What happened to my limes?!

[BSJ]

My wife's lime trees have ants crawling around, at first I thought that maybe a bad thing.....but later thought maybe not. There is a lack of bees and other beneficial insects in the area to stimulate pollination.

They aren't white ants. Anyone here can say yes or no to the ants being a problem?

There are Tahiti and PhiChit #1 trees with the 11 month old trees fruiting. A couple of trees have golf ball size fruit and some others have smaller fruit.

We are using one dessert spoon of 8-24-24 every month on the 11 month old trees and a teaspoon 50/50 mixture of 46-0-0 and 8-24-24 on the 6 month old trees starting this week. Before that the younger trees were getting a Parish liquid fert which we have run out of...... and besides we now we have the almost 100% sprinkler system functioning (96%) and no idea how to set up a dosing system.....so using prills is just easier!

I'll get some pixs this afternoon.

[cgtours]

We have a good lime, lemon and in general Citrus crop regularly. . When the plant is about 2 to 3 years old, take 1 tablespoon of EPSON SALTS in about 3 litres of water around every stem once a month for 3 months. Thereafter about every 3 or 4 months. Rain and watering washes a lot of salts out of the soil. . When they start flowering, mix 1 or 2 tablespoons of MARMITE ( not Bovril!!) MARMITE in also about 3 litres of water around every stem once a month for 3 months or so whilst fruit is forming. Works for us. Marmite wonderful for Green Peppers and Tomatoes too when flowering starts. Once a month- 1 tablespoon in 3 litres of water per plant .Encourages crop production. Works very well for us. .Hope it works for you too.

[louse1953]

citrus trees love acidic soils. most soils in - i don't know where you live - tropical drenched thailand are barren of anything.

try this - and don't call me rude:

if you are a male above the age of 45 - pee on and around your lemon / lime tree twice a week. if you drink beer, have a few before you do.

and rather than flaming me over this post get back to me in 6 months time...

There is a bottle right next to the bed for this purpose.28 trees,just have to remember the last one i watered.

[Chowna]

Hey Guys

I'm not sure how everyone else started but I bought some grafted tree's for 90baht at the local Farm College market,

They were around one meter tall and they didn't look very strong when I bought them,

I went and spoke to a local plantation owner who was quite friendly and he gave me advise on how to take care of them,

On his advise I planted 25 in rings with concrete bases and 25 without concrete bases,

I planted in normal dirt with a top layer of some better soil and some rice husks wood chips and cow manure,

After 6 months as in the photo below we had our first crop of Lime,And we pruned back to shape the tree..(Lots of thorns..wear good gloves)

The Lime were a little hard but had a lot of juice,We had been told the first crop would probably be unusable but they were fine we used them at home ourselves,

We have them about a year now and we have just sold 80kg over the last few weeks and we use ourselves regular as well and all trees are still loaded with Lime,

We are going to leave these ones a little longer to see how big they grow,as the the ones we sold were a mostly a little smaller than a golf ball,

And the variety of Lime we bought is supposed to grow quite big,I will have to ask the wife the name as I have forgotten already.

How I take care of them is I water them every couple of days I give them a good flood,and put on a layer cow manure (pooey) every couple of weeks.

(No watering now as wet season)My Fil has a couple of hundred cows so he just brings the manure to the farm for me,

I sometimes get problems with caterpillars I just pick these off the leaves,

I'm not sure if its just the soil I use is good,Its from the Mekhong river but I have to say Im happy with the results and I'm thinking about doing another full Rai,

I have been selling for 50baht a kg at the gate to one of the local market sellers,

But I will up that price on my next sale,

The trees are a lot bigger now and I can take some photos tomorrow if anyone is interested in seeing them,

Hope life is treating everyone good,

Happy growing

Edited July 4, 2016 by Chowna

[timberpond]

Talaad thai is now selling lime a sack of 400 for 100-187 baht. It really amazed me how people could sell theirs at 50 baht a kilo. Let's say 10 huge lime to a kilo... that's mean you could fetch more than 10 times the price of bangkok wholesale market. Care to share your amazing success with us?

[Chowna]

I think at 10 huge limes a kilo they would have to be like oranges,

A golf ball size Lime sells at my local market between 7 and 10 baht depending on the season and if you can crop out of season you will get the higher price,

The limes you must be buying are the tiny limes with very little juice,hence you buy them for what they are worth,

There is always nay sayers everywhere..but as I grow my limes for joy of having my own little farm to keep busy on and still having a high paid job I doubt I need to lie about how much I am paid at the gate for the lime I sell.

so if you are buying 400 limes for 187 baht and it is 10 limes per kilo as you say, that means you are buying a kilo of lime for 4 baht....yeah yeah whatever...!

[timberpond]

You got me wrong... I'm not nay sayers. It just that you got a good price from the local market. Wondering if you would share tips like how you strike a deal with them and are you supplying on a constant basis? Lime price fluctuated a lot. I don't make up that figure and it's advertised on their website. Anyway I don't grow any limes so it is interesting info for me.

http://talaadthai.com/price_page?keywords=lime&limit=100

Today the price had dropped even further. If I interpreted the price correctly per sack, then your price is like striking gold.

[zlodnick]

Chowna,

Can you tell me, have you noticed any difference in the trees planted with concrete bases and those without?

I have both. They do just allright, but one I just planted in the soil (with no ring), is loaded with fruit.

[NickJ]

pH problem. I would guess. same goes for non local chillis. My neighbor was a plant genetics Phd....thats what he told me.

