Should I let my small lime tree fruit?

[Ben1030]

I have a small 1 year old Lime tree cutting that's doing really well. It sent out a small batch of flowers in April, I removed the small limes in order to encourage the plant to grow. During the recent hot spell it has doubled in size and is now covered in flowers. Would it do it any harm in letting a few of them ripen or will this have a detrimental effect on next years size and crop?



Thanks

Ben

[rustylady]

I'm no expert, but the bush doesn't look big or strong enough yet to carry a crop of limes.

Well done on getting it this far though.

[starloc]

I would let it keep the flowers, see if any fruit sets, it will probably fall off anyway, maybe try keeping one or two , a young tree will usually drop the fruit, citrus are good at dropping fruit at a young age

Did you root the cutting , or was it sold as a one year old cutting?

[Ben1030]

It was sold as a 1 year old cutting I purchased in march this year. It's a Bearss (Tahitian) lime.

[Ben1030]

I decided to leave the flowers on, which quickly turned into clusters and clusters of limes. I decided to pick off all but the largest 8 or so limes. Some time later I picked all but the largest 4, before leaving the largest 2. I had just had my first lime . I was unsure if they were ripe or not so took the plunge and picked one. The flavour was less acidic than supermarket limes with plenty of juice.