Tahiti (Persian Lime) questions.
 

Hi - in the UK, I have a Tahiti (Persian) Lime in a pot on the kitchen
windowsill plenty of afternoon sun - It's in citrus soil ( well
draining mix) and is watered every 1-2 days, basically when the medium
feels dry. I am feeding with citrus fertilizer twice a month. Any idea
why leaves have been dropping recently and I'm not seeing any flowers
or fruit this year? This is the second year I've had the plant, and
I've had very little fruit at all so far. What might I be doing wrong?
Any ideas? Crossposted to rec.gardens.
Thanks for any ideas,
Mike

On 4 May 2005 09:40:17 -0700, wrote:

I am feeding with citrus fertilizer twice a month.

Could you be over-fertilizing and building up too many mineral salts
in the soil?

You might try repotting it if you think that might be the problem. Be
sure and remove as much of the old soil as possible. I don't know how
sensitive a lime tree might be to water; but to save the over
fertilized house plants I rescue from my friends, I just put the whole
pot in a bucket of water and let it soak for several hours. It leeches
the worst of the mineral salts out.


Penelope

il 4 May 2005 09:40:17 -0700, wrote:

Hi - in the UK, I have a Tahiti (Persian) Lime in a pot on the kitchen
windowsill plenty of afternoon sun - It's in citrus soil ( well
draining mix) and is watered every 1-2 days, basically when the medium
feels dry. I am feeding with citrus fertilizer twice a month. Any idea
why leaves have been dropping recently and I'm not seeing any flowers
or fruit this year? This is the second year I've had the plant, and
I've had very little fruit at all so far. What might I be doing wrong?
Any ideas? Crossposted to rec.gardens.
Thanks for any ideas,
Mike

I have a lime in a pot too but mine sits out on the porch as it is
far too big to sit on a windowsill. Check your plant doesn't need a
bigger pot. When you feed it, is it a liquid feed or grains?, cos
twice a month can be a lot. They also like about 50% humidity. Your
windowsill could be getting too hot. Aren't you in spring? Maybe
yours is still young?

Leaves yellow and drop because they are either too dry, too wet, too
much fertilizer, too little fertilzer, no iron (also affected by
cold), or no magnesium. Always a problem trying to work out which it
is, if not all. Good luck!

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Thanks both for the suggestions. I'm fertilizing with a liquid feed,
the label on the bottle suggests twice a month in the growing season,
and once a month in the winter. I think I'll halve the amount in the
growing season and not fertilize at all in the winter, and see what
happens.
This weekend, I'll give the soil a real good soaking to try to get rid
of the built up salts. I'll report back here in a couple of weeks if
there's any change.
Loki - do you get much fruit? At the moment, I have 0 flowers.
Thanks again,
Mike

il 6 May 2005 09:07:32 -0700, wrote:

Thanks both for the suggestions. I'm fertilizing with a liquid feed,
the label on the bottle suggests twice a month in the growing season,
and once a month in the winter. I think I'll halve the amount in the
growing season and not fertilize at all in the winter, and see what
happens.
This weekend, I'll give the soil a real good soaking to try to get rid
of the built up salts. I'll report back here in a couple of weeks if
there's any change.
Loki - do you get much fruit? At the moment, I have 0 flowers.
Thanks again,
Mike

The first time I put it in a bigger pot, shortly after buying it, it
had a million flowers. Most of which fell off as teeny fruit. But
each year it seems to be having more stay as it gets used to its
growing environment. Our winters always slow it down. Your plant is
possibly too young still. How big is it?

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Your tree is probably losing leaves for lack of light. Its called the leaf
drop syndrome. Move the plant to a better lighted location and reduce the
fertilizer to once a month. Citrus is extremely sensitive to the amount of
sunlight it requires.

Have Fun
Jim

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi - in the UK, I have a Tahiti (Persian) Lime in a pot on the kitchen
windowsill plenty of afternoon sun - It's in citrus soil ( well
draining mix) and is watered every 1-2 days, basically when the medium
feels dry. I am feeding with citrus fertilizer twice a month. Any idea
why leaves have been dropping recently and I'm not seeing any flowers
or fruit this year? This is the second year I've had the plant, and
I've had very little fruit at all so far. What might I be doing wrong?
Any ideas? Crossposted to rec.gardens.
Thanks for any ideas,
Mike

It's about 2 feet tall. I have had 1 lime from it before, but this
year, I've only seen 1 flower, which fell off. I've given it a good
soaking now, so we'll see what happens with 1/2 rations of fertilizer.
I'll let you know - thanks again for your help.

Thanks Jim - unfortunately there's nowhere in the house that I can move
it to. But I am going to cut the fertilizer down and see what happens.
However - your post set me thinking - there must be some way of
reproducing the chemical reaction of photosynthesis without actually
providing more light - I'm thinking of some sort of additive that could
be made available. Are there any microbiologists etc. out there that
might be able to comment on this?
Thanks,
Mike

il 7 May 2005 05:31:43 -0700, "TheBadGerman" wrote:

It's about 2 feet tall. I have had 1 lime from it before, but this
year, I've only seen 1 flower, which fell off. I've given it a good
soaking now, so we'll see what happens with 1/2 rations of fertilizer.
I'll let you know - thanks again for your help.

I had a look at my lime and it had a lot of yellow leaves and some
scale. it seems I haven't been looking after it properly. Altho with
winter on the way I can't do much about the colder days. They prefer
warmer weather and not below 15°C. But it has lots of limes :-)

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

il 7 May 2005 05:35:09 -0700, "TheBadGerman" wrote:

Thanks Jim - unfortunately there's nowhere in the house that I can move
it to. But I am going to cut the fertilizer down and see what happens.
However - your post set me thinking - there must be some way of
reproducing the chemical reaction of photosynthesis without actually
providing more light - I'm thinking of some sort of additive that could
be made available. Are there any microbiologists etc. out there that
might be able to comment on this?
Thanks,
Mike

Just buy some lights.

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Get this - I gave it a good soak over the weekend, and already, new
shoots have started popping up and even a few flowers! This suggests to
me that teh position is good, as is my watering, but it was teh
fertilizing which was the problem. Question is then, how often to
fertilize with a liquid feed?
Thanks,
Mike

il 12 May 2005 14:05:35 -0700, wrote:

Get this - I gave it a good soak over the weekend, and already, new
shoots have started popping up and even a few flowers! This suggests to
me that teh position is good, as is my watering, but it was teh
fertilizing which was the problem. Question is then, how often to
fertilize with a liquid feed?
Thanks,
Mike

I would interpret it as not enough water. But that's the tricky thing
with plants. You can assume that if it's putting out new growth it
needs more fertilizer than it would in winter. If it was in a clay
pot the excess salts would be visible on the pot.
--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]