Garden Plant: Mexican Key Lime
Mexican Key Lime
Product Description: Mexican Key Lime
Grow Fragrant, Delicious Mexican Key Lime Trees
- Lush, Aromatic Small Tree
- High Yield of Delicious Fruit
- Culinary Favorite
- Lime Juice is a Cocktail Favorite
- Versatile
- Great in Containers
Look in any bartender’s tray across the country and You’ll probably find neat triangles of squeezably cut limes. These are Mexican Key Limes (Citrus aurantifolia) and they add a wonderful boost of flavor when spritzing a cocktail, a glass of sparkling water or a taco. And oh, don’t get us started on the sweet-tart taste of Key Lime pie.
Smaller, sweeter and thinner skinned than Persian lime varieties, Mexican Key Limes are true limes. Even though their thin skin can be green or yellow-green, they are packed with juice. The small, tart fruit has a wonderful flavor with outstanding floral hints.
The fruit fetches a good market price, and these pricey limes can really add up at the supermarket. Why not grow your own supply of these extremely popular limes?
The fragrant flowers buds are purple tinged and open to pure, waxy white. They’ll perfume the air with a wonderfully fresh citrus scent.
Mexican Key Lime is also known as Bartenders Lime, due to its great flavor and high juice content. It’s also called the West Indian Lime, to recognize where this lime was first propagated in the West Indies.
Mexican Key Lime makes an ideal container plant and a wonderful patio shrubby tree. Imagine having the fruit for your drinks or cooking just an arm’s length away!
Mexican Lime is an important ingredient in Mexican cuisine. Others call it by another name, but the zippy juice of the West Indian Lime boosts the flavor of Middle Eastern, African and Asian meals all the same.
Grow your own to have instant access to the complexity and freshness of really local fruit. Place your order today!
How to Grow and Use Mexican Key Lime
These mid-sized, bushy trees accent your landscape beautifully. Grow them in the ground in Zones 9 – 11. Or, use as a Patio Tree in a large container in the colder climates.
This is both an ornamental and edible tree with fragrant white flowers, shaggy, deep green leaves and yellow-green fruit. Try it as you would other trees. Make a bold statement by placing a single Mexican Key Lime tree as an anchor in your foundation planting.
Or, try two of them in large containers, flanking either side of the entrance. Announce that you have the Fun House on the block with these handsome evergreen Lime trees. You’ll instantly set expectations that your guests have found the party!
Keep the lowest limbs on and these trees become a hard-working, exotic evergreen backdrop for garden plantings. You’ll gain a wonderful privacy screen.
To grow a solid screen, plant individual plants 5 – 7 feet apart on center. You’ll measure between the main trunks. The canopies will grow together. For individual trees, increase the spacing between to 8 – 10 feet apart.
You’ll love coming up with ways to use your harvest. Try zesting the peel, juicing it for cocktails and pie, and dry and grind the leaves for aromatherapy.
The leaves release a marvelous lime scent when crushed. Try them in potpourri or homemade soaps and shampoo bars.
There are so many different ways to use these floral limes from the time that the dark green skin starts to lighten into greenish yellow. At this time the juice content is at its highest.
Pro Plant Tips for Care
Mexican Key Limes like it hot, and do best in areas with short, frost-free winters and long summers. This is the most cold sensitive of all the popular citrus varieties and great care should be taken in selecting a location for planting.
Full sun, which has as early exposure to the morning sun as possible. Good air drainage can also contribute to a successful planting.
Select a location with air movement in the morning, if possible. Dead air locations are often much colder and take longer to warm up in the morning.
Mexican Lime trees grow best if certain cultural requirements are met. These fruit trees require good drainage and if poor drainage is suspected, plant in a raised bed or mound 12 to 18 inches high by 3 feet wide.
A slow to moderate grower, providing your Mexican Lime with the best growing conditions and drainage will only make sure that it grows its best.
In extended dry periods, make sure that your Lime is well irrigated going colder weather. Protect the Mexican Lime with C9 Christmas Lights and a frost blanket if temperatures below 32 degrees are suspected. Covering may remain on for extended periods of time during longer cold spells.
For those in the colder parts of Zone 9, a containerized Mexican Lime is easy to move to a more protected location for winter protection. Bring your tree indoors once the temperatures dip into the mid 30\’s.
Here are tips to successfully grow Mexican Key Lime trees in an indoor/outdoor growing culture. Place the plant by a bright, sunny, window away from any heat sources such as heater vents or stoves.
Give Mexican Lime lots of light. A LED supplemental grow light may be required to keep the plant healthy while indoors.
While indoors, keep the plant on the dry side. It will not require much water inside.
You will love having an abundance of fruit to use and share.