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Can we grow ‘Tahiti’ lime in south Florida? – rootstocks and performance
Citrus rootstocks have a profound impact on citrus tree disease tolerance and rootstocks and rootstock-scion combinations vary in their tolerance to citrus greening (also called HBL and huanglongbing) and affect the scion growth and fruit production.
This project began in 2017 and was completed in 2021. The purpose of this project was to establish and maintain and evaluate ‘Tahiti’ lime and lime-like scions and citrus greening rootstock (CGR) demonstration trial to determine the best lime scion-rootstock combination for increasing a renewed lime industry in Florida.
To address the need for alternative fruit crops to avocado in south Florida, we established a 1.65-acre lime-type scion-rootstock project. This project tested ‘Tahiti’ lime and three new triploid lime hybrids grafted to four citrus greening tolerant rootstocks [including the previous industry standard rootstock (Citrus macrophylla)] for tolerance against citrus greening and evaluated their productivity, fruit quality, greening tolerance, insect issues and economic feasibility when grown in the calcareous soils of south Miami-Dade County.
Only the ‘Tahiti’ lime scion was productive and had acceptable fruit quality on the four rootstocks tested. Insect and disease, plant growth and fruit production were monitored and is reported on this website.