How to grow lime

Choose a warm, low, frost-free site in full sun. Limes belong in hot lowlands — if frost ever settles in a spot, don't plant a lime there.

Avoid cold hollows and valley bottoms where cold air pools on clear nights. Higher ground or a gentle slope that lets cold air drain away is safer.

Pick deep, well-drained soil. Dig a test hole and fill it with water — if it stays a pond for hours, the roots will rot there; choose a better-draining spot or plant on a raised mound.

Give the trees room. Limes are planted far apart (about five to six strides apart every way), so make sure the site is big enough for the number of trees you want.

Look for some shelter from strong wind (a hedge or wall on the windy side) — but not shade. The tree still needs full sun all day.

Buy a grafted tree from a trusted nursery — one where a chosen lime variety has been joined (grafted) onto a separate root variety. You will see the graft union: a knobbly join low on the stem.

Ask the nursery for a rootstock suited to your area and its diseases. Tell them if tristeza (a citrus virus, see below) has been a problem locally.

Avoid a sour-orange rootstock where tristeza virus is around. Sour orange catches it badly — trees on it decline and collapse. Ask the nursery which rootstock they used.

Check the young tree is healthy: green, unblemished leaves with no blotchy yellow mottle, no sticky pests, a straight stem, and a clean, well-healed graft.

Buy from a nursery that sells certified, disease-free citrus stock. A cheap, infected tree can spread disease to every tree you own.

First, mark out your tree positions about 5.5 m apart — roughly five to six strides — every way, in both directions (about 340 trees fill a hectare). This wide spacing is permanent, so pace it out carefully before you dig.

Dig a generous hole, wider and deeper than the tree's root ball, on deep, well-drained soil. Mix some well-rotted compost or manure into the soil you will put back.

Set the tree so the graft union — the knobbly join low on the stem — stays a hand-span (about 20 cm) ABOVE the soil line. Never bury it. Planting too deep lets rot in and lets the fruiting top take root and lose the rootstock's protection.

Fill back and firm the soil gently around the roots so there are no air pockets.

Build a low ring of soil (a basin) around the tree, a little wider than its canopy, to catch and hold water — then water it in well.

Stake the young tree to a strong pole so wind cannot rock it and tear the new roots. Tie it loosely with soft material, never wire that cuts into the bark.

Keep a weed-free ring around the trunk, wider than the branches reach, so weeds do not steal its water — but keep mulch and soil from piling against the stem.

In the first year or two, choose three or four strong, well-spaced main branches to keep as the tree's frame, and shorten or remove the rest.

Remove any shoots growing from BELOW the graft join (rootstock 'suckers'). These are the wild root variety — they bear no good fruit and will take over the tree if left.

Cut out dead, crossing and inward-growing shoots, and thin the centre so light and air reach right through — an open middle dries fast after rain and fights off disease.

Remove water shoots — the fast, upright, whippy shoots that shade the middle and carry no fruit.

Do this every five to six months through the early years — about twice a year. Use clean, sharp tools and mind the thorns — lime is very spiny.

Roughly every month (every 3–5 weeks), walk to each young tree and look closely — new leaves, older leaves, the twigs, and the base of the trunk.

Greening disease (HLB, huanglongbing): look for blotchy, one-sided yellow mottle on leaves (the yellow does NOT match across the mid-vein), yellow shoots, and small, lop-sided fruit. There is no cure — this is why you watch for the psyllid insect that spreads it.

Root rot (phytophthora): check the trunk base for dark, wet, oozing or gummy patches and bark that is dying. It comes from soil staying too wet — keep water and mulch off the trunk.

Leafminer: look for silvery, wiggly (snake-like) tunnels just under the skin of new leaves, and curled, distorted leaf edges.

Scale insects: look for tiny brown or white bumps stuck on twigs and leaf undersides that do not brush off, plus sticky leaves and black sooty mould growing on the stickiness.

If a tree shows clear greening mottle → remove and burn it so it cannot infect the rest. For pests → open the matching pest guide and act early.

Water every 1–2 weeks — more often in heat and on sandy soil that dries fast, less in cool or wet weather. Keep the soil moist, never waterlogged.

Water into the basin around the tree, wetting the whole root area out to the canopy edge — but keep water off the trunk itself, which rots if it stays wet.

Feed little and often: small amounts spread in a ring under the outer edge of the leaves (never piled against the trunk), as your recommendation advises. Young roots burn easily, so many small feeds beat one big one.

Lime needs nitrogen, potassium and the micronutrients magnesium and zinc — a compound feed plus magnesium and zinc, per your recommendation.

Keep a mulch ring to hold moisture and smother weeds, but keep the mulch from touching the trunk.

Keep fertiliser off the leaves and away from food, water and children, and wash your hands afterwards.

Roughly every month (every 3–5 weeks), walk the trees and look over the leaves, the new flush, and the twig tips.

Anthracnose / wither-tip: look for twig tips dying back from the tip downward and dark, sunken spots on leaves and small fruit — worst in wet, humid spells. Prune the dead tips out (see light pruning).

Leafminer: look again for silvery, wiggly tunnels and curled edges on the soft new leaves.

Tristeza virus / aphids: look for colonies of soft aphids on the new flush (they spread the virus), and, on a tree with a susceptible root, general decline and yellowing. Squash aphid colonies early.

