Aussie finger lime

precocious in vegas, blooming straight from onegreenworld’s delivery box when it arrived this spring, although seems to be sensitive to full sun. Caviar-like pulp bits have a pommelo flavor and texture, but has its own unique signature

will be subjecting it to 20F or lower this winter(unsheltered/unheated) and see how it fares

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Mine is about 4+ feet tall and though it blooms heavily for me, I have not yet had a single fruit set.

Maybe next year.

It spends the winter in my basement in an old coal room. Room is chilly, but not cold.

Scott

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4 feet tall is impressive! How old is yours? Does it have pink flowers too? Was wondering it could be a different variety from my precocious one, and hope it gives you fruit at some point. Could be that it got ‘seasoned’ quickly by the dry air and the warms springs/summer heat here.

am giving it tough love this winter, and hoping it survives without insulation

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I think it’s 5 years old. It was a 5 inches tall when I got it, only 2 inches above th graft. Now the main trunk is better than an inch in diameter.

Yes, the flowers are tiny and actually more purple than pink. It bloomed heavily, close to 100 blooms at one time early this summer. I think next year I will try to pollinate it with Meyer lemon pollen, just in case my problem is lack of pollinators.

Scott

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It is a very precocious citrus cultivar, and can withstand full sun, and some pretty low temps. I imagine yours was in a screenhouse, so it just needs to acclimate to full sun, but it will do just fine once acclimated. Mine is in a pot and it was hard to keep the growth down. Interesting citrus.

Patty S.

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yes, purple was the initial color with younger flower buds, so seems like we have the same variety

we don’t have meyer lemons here, but we have calamondins and kumquats. Not sure if it is self-fertile, and if it isn’t—then it is a paternity case between either quat or mondin, or both. And hopefully it is receptive to mr meyer as well

was hoping it was ok with full sun–and am sure it is in cooler regions, but the extreme heat we had yellowed out many of the leaves pretty quickly(as early as june at 110’s), so i turned tail and placed it under a trellis.
will probably give it tougher love when it gets a little bigger

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Raf, it should recover for you. We have commercial Fingerlime growers in Fallbrook, and it’s been bloody hot out here this summer. Haven’t heard any issues with their fingerlimes, and of course, they’re in full blasting sun in the hot hills of Fallbrook. And, we’ve been unseasonably hot as well, here, ugh. Was 100 on Thursday here. That is unusual for us. I think any citrus in a pot will suffer heat affects more intensely than citrus planted in the ground, too. So that has to be taken into consideration.

Patty S.

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that is so encouraging, thanks so much! Was actually impressed by it fruiting right away and being able to withstand the oven-dry summers here, so now eagerly curious how it will fare in a few nights of 15F.

while we enjoy our mondins and quats, another cold-hardy and low-maintenance citrus would be most welcome :slight_smile:

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What kind of soil mixture are you using for this one? Thanks

Just got mine from OGW, and transferred it to a self watering container. It looks like the whole mixture is bark, not sure what kind.

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good luck with yours. Yours seem to be bigger and healthier than the specimen we received. Also, we received ours with the same loose bark compost that felt like it was bare-root , so replanted it in a bigger pot with just regular potting soil(no miracle-gro or any amendments, as was afraid fertilizing it may backfire).

it didn’t grow much this summer, but at least held on to the fruitlets.

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Yes, their shipments can be regarded as bareroot. Check the instructions that come with the plants.

Although “australian finger lime” is in the Citrus Family (Rutaceae), it is not a “citrus” in the sense of Lemons, Limes, Mandarins, Oranges, and Pomelos. Here is the NPGS record for the species:
Microcitrus australasica

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It’s smaller than it looked in the first picture. The other branches that you saw belonged to another plant.

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i see now. I’d say it was about the same size when received it. You should expect it to start flowering next spring. I had it under full sun last spring, until the temps approached 100’s, when the foliage started getting bleachy. It didn’t seem to mind growing under filtered/reflected light. It is supposedly an undergrowth-type of citrus in aussie forests.

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It’s no more a citrus than apple is a pear.

yes

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dropped many of its leaves after some freezing episodes. Good news is that the stems and many leaves haven’t gotten mushy. Still has a brisk feel to it, even when thawed…:grin:

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Hello, new here but just had to comment on the color of the flowers. I have one of these in a 10 inch pot which seems to be pretty happy as it is around 3ft tall. The thing is that what I was told it is a Tasty Green variety of finger lime. The flowers however which it decided to bloom shortly after I had potted it were white on my tree, not pink.

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welcome to growingfruit, and thanks for the input! Am sure many here would like to see your green variety. If you look at the fruits of mine, they turn somewhat brown when mature, so having a differently colored variety in usa is good news.
feel free to post some pictures.
i have seen pink-fruited ones, but only from growers in australia.

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Mine has been in its pot for about a year now so no fruit as of yet, I will attempt to take a pic at a later time but the tree itself looks almost identical to the ones posted in the thread. Perhaps the only difference is that mine has thorns but I just look at that as a plus to keep hands and paws away from it.

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good luck with yours and keep us posted :slight_smile:

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