Nursery
- Finger Lime
- Nursery
With more than thirty varieties, OZ Finger Lime nursery has the greatest range of finger limes in the world at this stage. Several of these varieties are unique to our catalogue (orders and pricing details at the bottom of the page).
The Nursery is located in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Glenroy, and we are open to all customers including retail and wholesale with thousands of plants on site.
The team at OZ Finger Lime is passionate and dedicated to produce the best quality stock on the market. We work tirelessly to source cleanest possible grafting material which provides the best opportunity for long and healthy life of our plants. Our stock is produced using low chemical approach. As testament to high quality, we have been exporting plants to Europe and Japan passing the stringent biosecurity requirements without difficulty.
Rootstocks are grown from certified virus free seeds sourced from Auscitrus, a top citrus seed and scion wood supplier. The scion wood was originally sourced from tissue cultured material and now from mature fruiting trees in our orchard. Using mature trees ensures that our grafts will flower or fruit in the second or third year of life and that they are true to type.
We produce limited number of plants with emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Intensive breeding program is our main focus for the future, with new finger lime hybrids being produced almost every year.
The harsh climate of the Northeast Victoria where our orchard is located, have taught us a great deal of how finger limes perform in extreme conditions where temperatures range from -7°C in winter to +45°C in summer. This massive experiment was written about in the Asiafruit. Knowledge and experience gained have become unique tools for expansion of finger lime plantings outside subtropical climate in many countries.
Orders
Our plants are available in three major sizes:
- Plants are sold as tube stock, one to two years old.
- Plants 2-3 years old flowering/fruiting are sold in 4L pots.
- plants 3-4 years old flowering/fruiting are sold in 8L pots.
- Plants 4-5 years old - mature fruiting trees are sold in 15-20L pots.
1-2 year old plants in native tubes
2-3 years old fruiting plants in 3/4L pot
3-4 years old fruiting trees in 8L pot
*Please note that all below prices are exclusive of GST.
| Varieties | Pulp Color | Fruit Size | Tube Stock | 3/4L Pots | 8L Pots | 14-20L Pots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20/02/2024 | 1-2 year old plants | 3 years old fruiting plants | 3-4 years old fruiting plants | 4-5 years old fruiting plants | ||
| Alstonville | bright green | 8-10 cm | $50 | $180 | ||
| Byron sunrise | dark red | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Chartreuse Green (Tasty Green) | clear to green | 10-12 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | $220 |
| Chocolate Lemonete | clear | 10-12 cm | $50 | $180 | ||
| Collette | bright green | 6-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Crimson Tide | dark red to purple | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | ||
| Green Giant (NEW) | clear to green | 10-12 cm | $60 | $120 | $200 | $250 |
| Emma | pink to red | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | $220 |
| Flavourly Green | clear | 4-6 cm oval | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Green crystal | clear to light green | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Green Orb | clear | 4-5 cm round | $50 | $180 | ||
| Golden Nugget/Gold finger (NEW) | clear | 8-10 cm | $60 | $120 | ||
| Jali red | red | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | $250 |
| Judi's everbearing | from clear to light pink | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | ||
| Little Beauty | red | 4-6 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Moon Drops | clear | 4-6 cm | $45 | $80 | $150 | |
| New Yellow | clear | 6-8 cm | $50 | sold out | $150 | $180 |
| Pink ice | light to dark pink | 8-12 cm | $50 | $80 | ||
| Pink pearl | pink | 8-12 cm | $50 | $80 | ||
| Red champagne | light pink to red | 6-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $180 | |
| Red ruby | pink to red | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | $200 |
| Ricky's red | dark red | 5-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | |
| Rose Ice | orange | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | $220 |
| Royal Pearl (NEW) | clear to pink | 12-15 cm | $60 | $120 | $200 | |
| Stella (NEW) | clear | 10-12 cm | ||||
| Tasty green | clear to light green | 8-12 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | $220 |
| Wauchope | clear | 8-10 cm | $45 | $80 | $150 | $200 |
| Yellow | clear to light yellow | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | |
| Yellow Lemonet | clear to light yellow | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | $200 |
| Yellow Sunshine | clear to light yellow | 6-8 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | $200 |
| Lemonade Yellow (NEW) | clear to light yellow | 8-10 cm | $50 | $80 | $150 | |
| Fallen Rose (NEW) | dark red | 8-12 cm |
grafted vs cutting grown trees
As part of our extensive orchard experiment, we planted grafted and cutting-grown trees next to each other, using two major tree varieties. These trees were planted 11 and 13 years ago, respectively. The scion wood for grafting was sourced from the cutting-grown trees, so the genetics are identical.
Our findings revealed that cutting-grown trees, due to their weaker root systems and lower resistance to soil pathogens and extreme weather conditions, are significantly smaller and experience considerable dieback from poor root health. These trees are particularly sensitive to water salinity (with our bore water at just 530ppm), which results in many dead-end branches. Furthermore, the yield from cutting-grown trees is only one-third that of grafted trees. We also observed that some trees collapsed almost overnight under stress.
Extreme weather conditions, such as prolonged heavy rain, frost, and drought, can cause severe damage or even kill cutting-grown trees much earlier than grafted trees. However, there is no noticeable difference in the quality or size of the fruit produced by both grafted and cutting-grown trees.
In the image above you can see Red Champagne trees: the grafted trees in the left line are 11 years old while the cutting grown trees in the right line are 13 years old.
At the image below you can see Pink Ice trees with left row being grafted plants and right row cutting grown.
At the image below you can see Pink Ice trees with left row being grafted plants and right row cutting grown.
This experiment highlights the significant differences between grafted vs cutting-grown trees in terms of root system strength, resilience, and yield, even though the fruit quality remains unaffected.