Note what you see. If disease or pests are spreading, act — open the matching guide and prune out affected wood.

Every 3–5 months, take out dead, diseased and crossing wood and any wither-tip (dead twig tips), cutting back into healthy wood.

Thin the centre so light and air pass right through — an open tree dries quickly and catches far less disease than a dense one.

Remove water shoots (fast, upright, whippy shoots) and any suckers from below the graft join.

Use clean, sharp tools and mind the thorns. Carry prunings out and burn diseased wood — do not leave it lying under the tree.

Feed every 2–3 months, year-round. Your recommendation gives the amount for your tree's size.

Spread it in a ring under the outer edge of the leaves (the 'drip line', where rain drips off) — kept clear of the trunk — on moist soil, then rake or water it in.

Split the year's feed into small, frequent doses rather than one big one — less is washed away by rain and there is no root burn.

Give nitrogen, potassium and the micronutrients magnesium and zinc (a compound plus magnesium and zinc), as your recommendation sets out.

Watch the leaves for hunger: magnesium short = yellowing between the veins on older leaves; zinc short = small, narrow, mottled new leaves ('little-leaf'). Correct these with a foliar spray (sprayed straight onto the leaves) of magnesium/zinc — it acts fast.

Keep fertiliser off the trunk and off wet leaves, away from food, water and children, and wash your hands afterwards.

From just before flowering, check the new flush about every 7–10 days — the psyllid only breeds on soft new growth.

Look for tiny insects (about aphid-sized) sitting tail-up at a slant (about 45°) on the youngest shoots — this tail-up pose is the giveaway.

Look for their white, waxy, curly threads and for twisted, notched new leaves where they have fed.

While you are there, check for greening itself: blotchy, one-sided yellow mottle on leaves and yellow shoots.

Act on the first psyllids you see — wash them off or spot-treat the flush, and open the psyllid guide. Do not wait for numbers to build.

Time it for just before a flowering flush — when the flower buds are swelling but not yet open.

Mix zinc and boron at the rate on your recommendation or the product label. Do not overdo the boron — a little helps, but too much harms the tree.

Spray to wet the new leaves and buds. Spray in the cool of early morning or evening, with the wind behind you.

Cover your skin, eyes and nose, keep the spray off food, and wash yourself and your kit afterwards.

If you miss the window (flowers already open and dropping) → skip it and catch the next flush. Limes flower again and again.

From a couple of weeks after flowering, once tiny fruit have set, check the fruit every 3–4 days — fruit flies move fast.

Hang a trap or two in the tree and check the catch each visit — a rise in catches is your early warning.

Look on the fruit for sting marks (tiny punctures or dimples), soft rotting patches, and fruit dropping early. Cut open a dropped fruit — small maggots inside means fruit fly.

Anthracnose: look for dark, sunken spots on the fruit and dying twig tips (wither-tip), worst in wet spells.

Collect and bury (deep) all fallen fruit twice a week so the maggots inside cannot finish their life cycle and breed the next wave.

On the first stings, or the first rise in trap catches, start the fruit-fly programme now (see the next task).

Water every 7–10 days right through fruit set and fill — more often in heat and on sandy soil.

Keep the soil evenly moist. Do not let it go bone-dry and then flood it — that sudden swing splits and drops the fruit.

Wet the whole root zone out to the canopy edge, not just the trunk — that is where the feeding roots are.

Keep water off the trunk base (wet bark rots), and keep a mulch ring to hold the moisture in.

Start on the first stung or dropping fruit, or the first rise in trap catches — not before, and not too late.

Use a protein bait (a sweet, protein lure mixed with a little insecticide that the flies come to feed on) as small spots on the trunk or a few leaves — not a full-tree cover spray. The flies come to the bait and die.

Refresh the bait after rain and about weekly, and keep your traps hung and topped up.

Keep collecting and burying fallen fruit twice a week — sanitation is half the battle; bait alone won't win if the ground is full of maggoty fruit.

Respect the pre-harvest interval — the number of days on the product label you must wait between the last spray and picking. Do not pick before that time is up.

Safety: cover your skin, eyes and nose; apply in the cool with the wind behind you; keep it off food and off fruit you'll eat soon; and wash your hands, kit and clothes afterwards.

Pick when fruit are full-sized, deep green, and feel heavy for their size — a light squeeze gives just slightly, meaning it is full of juice.

Clip the stalk with scissors or secateurs, close to the fruit. Never pull — pulling tears the rind and the fruit rots.

Pick over the tree every 1–3 weeks, taking the ready fruit each time — an ever-bearing lime ripens a few at a time, not all at once.

Handle gently into a padded basket and keep the picked fruit out of the sun.

Try not to pick wet fruit — surface water spreads anthracnose in the basket.

Keep picked fruit in the shade, out of the sun and heat, from the moment it is picked.

Sort out the damaged fruit first — any stung, cut, bruised or spotted limes. One rotting fruit spreads rot through the whole crate.

Pack gently into clean, ventilated crates. Do not overfill or stack so heavy that the bottom fruit are crushed.

Store cool but NOT cold — a shaded, airy place. Do not store below about 9–10 °C: too-cold storage pits and spoils the skin.

Market green-picked fruit fresh and fast — limes are perishable and lose quality quickly.