I have a green and red finger lime trees in 3 gallon pots too small to carry much fruit. Finger lime cuttings after a few weeks. Leaves have yellowed a little. I took off the zip lock bag that I keep over the pot to keep the cuttings moist for the picture. I ususally don’t bother to root FL cuttings as they are so thorny. Finger lime budwood on right. Hard to find it as large as this and would like to see it bigger.
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How long before yours bears fruit?
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How old will they be before they bear fruit? One of mine had flowers last year but no limes.
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Anytime, they are not seedlings, they are grafted or cuttings
I am interested as I have two. Last year one had flowers the second did not. This year the other is producing flowers and its a bit too early to tell about the other. I have had them for 3 years and they were over a year old when I bought them. I grow them in pots as I have only a terrace. How old are yours and have they produced flowers and fruit?
They took 2-3 years before fruit and then most flowers fell off
I started a cutting last year that I got from a friend, it was July when I potted it up. I just saw it finally sprouted some new leaves this week…about 8 months later.
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This plant is from a small cutting that I got to root 2 years ago. If my record is correct, it took about 8 months before I notice new leaves sprouting from the cutting. It flowered this year and actually held on to the fruits so far. I didn’t think it would be this easy and quick to get it to fruit.
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Mine only bloomed, dropped all of its flowers and never fruited. Threw them both out!
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My finger lime has a late season flush of fruitlets, had to thin them since the plant is still too small to support so many.
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Finger lime seedlings from seeds @Johnsgard gave me.
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It is great to know you successfully rooted a cutting (and that it fruited so soon). I have never attempted rooting AFL cuttings. My few attempts at t-budding them all failed, but cleft grafting is pretty easy (clip off all the leaves and spines, and wrap entire scion in pre-stretched parafilm before grafting.
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You will want to either heavily thin or up-pot those seedling soon before their roots intertwine too much. I usually pre-spout my AFL seeds on damp paper towels in ziplocs, then pot up individually for their first year like this:
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I live in SE Texas and have about 75 seed-grown AFL plants in-ground (and many more in pots). In my experience it takes about 4-5 years from seed to first flowers. Many of the flowers on AFL are functionally-male, as they lack viable ovaries. One they begin producing fruit, they are nearly everbearing here, with flower flushes after significant rain events. Here is one of my taller in-ground AFL plants that is about 10 years old:
That specimen froze to the ground in 2021, so this is after 5 years of regrowth.
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I like your stake and tie up system- it’s very weepy? I’ll have to remember this when up potting.
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I bring my citruses in the house for winter so it can get crowded inside. There’s more vertical space than horizontal space so I try to make them as “lean” as can in order to squeeze them all in…lol
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Wow!
