I have a Kaffir lime tree thats about 2m tall by 2m wide, its very healthy and produces a lot of fruit each year. I compost or dig in a lot off stuff at home and it all goes into my 4x4m vegetable patch.
I read online its ok to compost citrus which i do, orange peel, lemons from cooking etc. but i get a lot of excess Kaffir lime fruit thats not useful for anything.
Can it be detrimental to my veg patch soil just digging in too much of the Kaffir lime fruit, if so the further question is how much is too much?
Kaffir Lime Tree and Composting Its Fruit
BeamMeUp on 28/07/2023 - 08:57
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Try and see my guy
I have a Kaffir lime tree thats about 2m tall by 2m wide
How long did you grow the Kaffir lime tree until it reaches this stage? I planted mine like 3 years ago and has not grown much. I heard it can take a very long time?
Mine took around 10 years to reach that size.
Yes at least had it 10 years + and it has been pruned a lot over that time.
It'll make your soil pretty acidic if you have a lot of it, so just keep that in mind.
Yes that was my concern if I over did it.
Add some gypsum or lime to offset. The composting process also generates acids, so it's not a bad idea to add alkaline substances especially if you don't have very alkaline soils (Perth does, for example)
…i get a lot of excess Kaffir lime fruit thats not useful for anything.
Perhaps not useful to you, but my first option would be offering the fruit around the neighbourhood, or even to local cafes/restaurants.
Likely there will be neighbourhood centre with a food bank, even if informal. Otherwise a food co-op?
Have put up an offer of free fruit or leaves on our community FB group in the past, 1 taker only.
The fruit isn't super useful. The leaves freeze really well though so you can freeze and sell bags of leaves.
99% of Australians would not know what to do with Kaffir Lime.
You are probably correct, but a reasonable percentage can Google what to do with one
If possible pickle it!
Otherwise just sprinkle it around the garden and maybe some birds etc will consume it.
Compost is also fine but I suggest you put some dolomite lime to counteract the acidity in the compost.
Bring your excess to office and you will be very popular with the colleagues.
Your probably thinking of Tahitian Limes. Kaffir limes don't have much juice and lots of pith.
Sell it on gumtree/marketplace
Kaffir limes aren't cheap.
Free for Ozbarginers but you must take them by the bucket full
Gladly
Do you air freight to perth
As others have said try and give away if you can - if not compost, you should be tossing a handful of lime in every few weeks anyway - super cheap, isn't as tricky to use as folks make out:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/australian-builders-20kg-hydrate…FWIW like you we have large kaffir lime and the fruits are pretty useless except the outer can often be used in making thai cooking pastes from scratch.
Perhaps moving forward prune your tree or pick the blossums off when they appear to limit the number of fruits - but you're doing the right stuff already (giving away and composting).
Shouldn't do much harm as you already did, I occasionally throw in 10kg of orange peel in my gedye compost bin and the worms still thrive in there. If worms can survive then other living creatures can.