Prune a lime tree? Need advice.

[jobin]

I'm near CM and have an established lime tree in my yard, even with a few fruits.  But now many fast growing branches are shooting up through the center of the tree, like water sprouts.  I know that apples, and other northern fruits, need occasional, or yearly, pruning of branches to achieve the best condition for fruiting but i know nothing of tropical citrus and how to manage this lime tree. 

Any good advice you can share?

[In the jungle]

Here is one of ours.

 

It is about four years old and around 4.5 to 5 metres tall.

 

It produces all the limes we could ever want and despite having been harvested only a few days ago to send the fruit to market you will see numerous fruit on the grass at the base of the tree and more on the tree ready to be picked.

 

It has never been pruned or fertilized.  It is kept well watered in the dry season.  I cannot really account for its extraordinary productivity.

 

We have a dozen more like this.  I photographed this one because it is nearest to the kitchen.

 

This is in Chumphon province.

[djayz]

Hello jobin! 

If you look for "how to prune a lime/citrus tree" on youtube you'll find dozens of tutorials on the subject. Some are really good, informative and professionally made... others are quite the opposite. 

One video/tutorial that I found to be really useful was this one: 

Good luck! 

[cooked]

The fast growing shoots near the centre of the tree certainly need removing, whether they originate from the root stock on which your tree has been grafted or from branches that have been severely pruned not long ago for one reason or another. Pruning should be a year round job in the tropics although of course a tree bearing heavy fruit shouldn't be pruned just before harvest. As mentioned, there is plenty of stuff on the internet although it takes more than a fiive minute video to learn pruning.