects to be aware of are aphids, citrus mites, scale, and leaf miners. All are relatively harmless in mature trees and can be taken care of easily with neem oil.

Yes, a lime tree is easy to grow if you plant it in the proper conditions. With relatively little additional care, it will thrive and produce abundant fruit quickly.

Lime tree flowers seem to turn into limes, but really it’s that the flower falls off and the fruit grows in its place, getting larger and larger until you have ripe limes.

As a tropical tree, lime trees need full sun. It will be its healthiest and produce the most fruit if given full sun.

On average the typical lime tree will live about 50 years. Under perfect conditions, a tree that is well cared for and disease free can live to about 100 years old.

Key Lime Tree

The Key Lime, also called Mexican Key Lime, is well-known for its use in making Key lime pie. Because it adapts well to growing in containers indoors or outdoors, the Key lime tree is a favorite for growing citrus at home. In temperate climates it may be planted in the ground.

This is the perfect plant to accent your patio—with the bonus of fresh limes! Enjoy attractive green leaves, beautiful pinkish white blossoms, and fragrant flowers, followed by fresh, floral citrus. These limes are prized for baking delicious Key Lime pies, first made popular in the Florida Keys. They are also used in tropical cocktails, savory marinades, and refreshing limeades.

Homesteaders will enjoy preserving an abundance of fruit. These lovely citrus trees may bloom again while the fruit is still growing, allowing for continuous harvesting!

About the Fruit

Mexican Key limes are small, and the peels are thin. The ripe fruit is yellow or yellowish green, and it is highly acidic with the distinctive smell of lime. Each lime takes six to nine months to ripen. Limes are high in vitamin C and the antioxidant phytonutrients known as flavanones.

Growing Key Lime Trees

Grown in the ground, the trees can reach up to twelve feet tall. In a garden pot, the tree’s height will be reduced by the size of the pot. Pruning is not typically needed, except for shaping the tree. Key limes are self-pollinating fruit trees, so outdoor trees will produce fruit by natural means. Indoor trees can be pollinated by hand using a small paintbrush.

These citrus trees require moist, but not wet, soil, and should be watered deeply, but not frequently. The soil pH should be neutral. With regular fertilizing, you can have your first harvest within a couple of years!

Key lime trees require full sun. The trees are heat tolerant, but not cold-hardy, so if you live outside of the recommended growing zones, be sure to treat them as houseplants before freezing temperatures arrive by bringing the patio plants indoors.

Key limes are not often found in grocery stores in the United States; they are more widely available in Mexico and the Caribbean. To enjoy your favorite recipes using Key limes, you will love growing your own! Buy a Mexican Key lime tree and enjoy this beautiful plant and its delicious fruit!

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