[Chowna]

Hey Zlodnick,

If you have concrete rings with bases what you are supposed to do is after you have your crop of limes -

-you cover the top of the concrete and round the base of the tree with plastic to stop water coming inside,

Then leave it for a few weeks until all the leaves fall off and your tree is "almost dying out"-

Then remove the plastic give some fertilizer and water and your tree will grow back its leaves and a new crop of Lime,

What you are doing really is fooling the tree into giving crops of Lime year around.

I have only planted my trees from graft a year ago and I am on my second crop now so I will try it myself in a few weeks or so and see how it works,

I got told this is the best way by a local plantation owner who is a professor at the local Farm School so hopefully it can work for me,

All good fun and to keep busy about then place.

Good Luck if your trying

Regards

[Chowna]

You got me wrong... I'm not nay sayers. It just that you got a good price from the local market. Wondering if you would share tips like how you strike a deal with them and are you supplying on a constant basis? Lime price fluctuated a lot. I don't make up that figure and it's advertised on their website. Anyway I don't grow any limes so it is interesting info for me.

http://talaadthai.com/price_page?keywords=lime&limit=100

Today the price had dropped even further. If I interpreted the price correctly per sack, then your price is like striking gold.

Hey Austin,

I had a look at those prices,wow cheap!!

Lucky for me I am a long way from Talaad Thai haha,

We live in a small village but we have a couple of good markets here,

Including a Laos market a few minutes from the house.

Not a lot of locals grow Lime here so we get good prices in our local market,

My wife worked out the deal with the lady who buys the Lime from us-

as she was already buying fish from us to sell at the market.

And if we want the uncle just sells them at his shop for no profit from us,

To tell the truth I was going to sell them to her cheaper but my wife agreed the price-

and by agreeing its a win win situation

My wife says the lady doubles the price and makes at least 50 baht back a kilo,

So its happy faces all around,

Right now we don't grow a lot so its easy to sell them,

But if we plant another hundred or so trees I'm not sure if we could get the same money,

Regards

[Chowna]

You got me wrong... I'm not nay sayers. It just that you got a good price from the local market. Wondering if you would share tips like how you strike a deal with them and are you supplying on a constant basis? Lime price fluctuated a lot. I don't make up that figure and it's advertised on their website. Anyway I don't grow any limes so it is interesting info for me.

http://talaadthai.com/price_page?keywords=lime&limit=100

Today the price had dropped even further. If I interpreted the price correctly per sack, then your price is like striking gold.

Hey Austin,

I had a look at those prices,wow cheap!!

Lucky for me I am a long way from Talaad Thai haha,

We live in a small village but we have a couple of good markets here,

Including a Laos market a few minutes from the house.

Not a lot of locals grow Lime here so we get good prices in our local market,

My wife worked out the deal with the lady who buys the Lime from us-

as she was already buying fish from us to sell at the market.

And if we want the uncle just sells them at his shop for no profit from us,

To tell the truth I was going to sell them to her cheaper but my wife agreed the price-

and by agreeing its a win win situation

My wife says the lady doubles the price and makes at least 50 baht back a kilo,

So its happy faces all around,

Right now we don't grow a lot so its easy to sell them,

But if we plant another hundred or so trees I'm not sure if we could get the same money,

Regards

[timberpond]

True... it's always supply and demand doing the trick. I don't see much lime trees in our village too... maybe I should start looking into limes.

[emanphoto]

Since this original post deals with a similar issue to mine, I'm going to post my issue here.  Mod let me know if I need to move it.

 

I too am having trouble with limes here in BKK. 

Wife bought a pot over 2 foot across and we lined the bottom with coconut husks.  We used locally sourced bagged soils to fill the pot around the tree.

I've intermittently added small amounts of organic fertilizer to the surface and recently spread some cow manure on top as well.

It's been 6 mos since potting and the tree, to me, looks sickly.  I wasn't expecting limes to start appearing but I had hoped that it would at least flourish.  Optimally, yes, I'd like to have limes at some point, but it hasn't even flowered yet in 6 months.

It gets sun from 9am to 3pm. 

The maid waters it twice a day. 

There are drainage holes in the bottom of the pot.

Given the above description and the attached photos, can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?  My guess at this point it is getting too much water.

Thanks for any help!

 

 

[CLW]

Since this original post deals with a similar issue to mine, I'm going to post my issue here.  Mod let me know if I need to move it.
 
I too am having trouble with limes here in BKK. 
Wife bought a pot over 2 foot across and we lined the bottom with coconut husks.  We used locally sourced bagged soils to fill the pot around the tree.
I've intermittently added small amounts of organic fertilizer to the surface and recently spread some cow manure on top as well.
It's been 6 mos since potting and the tree, to me, looks sickly.  I wasn't expecting limes to start appearing but I had hoped that it would at least flourish.  Optimally, yes, I'd like to have limes at some point, but it hasn't even flowered yet in 6 months.
It gets sun from 9am to 3pm. 
The maid waters it twice a day. 
There are drainage holes in the bottom of the pot.
Given the above description and the attached photos, can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?  My guess at this point it is getting too much water.
Thanks for any help!
 
 

Yes, you are correct. Watering twice a day is far too much.
I would cut down on the water first and see what happens.

[emanphoto]

On 3/31/2017 at 3:43 PM, CLW said:

Yes, you are correct. Watering twice a day is far too much.
I would cut down on the water first and see what happens.

Thank you @CLW !