Lime Trees

Question

I have 2 lime trees in my backyard. They are not resting on the ground. The branches come up from the ground about 2 feet and then all the other branches off of them and the leaves and fruit. Can I cut the trees down on the base, leaving like about 1 foot off the ground and getting rid of the whole tree? Will it grow back? There are runners growing from the ground up into the trees. I don’t really care for them, but I don’t want to kill them, so if they will eventually grow back, I would just like to cut them off at the base. I live in Sacramento, Ca. Thank you

Answer 1

I’m not totally clear on your scenario here – do you mean the branches start from the trunk about 2′ from the ground? If you cut the whole tree down to within 1′ of the ground, what would probably grow back would be suckers from the roots or root stock. That’s what you have growing from the ground up into the trees. Those are part of the root stock, and take energy from the fruiting part of the tree, so you should keep those cut off. Perhaps what you really want to do is to prune your trees to make them more manageable in size. You can remove some of the branches from the lower part of the trunk, then cut back the upper branches to achieve the look you want. More information here: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/lime/tips-for-pruning-lime-tree.htm