I have this really cool bug. It's a big moth. I have it in a container with a screen on top. I want to feed it. I want to keep it alive long enough so I can have a friend take pictures of it. It has lain eggs. I want to put them where they will be safe for next year. I cannot find out any information about it on the internet except photos of it. It is so cool looking. It looks like a pile of dead leaves from a certain angle. I need an entymologist or an expert on butterflies and moths.
Two types grow best in Southern California's coastal areas: Bearss and Mexican The Bearss variety will grow from 15-20 ft. high unless pruned, about half of that on dwarf root stock. Fruit is green for a long time, then turns yellow-green when ripe. It's best to let it ripen for full flavor and juiciness. Limes may be as large as a standard lemon when mature. Fruit is seedless and the tree bears well in winter to early spring. Some fruit will be on the tree year round, which should provide you with the steady supply you desire. The Mexican lime is the traditional lime of the bartender. In my opinion, it is not nearly as flavorful as the Bearss and it has seeds. But, it is the lime of choice for key lime recipes. The rind is thinner than the Bearss, as well. This tree begins growth similar to the Bearss, but remains more open, growing 12 -15 ft. when mature. Both can be grown in containers on dwarf root stock, but the Mexican lime seems to do a little better in that planting mode. Both can also be pruned to keep a better shape, but the Bearss will have a more naturally rounded shape when fully grown. Coastal San Diego and interior valleys that don't get heavy frosts would be perfect climate for your lime tree. Remember, don't overwater citrus and feed no more than twice a year to avoid overgrowth of folliage and less fruit set. Insects are seldom a problem, but mealy bugs and powdery black mold might occur. Spray heavily with insecticidal soap solution followed by a thorough rinse of clean water to avoid leaf burn.
If you plant the seed, it will grow, and it may even bear fruit when it's a few years old. They may not be key limes though. The seed inside the fruit may not have been made from the pollen of another lime tree. Citrus plants cross pollinate. Meaning, for example, a grapefruit tree can pollinate a lemon, the fruit will be a lemon, but the seeds will be a hybrid. The same is true of apples by the way. Most of the trees grown in citrus orchards are grafted, meaning that a branch of a known key lime plant has been sliced off and put onto a root stock of another citrus tree. When I was a kid, my older sister asked my dad if we planted an orange seed, if it would grow up to be an orange tree. He said yes, let's do it. So we planted our little seed in a coffee can of dirt. That was when we lived in California. Over the following twenty years, we moved to Utah, Virginia, Maryland, and Kansas. The orange tree moved with us, eventually living in a steel wash tub and weighing about 150 pounds. My dad would keep it outside in the summer, and bring it into the house to sit in a south facing window during the winter. As long as it didn't freeze, it was fine. The fruits of it weren't oranges though. They were more like little tangerines, but really hard to peel. Not at all like the fruit from which the seed came. Hope that helps. Water the plant thoroughly so the dirt is wet all the way through, and then let it get dry before you water again.
I live in Canada and I have a key lime tree that is about 4 years old now, I started from a seed. Its a house plant but I put it outside in the summer. It is about 3 feet tall. The one thing I realize is, that I need another key lime in order for it to germinate, so I'm never going to see any limes, but I like to use the leaves in my Thai cooking.
Remove the seed, let it dry and plant it. I certainly wouldn't plant it outside in north Texas. I live in the Florida panhandle and the winter is rough on them here. I left some fruit on the tree from last year and I just broke one open and most of the seeds had sprouted, but had been killed by a freeze and the tree had lost most of its leaves from that same freeze back in January. By mid February the tree was loaded with blooms and bud and today I noticed there are small fruit
