When your lime trees are not producing blossoms or fruit, its alarming! You expect the tree to begin blossoming in three to six years of growth and finally ready for harvest in eight to ten years.
Still, if you see no results then there are reasons for this occurrence you need to address.
Usually, lime fruits are ready for harvesting in two periods of the year that is; May-June and November – December.
When a lime tree does not produce blooms and fruits but still looks healthy, there might be damage to the tree. It happens because the tree is unhappy to have blossoms and fruits.
Are you wondering why your lime tree is not producing blossoms or fruit?
Here are the reasons and fixes for a lime tree not producing blossoms or fruit as follows;
1. Lack of nutrients hence lime trees not producing blossoms or fruit
leading to lime tree not producing blossoms or fruit
When growing a lime tree, it needs proper care to produce fruits. When the tree is lacking nutrients, it gets deficiencies that hinder growth and development.
Whenever you do not fertilize the soils when growing lime trees, the tree will not be healthy hence Lime trees not producing blossoms or fruit.
You can fix this issue by adding fertilizers rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which will aid the production of blossoms and fruits.
Always boost the soil level’s acidity to improve the soil pH, which will force the lime tree to produce blossoms or fruit.
2. Under and Over watering makes the lime tree not producing blossoms or fruit
When a lime tree lacks watering and dries out, the time you water it, it will drop its blossoms and leaves; hence flowering is affected. With this factor a lime tree will not produce blossoms or fruit.
Still, when you over-water a lime tree, the soil becomes very wet and starts dropping the leaves. Such a tree is unhealthy, so it will be hard to produce fruits when leaves and flowers fall off.
Fix the under and over- watering issue by watering the lime tree at least once in seven days. Doing this helps to avoid the tree from over-drying and not to give it much water daily because it will die.
When you give water, which is just enough, it will produce blossoms and fruits.
3. Poor drainage leads to lime trees not producing blossoms or fruit
Your lime tree is not producing blossoms or fruit because there is improper drainage for a container lime tree plant. The soil is likely to become muddy and very wet due to a lack of enough holes at the pot’s bottom.
Whenever you water the plant, the water will have no room to drain. Lime trees hate wet feet because the root will rot hence no blossoming.
Fix poor drainage to force blooms by putting enough holes at the pot’s bottom to allow water flow during the irrigation process.
The soil will be adequately moist. The lime tree will produce blossoms and fruits because its roots are healthy.
4. Lack of enough heat leads to lime trees not producing blossoms or fruit
Lime trees enjoy warm temperatures to have proper growth and development. When your tree is not producing blossoms and fruits, check the location you place your lime tree.
Are there any objects or trees providing shade that blocks the sun from directly reaching the tree? If any, they could be the reason why your lime tree is not flowering and fruiting.
Fixing the heat temperature issue needs you to move the tree to a place where no shade or objects is obstructing direct sunlight.
You can also consider putting the plant on the south side of your house to avoid the north’s cold winds, which will help force blooms on a lime tree.
You will see the lime tree producing blossoms in no time when it has enough heat to it.
5. When you prune off the blossoms
Pruning is a suitable method while caring for your lime tree. However, you might do it in a wrong way, and in the process, you cut off the buds that grow in the tips of the branches you prune.
Once you prune off these buds, the lime tree will not produce blossoms the following year.
Fix the issue of inferior pruning methods by avoiding to cut the tips of branches that are producing buds because it’s these buds that will help during the production of blossoms and eventually fruits.
6. Sometimes, the tree might not produce the fruits
A lime tree might skip a year without paying blossoms and fruits because it’s reserving the energy for another year’s production.
It happens due to a few environmental issues like weather conditions that work the tree out!
When you know the issues affecting a lime tree, treat them to relieve the tree and wait to see the following year after its recovery to see whether it produces blossoms and fruits.
Blossom and fruits are falling off the lime tree.
When lime trees blossom, they look very delightful and have the full capacity to produce fruits.
However, when a healthy-looking lime tree starts dropping fruits and blossoms fall off, it’s a disturbing situation!
Why do blossoms fall, and fruits drop off a lime tree?
Below are some of the most common reasons;
1. It’s natural
It’s entirely normal for blossoms to fall and fruits to drop off a lime tree due to natural thinning. During this process, the tree aborts some of its blossoms or fruits when they become too many for it to hold. The flowers and fruit begin to fall slowly and leave the tree healthy with what it can support.
2. Poor soils
When lime trees have soils that have low pH Levels, it will affect the blossoms and fruits. Too much acidity and alkaline for the tree prevents it from taking in nutrients properly. A tree that lacks nutrients can not support fruit growth; hence, drop off before maturity to survive because the fruits are draining it.
3. Uneven watering
Whenever you leave a lime tree to dry out, it will get stress, hence not retaining its blossoms and fruits. The flowers will fall off, and fruits drop because the tree can still not support them. Yet when you water a lime tree after a long period of dryness, blossoms will fall off slowly.
How to fix blossoms and fruits drop off a lime tree.
To fix the issue of blossoms falling and fruit dropping off a lime tree, you need to give it the proper care to keep it healthy.
- Water a lime tree consistently to avoid dryness, which leads to blossoms and fruit drop.
- Fertilize the soils and add nutrients to the ground to keep the tree healthy and survive to support its blossoms and fruits.
- Keep the lime tree in warm temperatures because lime trees do not like cold weather conditions. A warm climate will help the tree grow properly and blossom and fruit at the right time. Put it where it can get direct sunlight.
FAQs
A lime tree takes up to eight years to produce fruit. Most lime trees bloom and grow ripe fruit over six to nine months. Most times, lime trees mature and drop blooms and focus all their energy on producing a small percentage of pollinated flowers.
The main flush of flowers appears in late spring and early summer, so the main crop of fruit is ready for harvesting five to six months after flowering. A key lime sparsely flowers throughout the year.
A dwarf lime tree takes three years to produce fruits. Much as this tree is small, it has full-size fruits, and after three years, it will have mature fruits.
When a lime tree lacks nutrients, it results in it not blooming and fruiting. So you need to ensure that you fertilize the soils to add nutrients to the tree and give proper care like even watering and keeping in warm temperatures, not below 50°F.
A lime tree that you grow from cuttings is likely to produce blooms the first year after germination, but later on, it develops fruits after several years. Maintain watering, mulch the weeds to keep the soils moist, frequently fertilize to add nutrients.