Citrus australasica
The Finger limes or Native Citrus are Citrus australasica, a fruit which is becoming increasingly popular as a Bushtucker plant for the home garden.
The finger lime fruit is finding increased culinary uses. Finger Lime Trees are now readily available for sale online and are well worth a place in the home garden.
The fruit itself is made up of small juicy beads which lend themselves to a range of uses not open to many other citrus fruits.
The name comes from the long ‘finger shaped’ fruit, that ranges in colour from yellow and lime green, through to red and near black. Both the pulp vesicles ( the little sacs that make up the fruit) and the juice are rated highly by many chefs, sometimes the fruit is referred to as ‘citrus caviar’ as the vesicles does look like little eggs.
Microcitrus Australis has been used for many years as a bush tucker plant they are now available both as commercial fruit crops and as trees for the home garden.
How To Grow Finger Limes – Basic Care
Grown in a range of climates, Finger Limes tolerate frosts and are commercially grown in many areas of Australia.
Finger Limes are an understory tree from the rainforest areas of NSW and QLD. A thorny plant they do need protection from hot winds and frost to grow well.
Sometimes called the caviar lime because of the texture of the pulp in the fruit, like little beads of caviar.
- A position with at least 6b hours of sun is required for good fruiting.
- Plant in a humus rich well drained soil.
- Mulch around the plant to retain some moisture.
- Fertilise each year.
Most plants sold are grafted onto a commercial citrus rootstock which is more tolerant of a range of conditions than the native rootstock.
Flowering is in spring and the fruit matures from summer to autumn.
One such such rootstock is Poncirus trifoliata, which is a Chinese rootstock used widely in commercial citrus growing for its hardiness.
When and How to fertilise Finger Limes.
A native plant fertiliser (low phosphate) is best applied in late bwinter bbefore flowering or when the trees have finished flowering and fruiting, this will assist with growth especially in the early years. Yellowing leaves are a sign of lack of nitrogen.
From seed, trees can take 10 – 15 years to reach fruiting size. The gifted tree that are commonly sold will fruit from 3 years on and reach a\the stage where they bear good amounts of fruit at 5 – 7 years.
If your finger lime is not fruiting or the fruit is dropping, it is most likely due to a lack of water and, or a lack of sun.
Finger Lime Varieties
Increasingly popular both for home gardeners as well as commercial fruit growers a number of hybrids are now appearing on the market with different characteristics to the species.
All have different characteristics including ripening times, with perhaps WG2 being the sweetest. some varieties, such as Alstonville have very few seeds, which can be desirable. Finger limes include cultivars such as:
- Alstonville
- Tambo
- Pink Ice
- WG2
- NY7
- R13.
Did You Know?
The Red Centre lime or Blood Lime, is a different fruit to the Finger Lime, this one is a hyrax (cross) between the Finger Lime and a Mandarine and is grafted.
The flesh of the Red lime, the’ teardrop shaped caviar’, develops different colours as the fruit continues to ripen. Early harvest fruit will have a lemon /lime coloured flesh. As fruit continues to ripen the colours change to more pink/orange hues, and finally when fully ripe flesh can become quite dark pink.
Finger Limes are available for sale from the following nurseries
146 Dignams Crk Rd via Narooma NSW 2546
Tubestock - [50mm forestry tubes and 70mm supertubes] specializing in Bush Tucker Plants , Natives indigenous to the NSW South Coast , Permaculture Plants - Fruits, Nuts & Berries .
www.southcoastflora.com.au