Thank you Johnmerr and farm96744! Johnmerr, we're going to prune the water sprout from our kaffir tree today, but can you tell me why we should remove the stake? Obviously, we won't need it any longer once we remove the water sprout, but is it hurting the kaffir tree? farm96744, our tree has yet to bear any fruit for us, but if we pinch off the tiny new leaves from the tip of every branch, will that keep our kaffir tree from growing any larger? We both have brown thumbs, so we baby this tree like parents. We water it about once every 3 days during the winter, but almost every day in the hot, Texas summer. It seems to love it, but we're not sure if less is more.

Well, you've answered some of your own questions, I think! To add to the possibilities is that you've been watering every day. Even if you're applying a teensy bit of water (never a good idea) at a time, that's not a good idea. You could lift your plant and inspect the roots, while at the same time fixing up the planting hole. Though using amendments is no longer recommended for hole-per-hole plantings (as you've read), you can greatly enlarge the planting pit by making it wider, not deeper. Then mix up the existing amendment with your native soil. There is nothing wrong with well-drained clay. But you will have to become a good judge of how much water your tree is getting. A clayey soil will hold on to water for a much longer time. Since citrus are so sensitive to soggy soil issues, you'll need to be watchful. Well-amended back fill can turn the planting hole into a bathtub in clay soil.

I too am in S.W.Ohio and wanting to nurture my Kaffir lime. It is now outside ,growing and seems happy. Thinking of moving it up a size pot wise ,but don't know if it prefers to be root bound.

Like animals, trees grown from seed must pass through several phases of development before they become sexually mature and capable of producing reproductive parts (blooms/ seeds/ fruit). The plant phases of seed - seedling - juvenile - sexually mature are roughly mirrored in human developmental stages of embryonic - infantile - juvenile - adult/ sexually mature. A freshly sprouted seedling is no more capable of producing reproductive parts (blooms/ seeds/ fruit) than an infant. Too, a plant's aging process is different than an animal's. Where animals age chronologically, plants age ontogenetically. Ontogenetic aging can be thought of in terms of how many cell divisions have occurred to move the plant to its current phase of development. One might reason that the most recent new growth would be the youngest part of the plant, but ontogenetically, it is the the oldest part of the plant because it has taken many more cell divisions to produce the newest parts. Ontogenetically, the youngest part of a tree grown from seed will always be the root to shoot transition area at the base of the trunk, no matter how old the tree is chronologically. Pruning a tree back hard can easily remove all existing mature growth and return it to a juvenile phase that would require a considerable amount of new growth before the wood again becomes mature. All factors that influence growth rate have an impact on how long (chronologically) it takes a plant to become sexually mature, so thinking that a change in nutrition alone will cause a plant to bloom is misguided. The fastest seedlings to mature within any given species will depend on how proficient Mother Nature or the plant's grower is at providing ideal cultural conditions. Ideal cultural conditions = most rapid growth rate and shortest period of time to reach maturity; this, simply because ideal conditions are most conducive to cell divisions and therefore a fruitful tree at a younger chronological age. It should be noted that applying nutrients or other products in willy nilly fashion with no knowledge of whether or not there is an actual deficiency of those nutrients or no good reason to apply them is highly likely to be limiting in terms of both growth and rate of maturation. Whenever we discuss what is or isn't an appropriate part of the methodology we use to make certain our plants get all the nutrients essential to growth and good health, we would probably first want to be sure our objectives are on target. It's difficult to argue with the idea that our focus in supplying supplemental nutrition to our plants should be on ensuring all the nutrients plants normally assimilate from the soil are A) IN the soil and available for uptake at all times, B) in the soil in a favorable ratio - that is to say in a ratio that mimics the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrient, C) at a concentration high enough to ensure no nutritional deficiencies, yet still low enough to ensure the plant's ability to take up water efficiently, and the nutrients dissolved in that water won't be impeded (by a high concentration of solubles in the soil solution). The part in bold is where growers often run afoul of sound husbandry. By adding unnecessary nutrients we A) skew the ratio of nutrients, each to the others, such that an excess of one nutrient causes a deficiency of one or more other nutrients, and B) make it more difficult for the plant to assimilate water and nutrients. So, for plants in containers, best results can be had by choosing 1 fertilizer with an appropriate nutrient ratio and all the nutrients essential to normal growth. Forget the snake oil products and claims made on product packaging by sellers whose only goal is separating you from your money. For plants in the landscape, a soil test is ESSENTIAL for any grower aiming at providing the best cultural conditions possible. "A little extra" is almost always going to be limiting rather than beneficial; otherwise, it wouldn't be "extra". Al