I live in Chonburi, Thailand. On my property I have many fruit trees that produce in good quantity, including one lemon tree. On two occasions I have planted rooted nursery stock of Thai limes that refuse to flower. One I tried for three years and the other has now been planted about 6 months. It is producing new leaves and the overall growth is fine, but no flowers. There is also a Kafir lime with the same problems for over four years. A lemon tree about 30 meters away flowers and produces fruit almost year round. All planting holes and soil mixes were the same for all my trees and it is only the two lime trees that I have a problem with. Any suggestions ? Green Genes
Thanks Ron but this is not the case. As a matter of fact when I bought the tree it had a couple of small limes already on one branch. I suspect the cutting was simply from a branch and rooted, but that still does not explain why it will not flower. Cheers Green Genes
If the tree from the nursery is a seedling tree, then it's possible the cutting was taken from the juvenile portion of the tree in which case the cutting will have to resume the maturation process again (according to the node count theory).
Thanks Junglekeeper Would this hold true if the rooted cutting was in fruit (only 2 small ones) at the time of planting? What is the "node count theory" ? Cheers Green Genes
Differences in commercial nursery cultivation regimes and ordinary conditions on final planting site might also play a part. It is common to bring home a small camellia plant from a garden center here covered in flower buds, and then have to wait some years for the new specimen to resume flowering again, after being planted out. People sometimes even ask about this on the internet.
The cutting must have been mature if it was taken from a large tree and was holding fruit or blossom at the time. Node count as explained by Dr. Manners in his own words can be found in this thread in an external forum.
