I have a number of citrus trees, which are all coming into new growth at the moment. There’s a lemon tree in the front garden and 7 potted citrus out the back. The potted citrus are all dwarf except for my finger lime and my kumquat, which strangely is the least active growth-wise at the moment. They are also the only two which are not currently in flower. Finger Limes are native to Australia but I’ve never tried one so I am extremely keen for my plant to do something in that respect. But alas so far nothing but prickly foliage.
My front garden lemon tree is a Eureka lemon and this is its 4th year. I got a couple of fruit from it last year but this is really the first year that I expect anything from it. It is setting fruit at the moment so things are looking nice and promising. Hopefully this year I will get a couple of dozen of these:
I bought my dwarf citrus either 2 or 3 years old depending on the plant. Last year I got a couple of fruit from my Navel Orange, my Tahitian Lime and my Meyer Lemon but none from the mandarin. This year however it is looking very promising:
My Tahitian Lime and Washington Navel Orange are both growing steadily and both have a few flowers on them.
My Meyer Lemon was most affected by the citrus gall wasps and although it is growing very slowly at the moment it does have a lot of flowers on it.
My final citrus tree is a Kaffir Lime which has never fruited but as I grow it primarily for the leaves this is not really a problem. I would like the occasional fruit though as the zest is lovely. Maybe this year, it has a couple of little buds on it, it also seems to be putting on a fair bit of growth at the moment.
Now I just need some pretty pots to put them in.
Do you grow citrus? What does well for you?
I envy you all your citrus since we can’t grow it here except indoors and I have not good south facing windows.
This all sounds really exciting I hope you get lots of fruit
I have tried growing a lemon tree, but it died. I do have a very healthy mandarin tree growing in the back corner, but I don’t think it gets enough light, so fruit has been great. Though this year was the first year we were actually eating the mandarin off it. I didn’t like them, but my husband thought they were great. They are hard to grow and they need so much attention. May be I should try that lemon tree again, we use so many. You seem to do so well with everything you grow. I put flowers in and they grow, I am good with those, but, food, not so good.
Wow , your finger lime is a very spikey one! As you know I love my citrus. Mt two Tahitian limes are doing very well, nice coloured young growth and a decent fruit set. The struggle is keeping the damn stink bugs off. The lemon is powering on , again with a decent set and strangely the stink bugs are not on the lemon…. Then the finger lime put on lots of new growth and lots of flowers but the flowers didn’t set. I wonder why when they have set so well on the other citrus? Perhaps becasue the flowers are so small they need native bees? I don’t know just a theory… I wonder how 500m2’s finger lime is going , its the same variety as mine.
Alas, I wont see the fruit from the citrus this year and will have to hand them over to the new owner. I am trying to work out how to grow new citrus in the part of the world I am moving to. I keep thinking, “if Jackie French can grow citrus in her climate (colder than my new location) then I can”….but that would be overestimating my ability.
I’m very jealous as most of my citrus are just babies, and look pretty slow and a bit sad. I have a Valencia orange and a Tahitian lime, both of which were only planted last year, and don’t have much new growth happening at all. If they don’t get a move on I might need to move them, as they’re in a spot that doesn’t get much light and maybe that’s why they’re sulking. I also want a mandarin, but want to see if these others pick up before I go and get one. I also have a Eureka lemon that was in a pot for 4 years, but then three years ago went into the ground (I think it was the first tree I planted here). Last year it really took off, and is now about 3m high and has about 20 fruit this year, and there looks to be a lot more on the way.
Well thanks to your recommendations Liz I am now the proud owner of not one but two Meyer Lemon plants both of which are fruiting nicely. The one with smaller fruit are turning yellow. I’ve moved them into the unheated greenhouse as temperatures are falling here and we had our first frost last weekend. Can’t wait to pick my first Meyer lemon now!
Oh yay that is exciting. I do hope they ripen quickly!