Yellowing Leaves and Few Flowers on Lime

Question

My lime tree bore a lot of fruit last year. This year, while my other citrus trees are bearing a lot of flowers (mid-March in Israel), almost none are on the lime and many leaves are yellow. Recently, we gave it compost around the base. Can you recommend anything else? Do limes tend to heavily bear fruit every other year?

Answer 1

They go through cycles on how well they fruit. If the tree had a heavy year, it is not unexpected that it might take the next season off from fruiting to replenish its energy. This happens a lot with limes. Compost is good, but I would also provide some extra phosphorus to help it with flowering and fruiting. If you are seeing yellow leaves, it may need fertilizer faster than compost can provide, so also consider giving it a watering with compost or manure tea to get nutrients down into the roots quickly.