Well, it depends what you did to "care" for your tree for the last 4 years. Too much fertilizer (actually, too much Nitrogen), can cause fruit drop. Or, not enough fertilizer. And, even with very good care, young trees, especially container trees, simply need to mature enough to hold onto their fruits. So, it may just be a matter of finally being mature enough to hold fruit, or, possibly not quite so much "love" :-) Limes and other citrus do not like to be ignored. Good, constant, appropriate care will reward you with healthy producing citrus. Limes are really not any different than any other citrus cultivar. They like lots of sun, but can tolerate some shade. They like it warm, they cannot tolerate colder temps well (they are the least tolerant citrus cultivar of low temps), and they can be very productive when they are mature enough to bear fruit. When limes just start to show a little bit of yellow, they're ready to pick. If they are really ripe, they will drop off the tree.

Patty S.

Thanks for the reply.

I fertilized every 2-3 months with a citrus mix that has minors, say a small fist full and watered when 2-3 days were without rain. This year no fertilizer and well water once a week or not as we've had lots of rain. It was also shaded from morning sun by a jack fruit and the muscadine grapes. In years past the Jac was smaller and the grapes were not as vigorous as they are now.

I'm not sure what to blame the flower dropping on as when I bought it, the tree was full of fruit so I sort of discounted its young age?

Tonight I found two more limes on it, not a lot, as the tree is still small but it only has 1/4 of what was on it when I bought it and it was in a 3 gallon pot and root bound when I took it home!

Maybe I'll put it in the ground next spring.

Gary