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Kaffir Lime tree assistance

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tefkab:
Hi all

I've got a Kaffir Lime tree which I've had for about 4 months now and it's dropped most of it's leaves. I had one before for a few years (I'd beaten scale bugs and got it into good shape before my sister forgot to water it for 3 months when I went away so it died  :'( ) and it struggled a bit in winter but I gather this is a bit normal. I've read this thread http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=15424.msg199268#msg199268 especially the post by Millet, which is very helpful.

So my new tree is in the UK, I kept it in a small greenhouse over summer but it got really quite warm on a few occasions. It seemed to be doing OK but looked liked it was suffering a bit in the heat and dropped a few leaves but not many. Toward the end of summer after this we had a cold snap for a few days and I left it outside. It then, over the course of a few days, lost most of it's leaves.

I then repotted it into a larger container and used new compost (just standard compost) and brought it indoors. I've bought some red/blue grow lights and it now seems OK but there is no new leaf growth. It has flowered quite a lot since I brought it indoors and it now has about 15-20 small fruit sprouting, one of them is about the size of a table tennis ball. I feed it with a winter citrus soluble food once a forthnight and water it about twice a week. I don't water it loads, maybe 0.5 litre per go. The plant is about 2ft tall.

Apart from the leaf drop, my main question is should I prune it? Only a few branches now have leaves but only at the ends. I'm thinking maybe I should remove the fruit as they could be a drain on resource and you don't need them anyway.

I have a photo and have made it my profile pic.

Any help greatly appreciated.  :)

tefkab:
Bumping in case anyone does have any advice. Thanks.

SonnyCrockett:
I would take the fruit off, like you said.  The tree might not be getting enough light or be warm enough to start growing again.  How cold does it get at night?  I might just keep an eye on it and make sure I'm not over-watering.  Nip it back a little bit, if you like.  But I'm always afraid to trim back too much when trees drop leaves like this.  Keep an eye on the buds to see if they start swelling up.

Millet:
Sonny is correct on the fruit.  Remove the fruit from the tree.  The tree is in no condition to share it energy trying to develop fruit.  Get a soil thermometer so you can keep track of the temperature of the medium.  Make sure the medium the tree is growing in is FREE draining this allows oxygen to enter the soil, and the CO2 given off by the roots to exit.   Make sure the tree is getting PLENTY light. Lastly, raise the medium/root zone's temperature up to 70-F (21C) and keep it there 

SonnyCrockett:
Another thing to watch out for as winter approaches is watering with extremely cold water.  It can shock your tree and cause leaf drop, if I'm remembering correctly.

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