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Hi
Lime tree not giving much flowers and fruits. Fruits are thick skin and not much juice.
Leaves seems Curley , with some brown spot in middles, green and yellowish . Please help and guide through how to overcome these issues . Photos attached
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @EMP. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and many thanks for the questions about your lime tree.
My first thought is that these signs are pointing to the rootstock overgrowing the grafted top, and the result is what you are seeing. Fruit plants are often grafted to different base growing stock. This rootstock grows exceptionally well but doesn't produce palatable fruit. The leaves seem a little odd to me for a standard lime, which also leads me to this assumption. Fruit with thick skin and little juice also could be a sign of it being rootstock. If the rootstock shoots are not cut back, they will quickly grow and smother to fruiting stock above.
I wouldn't expect to see many flowers or fruit at this time of the year, but to ensure there are some in the following months, you need to be fertilising with something like Scotts Osmocote 500g Citrus & Fruit Controlled Release Fertiliser. When was the last time you fertilised the plant, and what type of fertiliser did you use?
Perhaps @Noelle or @Adam_W, our knowledgeable horticulturists, might like to weigh in on the discussion.
Mitchell
Thanks Mitchell
So should I leave plant as it is and fertilise it or any solution I can try to rootstock overgrowing ?
Attached photo indicate what you saying but not sure which is main trunk and which are overshoot I cut 🥺?
Hello @EMP
Thank you for posting a photo of the base of your lime tree. My colleague @MitchellMc is currently on a well-earned break and will be back on Friday. I totally agree with his diagnosis of your lime tree, it seems that it has unusually large stems and leaves. I recommend following his suggestion of fertilizing the tree and observe to see if it produces flowers in the following weeks. Please keep us updated.
If you need further assistance, please let us know.
Eric
That's a difficult one, @EMP. It's kind of like trying to diffuse a bomb but not knowing which wire to cut.
The fruiting stock would typically be in the middle, with all the growing stock shooting out around the sides under the graft line. Normally, you would find a graft line about 10cm above the roots, which would be quite identifiable. In your case, there doesn't seem to be an easily discernable graft, just a crown of big thick shoots. Potentially, the fruiting stock has died off completely.
Here's an image of a more classical graft on my own orange. In this case, it would be straightforward to detect shoots under that graft line.
How long have you had this lime? Has it ever had many flowers and nice juicy fruit? Do you ever remember a large central branch dying back?
Mitchell
@EMP,
I suspect if you have never seen juicy fruit or many flowers that the central fruiting graft section may have failed and died early on.
You could certainly add some Scotts Osmocote 500g Citrus & Fruit Controlled Release Fertiliser and see how you go. It certainly won't hurt.
Hopefully, one of our experts, @Adam_W and @Noelle, will be able to get back to us. @mich1972 might also have some thoughts.
Mitchell
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