Lime Common

I love cooking with limes (and adding slices of them to Gin and Tonics) just as much as I do sharing limes from the tree in my kitchen garden. No one in Perth will turn down a home grown lime, they are that prized.

There is even a lime tree in my driveway ,that is constantly being cross pollinated with an adjacent lemon tree, that gives a slightly different flavour. Thank you bees :).

Here is what I have learnt about lime trees (in fact most citrus).

You can’t over prune them. I love a good hedge and it keeps the fruit accessible.
Feed them 3 times a year only (this might take some will power) with way more than you think you need of dynamic lifter (blood and bone) and a complete citrus fertiliser. Spread it to the edge of the canopy line, keep it away a bit from the trunk and water in well. I don’t bother mixing it into the soil.
Water them daily during the hot months. Just like on a Passionfruit vine, outwardly nice looking fruit might be dry inside if you don’t. Worse still, you might get lots of flowers that then drop off and this is heart breaking to watch.
Pee on surrounding soil (some wives’ tales are true) for soil acidity.
Keep the soil slightly acidic if the tree is not naturally doing this (dropping leaves and fruit that compost naturally) or the above measures are not doing so. You could use some burnt wood ash if you are still worried but the slowly slowly natural approach is better in my opinion.

Oh and it doesn’t hurt to inherit an awesome tree :).