This year has been a weird one for my Lime tree. The south Texas summer has seen lots of rain, so the limes (which usually aren't ripe until late October) are ready for harvest these last two weeks. The Key Lime pie I made yesterday was excellent! However, while there are still ripe limes on the tree -- big, juicy, and ready to pick -- there are also blossoms (?!?) on the tree in small numbers and even a few new limes (my wife refers to them as 'Barbie limes'). I am guessing that if these new ones stay on the tree, we will have a second crop in December. And if I didn't know better, I would swear that my Avacado tree was about to bud. So the poor tree is both Fall Harvest ready as well as Spring Fling cruising for polinators. So just for the record ... we ARE still in the Northern Hemisphere, aren't we? Joe
Thanks, Millet. It is good to know I don't have to get a citrus psychotherapist. It may be normal for them, but it is rather strange for those of us who are more cyclic minded. It did not do this last year, but it is a new tree, and doing quite well. I was planning to trim it back a bit, but will now have to wait until January. Don't want to kill the Barbie Limes. DrG
Citrus trees, normally almost never need pruning. You will greatly reduce or eliminate any fruit production if you prune you tree. - Millet
I prune my citrus all the time as it can work wonders for keeping them from getting huge and really leggy (limes, lemons) and producing fruit where you can't reach. I utilize it to stimulate leafing in bare areas due to stress dieback or sun not getting to these areas. WARNING! Watch out for those wicked thorns! Wear thick, long gloves made for pruning roses or you will get painful pokes that frequently fester days after. Also, citrus produce fruit at or near the tips of branches, so if you are not careful, you can be pruning off your next crop! As a rule, I generally prune back the branches that have just been harvested to a new fruiting side shoot -there are usually several to chose from depending how much you wish to remove- which will then elongate and produce. Check for baby fruit carefully. If you must, you can safely trim fruiting branch tips back to almost where a baby is, but better to leave these branches alone until picked as leaf cover provides a buffer from the elements. Our lemon and lime trees produce nearly year round with fruit at several stages of ripeness at any given time, so this is an on-going routine with them, but done like this is never a huge job. With the grapefruit and oranges, I cut out any dead braches and branches growing beyond the main canopy outline are shortened any time I find them to just inside the canopy. Where trees encroach our walkway, I shear back frequently to keep in check. I have found pruning stimulates citrus in amazing ways. If a tree is showing signs of stress and dropping leaves, I will prune back to a side branch or shoot with healthy leaves still attached. Never cut back to a totally bare area as this may cause the branch to die! Sometimes I do nothing more than prune and water deeply to get great rejuvination within a few weeks. Additionally, I may later opt to give a fertilizer booster once I see a bit of green response. I also do some occasional probing under the trees with a 2.5 ft. piece of rebar to collapse gopher runs as our trees are on a slope and these runs siphon away vital water. Our trees love an occasional overhead hosing off to remove dust, etc. which helps optimize the exchange processes of the leaves. We also make sure trees are well hydrated with a long soak and a nice overhead shower before any cold snap or frost as the plumped up cells provide a good measure of insulation.
