I Have a grafted Ricks Red finger lime that I purchased about 5 years ago. I am in Melbourne. The plant is in a large pot. Plenty of green leaves and red tips to end of branches, I have tried the magnesium fertilising thing a couple of time, seems to make it flower prolifically but flowers are not showing fruit this year, and just die off. I have 1 fruit left on it from last year - it just sits there not growing, currently it is around 1.75 cm long and hanging in there where I stare at it every morning It lives mostly in sun after around 10am. It is watered every 2nd day or daily when whether is hot (over 35 degrees C) Should I shift it to a place more shaded. Or is there something really wrong
Most finger limes take between 3-6 years to produce fruit and some can take up to 12 years. Your plant sounds very heathy so I don't think that you are doing anything wrong. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do but wait a year or two before fruit appears.
I have a few grafted finger limes growing in 40cm pots and they have quite a few fruit over the years. I have a few smaller ones cultivated from cuttings and they already have flowers even at a very small size. I believe they like to be in fun sun and the success of the fruit rely on the bees pollinating and the plants to sustain the fruit otherwise they just fall off the tree.
Hi Peter
Congratulations on you success in propagating Finger limes, they are notoriously difficult to propagate. If the plants are very small, I would be removing the flowers to allow all the plants energy to growing more foliage. Once the plants are larger then you can leave the flowers on the plant, be aware that Finger Limes tend to take several years before they start to bear fruit.