Treatment for Finger Lime defoliating (forum)

ruud starts with ...
About a month ago I bought a red finger lime from the Gold Coast. It's been in Melbourne since then. About 3 weeks after I re-potted it, it started to drop it leaves.

What is the best treatment for this? I'm hoping it will not die. I did bring it indoors during the nights, but the leaves still dropped. It's about 20-25cm tall from the stamp.

Any help appreciated.

Ruud
www.tigerruud.blogspot.com.au
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Time: 30th August 2012 1:13pm

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Original Post was last edited: 30th August 2012 1:15pm

About the Author ruud
Melb
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denise1 says...
The plant probably needs some real soil and wants to be planted out. A rough guess.

Time: 30th August 2012 3:58pm

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auckland NZ
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MattU says...
My pink finger lime completely defoliated after being transplanted in early spring. Apparently fingerlimes will defoliate under stressfull conditions (eg. drought, which is due to the dry climate we have in Australia) and can photosynthesise down to the stem and thorns. As long as the plant (read 'stem') is green it should still be alive.

After a few months (it is early Jan), my plant seems to have some nice new growth starting - however I have placed some shade cloth on top as I noticed that some of the ends of the new leaves were going brown during the current heatwave. Fingerlime are an understorey subtropical plant so I'm going to nurse it a bit and hope for the best!


Time: 14th January 2014 2:46pm

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Original Post was last edited: 14th January 2014 2:45pm
About the Author MattU
Victoria
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sternus1 says...
Pretty much any grafted fingerlime you'll ever buy will be on trifolate rootstock. If this is the case, you water and fertilise exactly as you would any other citrus.

Don't plant them out in the ground unless you want limited and/or sub-par fruit, they will always do better in pots, particularly if you're in QLD.

Soil mixture should be standing free draining; sand, pine chips, pearlite. At the time of planting, mix in a good amount of lime with the soil. They will require citrus fertliser monthly or thereabouts.

Finger limes are easily and badly affected by and susceptible to wind scorching, and should always be kept in a sheltered position.

Grow them in dappled light for best results. Full sun is fine depending on how brutal the light is, and if grown in partial shade, your fruit will be darker.

s

Time: 15th January 2014 5:00pm

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About the Author sternus1
Australia
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Russ3 says...
I have a 3 year old seedling witch 13 days ago I potted it, I mixed in 1 part potting mix, 1 part Quincan rocks(from raw material supplier, I use this in all my pots now for drainage), 1 part pine bark and some peat and manure. I've had over two inches of growth from every stem and heaps of branching too

Time: 16th January 2014 4:22pm

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Original Post was last edited: 16th January 2014 4:22pm
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