Ginny, Waiting longer, but not too long, should definitely help; how much help depends on the climate. Next year, try sampling two oranges every two weeks starting late Nov. This is an educational step teaching you when to harvest the fruit. Although this can change from year to year depending on climate and care, at least you get a baseline regarding the progression from very acid to ripened sweet. For my area, late Dec is usually the ripest time, but I always go by feel to find them when heavy in addition to sampling. Regarding your trees: Chances are your soil pH will be at least a little high which means the tree can't take up the nutrients it needs -- even if they are in the soil in abundance. The long-term treatment is clear: 1) keep the soil pH around 6.5 2) apply a fertilizer with a ratio *near* 5-1-3 NPK. It must have micro-nutrients labeled on it. 3) once a year apply 1Tbsp/gal Epsom Salts dissolved in warm water (as very few ferts have Magnesium (Mg) in them). If it's an *organic* fertilizer, the NPK ratio can be different and it's probably OK. But citrus use lots of N, hardly any P, and K in about half the rate of N. The second #, P=Phosphorus builds up in the soil and is becoming taboo. There are a few ways of lowering your soil pH, with many good ideas on the net. If you go the Sulfur route, you can apply the sulfur granules once/year when warm in spring at the same time you apply the Epsom salts. As you've done a great job so far answering our questions, you may want more opinions on exactly what the tree is deficient in. If so, take several more photos of the sections that are yellow; take some closeup, some a few feet away. Use your highest resolution and largest image size and upload it to Photobucket (don't post the actual photo here). By examining larger sections of the leaves, we'll know better what you need. As ashley has stated, applying some iron chelate in vinegar water is a simple test to see if iron is all it needs. But honestly it's probably academic anyway, since the care steps I listed above should resolve any issues long-term. We've covered the sweetness topic. Regarding the dryness topic, if you get a year where the majority of them are looking that way, take some pics and lets try to figure it out what happened. As I said earlier, there are some known effects for causing that particular condition: excessive N, lower K, but it can also be caused by excessive watering. It also can happen when they are over-ripe. The internal cells will burst and dry out; in some climates this can happen relatively quickly after their peak ripeness. Chris

So heat and lack of water can't explain the tough skin on my tomatoes. Yes, it can. As homegardenpa said the issue isn't a matter of not receiving water. The issue is was the water level in the soil maintained at a consistent level throughout the day? It is the consistency of the soil moisture that is important, not how many times you may have watered each day. And in containers, especially smaller ones as you have mentioned you are using in other posts, it simply can't be maintained at a consistent level. Regardless of the air temps, the larger the container the slower the moisture level fluctuates. The smaller the container the quicker it dries out. Especially when temps top 90 degrees. Sure you can water everyday at 9 am and make the soil really wet, probably too wet. But that moisture evaporates throughout the day. Especially if the plants aren't heavily mulched. So the soil moisture level isn't the same at 1pm as it was when you watered at 9am. It is even less at 6 pm etc. Yet all that day the tissue and skin of the fruit was still developing while it had less and less moisture to draw on. While large self watering containers, monitored carefully to keep water in them can work, the only proven way to maintain consistent soil moisture levels in containers is with large containers, heavy mulching, and a drip irrigation system set on a very slow drip feed on an auto timer. Otherwise all you can do is take a moisture meter out hourly and check the soil and adjust the moisture level accordingly and that simply isn't practical. Dave

This may be my answer to dark spots (aka, age spots) on the backs of my hands. I've tried so many creams over the years I could have bought a couple of laser machines with the $$ I spent. I've heard of Hand Spa but cannot find a salon that has one. I think that may be laser, but I'm not sure.

My SIL's Shar Pei had very similar skin issues. Sweet dog. Anyway they were able to minimize the hair loss using allergy meds and a special diet. They never were able to completely get rid of all the bald spots. Sometimes her coat would fill in and look nice, but then you could tell when her allergies were acting up, and she have those tiny bald spots all over her body... In the summer time she would get considerably worse on her hind quarters and the Vet figured it was grass or bugs on the grass that were irritating her allergies. I know they spend a lot of money on various tests for skin diseases and allergies. They were able to make significant improvements with food changes and some other changes (minimizing exposure to household cleansers on the floors - stopped their lawn service - no lawn chemicals etc.) As she got older, she lost most of her wrinkles and if her allergies were acting up she'd loose a lot of hair. When they moved into a new neighborhood, with an old bald dog, they were known as the family with the weird dog. With no wrinkles and no hair, her breed was unrecognizable. And she would sit on guard, like Shar Pei's do... and she would look like a statue in the yard. If you hadn't loved her for years, you would think she was very scary...